How long do you have to appeal a planning refusal?

You have 12 weeks from the date on your householder refusal notice to submit an appeal to the Planning Inspectorate. Miss that deadline and you lose the right to appeal that decision, with no extensions or exceptions.

How long does a planning appeal take in the UK?

Householder appeals are decided by the written representations procedure, which covers most cases and needs no hearing. Recent Planning Inspectorate figures put the typical time from a valid appeal to a decision letter at around three months, though this has historically run to six months or more.

What are the chances of winning a planning appeal?

Roughly one in three householder appeals in England succeeds. The successful minority almost always have genuine policy or procedural errors to challenge, not just a design the council disliked.

Is it better to appeal or resubmit after a planning refusal?

Resubmit when the council identified specific, fixable design problems, as a revised application is usually faster. Appeal when the council misapplied its own policy, ignored your evidence, or contradicted its Local Plan, because redesigning will not fix a policy error.

Does it cost anything to appeal a planning decision?

Submitting an appeal to the Planning Inspectorate is free. Costs only arise if you hire a planning consultant to review the case and draft your statement, which is optional for straightforward appeals.

Can the council appeal if you win your planning appeal?

No. The inspector's decision replaces the council's, and the council has no mechanism to appeal it. The only further challenge is a High Court judicial review, which a council would almost never pursue for a householder extension.

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Phase 1 · Planning & Permissions · Task 17 of 17

Appealing a Planning Decision

How to appeal a refused householder planning application. Covers the 12-week deadline, written representations procedure, what the inspector looks for, realistic success rates, and when resubmitting makes more sense.

11 min readUpdated 2026Free with email

Planning appeal timeline showing key stages from refusal through appeal submission, council response, inspector site visit, and decision

Prerequisites

Complete this first

Submitting a Planning Application

About two in every three householder planning appeals fail. That statistic should make you pause before reaching for the appeal form. But it should also make you curious about the third that succeed, because they succeed for specific, identifiable reasons. If your refusal falls into the right category, an appeal is free to submit and the process is far less intimidating than most homeowners expect.

The real question isn't whether you can appeal. You almost certainly can. It's whether you should.

Appeal or Resubmit: Make This Decision First

Your refusal letter contains the reasons the council turned you down. Read them carefully. Every word matters, because those reasons determine your best next move.

Resubmitting a revised application makes sense when the council has pointed to specific, fixable problems with your design. The extension is too tall, too deep, too close to the boundary. The materials don't match the existing house. The roof form is wrong. These are design issues, and a good architect can address them in a revised application without much fuss. Resubmission is also free if you submit within 12 months of the original decision.

Appealing makes sense in different circumstances. The council misapplied their own policy. The officer's report ignored evidence you submitted. The refusal reasons contradict the council's own Local Plan or the National Planning Policy Framework. Your proposal is similar to others the council has approved. The officer's assessment of impact on neighbours was unreasonable. These are policy and procedural errors, not design problems, and redesigning your extension won't fix them.

Decision flowchart helping homeowners choose between appealing and resubmitting after a planning refusal — Appeal or resubmit? Follow the decision flowchart based on your refusal reasons.

Tip

Talk to the planning officer before deciding. Most councils allow a post-refusal conversation where the officer will tell you informally whether they think a revised design could succeed. If they give you clear direction on what to change, resubmitting is probably your faster route. If they seem unreasonable or you disagree with their interpretation of policy, that's a signal to consider an appeal.

You can't do both simultaneously. If you appeal, the appeal covers the application as submitted. You can't change the design during the appeal process. If you want to change the design, withdraw the appeal and resubmit instead.

The 12-Week Deadline

Warning

You have exactly 12 weeks from the date on your refusal notice to submit a planning appeal. Miss this deadline and you lose the right to appeal that decision entirely. There is no extension, no late submission, no exceptional circumstances. Mark the date in your calendar the day the refusal arrives.

Twelve weeks sounds generous. It isn't. You need time to read and understand the refusal reasons, decide whether to appeal, potentially consult a planning consultant, gather supporting evidence, and write a thorough appeal statement. If you leave it until week ten, you're rushing a document that determines whether your extension gets built.

Start working on your appeal statement within the first fortnight. Even if you're not sure yet whether to submit it, having a draft ready gives you options.

What this guide covers

01How the Appeal Process Works
02Writing Your Appeal Statement
03What the Inspector Actually Looks At
04Non-Determination Appeals
05Success Rates: Be Realistic
06What It Costs
07Costs Awards: When the Council Behaves Unreasonably
08If You Win
09If You Lose
10The Practical Reality

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