A householder planning appeal costs nothing to file: GOV.UK says there is no fee for appealing. What you pay for is the written case, and our statement and any revised drawings start at from £425. No council fee applies, because an appeal goes to the Planning Inspectorate, not to the council.
On this page
The number that matters more than the price is the deadline. You have 12 weeks from the date on the decision letter, and the clock does not stop for a holiday or a second opinion. This post covers the cost, the deadline and the other route, which sometimes beats an appeal.
What does an appeal cost, and what does it not?
The fee is zero, and the cost sits in preparing a case that the Inspector can accept. You also bear any time, and in rare cases costs. GOV.UK says you can apply for an award of costs if you believe the council acted unreasonably and cost you money, and the council can seek costs from you too (GOV.UK).
How long do I have?
Twelve weeks, from the date on the decision letter (GOV.UK). The window is shorter if you have received an enforcement notice in the last two years: 28 days from the decision letter if the notice came before the refusal, and otherwise the earlier of 28 days after receiving the notice or six months after the decision letter.
Count from the letter, not from when you opened it. If you are close to the date, tell us at once. A short but accurate statement filed in time is worth more than a longer one filed late.
What do you have to send?
The form is online and the documents are few. GOV.UK asks for the reasons for the appeal, a copy of the application form and the council's decision letter, and says you should not repeat what you gave the council or add new evidence that belonged in the application (GOV.UK, make an appeal). If someone else owns land in the appeal, you must tell them before you start.
That last point is why most statements are short. The Inspector reads the council's reason for refusal and your reply, so the work is in answering each reason with the policy and the facts. We read the officer's report, check the policies it relies on, and write the reply.
Is an appeal always the right move?
No. Where the refusal turns on something a design change would fix, such as a depth, a height or a window position, a new application can be quicker. It costs the council's £548 fee again, but it asks the council to look afresh and does not depend on the Inspectorate's timetable. Where the refusal is a matter of principle or the officer misread a policy, an appeal is the stronger course.
The GOV.UK page does not say whether revised plans can be submitted on appeal, and it discourages adding evidence that belonged in the original application. We therefore advise on a case-by-case basis. If your drawings need changing, a revised application is usually the cleaner way.
How often are applications refused in London?
Across London's councils, 3,411 of 23,967 householder decisions from July 2025 to June 2026 were refused (MHCLG live table PS2). Most householder applications are granted, so a refusal is the exception. That is a London-wide count, not a measure of your case or of appeal outcomes, which we do not publish because we have no record to cite.
Frequently asked questions
Does the appeal pause anything? No. It does not undo the refusal while it is considered. If work is already built, our retrospective planning cost post covers the other route.
Can I appeal and submit a new application at once? That is a question for the specific case, and we advise on it. The two routes do not combine neatly, so decide which to run before the deadline.
Do I need to attend a hearing? The Planning Inspectorate checks that the appeal is valid and then tells you what happens next and how long it may take, so we cannot give you a date in advance. The written case is the part you control.
Can you promise a result? No, and we would not trust anyone who did. We promise the statement answers each reason for refusal and is filed in time.
If the application goes through the Planning Portal, the Portal adds its own service charge: nothing, £99 or £149 including VAT, depending on the application type and complexity, paid to the Portal at submission and not normally refunded with a council fee (Ashford Borough Council, Planning Portal service charges, 11 September 2026). It is not ours and not the council's. Other submission routes exist; where your council accepts one without a charge, we can use it.
