What does 'Certificate of Lawful Use' mean?

Certificate of Lawful Use

Where a property has had changes made to it that require planning permission (and not all changes do) this should have been sought by the local council before the works were carried out. However sometimes they are not but a property owner can apply for a Certificate of Lawful Use later which is basically retrospective planning permission. The success of doing this depends on a number of factors covered in the chapterLegal Matters in Property Purchases