Waverley outlines details of planning fees review

Rebuilding part of his home left Steve Dally from Godalming with a bill for £70,000

People hit with huge bills from a local council for work done to their homes will be "refunded" if the correct processes were not followed, official papers say.

Waverley Borough Council (WBC) has published details on how residents who believe they have been mischarged community infrastructure levies (CIL) can apply for a review.

Some homeowners have said they have been asked to pay unexpected fees worth thousands of pounds for making home improvements, including extensions, without the ability to appeal.

A report for WBC said grounds for appealing decisions were limited, and that liability notices cannot be withdrawn unless there has been an administrative or legal error.

CIL are fees issued by local authorities on any new developments and are used to pay for infrastructure, such as schools and roads.

"Where a CIL liability notice has been incorrectly served by the council, it will be withdrawn where the law permits, and any charge that has been paid…will be refunded," the documents said.

The report added that legal advice to WBC was that the "regulations do not provide general discretion…to withdraw liability notices in order to relieve householders of the consequences of their misunderstandings or omissions, which have resulted in them not complying with the steps they need to follow…to benefit from an exemption".

WBC said it was proposing measures relating to the way CIL is collected and allocated.

Some residents who have been impacted by this have raised concerns about the extent of the council's report.

Steve Dally, from Godalming, said the report was not what he thought it would be and that some residents had had their hopes "dashed".

"There's an injustice here," he added.

Ian Colvin, who had to put his home in Haslemere on the market after being charged £94,000, said: "We feel like we are sitting on a ticking timebomb.

"This is a colossal amount of money."

'Put this right'

Councillor Liz Townsend, Portfolio Holder for Planning and Economic Development, said: "We recognise that some homeowners feel they have been treated unfairly under these national rules.

"I would like to thank them for sharing their experiences and in response to this, we are proposing to introduce a formal process so that these cases can be reviewed.

"This discretionary review will give homeowners the opportunity to have their case reassessed if they believe CIL was applied incorrectly.

"If the council has made an error, we will work to put this right, because we are committed to making CIL work for all of our residents."

The report will be discussed by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee at WBC on Friday 23 June and then the Executive will make decisions on the options at a meeting on Tuesday 1 July.