Back to Planning Decoder
For buying agents & acquisition advisors

Know what the vendor knows
before you advise your client to commit.

Full planning history, enforcement records, agricultural occupancy conditions, title constraints and comparable intelligence — retrieved from portals that standard searches cannot reach. Before your client exchanges. Any UK property. 48 hours.

The acquisition intelligence gap

Your client is paying you to find
what everyone else missed.

Standard conveyancing searches check the land register. They do not check what was withdrawn from the planning portal, what enforcement history predates the current system, or what constraints are buried in a 1987 title register. These are the things vendors sometimes know and buyers do not — until after exchange.

Pre-offer assessment
Know the full planning record before you advise your client on whether to proceed and at what price. Enforcement history, withdrawn applications, agricultural conditions — intelligence that changes the negotiation before anyone has committed.
Negotiation leverage
A planning history report is documented evidence. If we find a CLEUD withdrawal the vendor has known about for years, an active enforcement notice, or a title restriction that limits development potential, that is a negotiating instrument — and protection for your client's position.
Your PI exposure
You recommended the acquisition. If a material planning issue emerges post-exchange that was in the public record — and you did not identify it — that is your professional liability. A Planning Decoder report is documented due diligence at £149–249 per site.
Live case · North Wales AONB · £249 · under 24 hours · anonymised

The seller knew for 18 years.
The buyer almost didn't find out until after exchange.

This is what acquisition due diligence retrieval looks like in practice — on a site that every standard search missed.

Full acquisition intelligence · Denbighshire AONB · £249 · under 24 hoursReal outcome
Why standard searches stopped here: Denbighshire runs on Civica Portal 360 — blocks all automated access at DNS level. CON29 checked the land register. It did not reach the council's planning database. Our proprietary systems queried the live database directly, retrieving 1,000+ records across the postcode cluster.

Found: Application 21/2007/0304 — a Certificate of Lawfulness withdrawal from 2007. The property's lawful dwelling status had never been confirmed. The seller had been aware for 18 years. Invisible to CON29, invisible to standard portal search.

Also found: A 1949 National Trust covenant and a 1982 Secretary of State restriction in the Land Registry title — both outside any planning portal, both material to any future development proposal on the site, and both undisclosed at point of marketing.

Outcome: Transaction renegotiated before exchange. Buyer had documented evidence. The vendor's negotiating position changed entirely. Report cost £249. The acquisition went ahead — at a materially different price.

Total cost: £249 · Turnaround: under 24 hours · Outcome: renegotiated before exchange · Client protected.

What we retrieve on every acquisition

The intelligence your client
is paying you to surface.

Across every UK council, including pre-merger authorities, National Park systems and portals that block every standard search tool.

Full planning history — subject property
Every application approved, refused, withdrawn or pending on the subject property. Including applications that predate the current portal system and those in authorities that block automated access.
Withdrawn applications — the most revealing intelligence
A withdrawn application means someone tried to regularise something — and stopped before the decision. On rural properties, withdrawn CLEUDs and lawfulness applications are the most commonly concealed planning history.
Enforcement history
Active notices, stop notices, breach of condition notices and planning contravention notices — across all relevant authorities, including pre-merger records that no current portal holds.
Agricultural occupancy conditions
Conditions restricting residential occupation to agricultural workers are a significant value and liquidity risk. We surface them from the title register and the planning record — including conditions that have been in breach for years.
Land Registry title constraints
Covenants, restrictions, Secretary of State conditions, National Trust designations, access rights and ransom strip constraints — all outside any planning portal, all material to acquisition decisions.
Postcode cluster — comparable sales and planning consents
What comparable properties in the cluster have been approved for, refused for, and what the enforcement pattern looks like. The intelligence that tells you whether a vendor's development story is credible.
We specialise in the property types buying agents acquire
AONB acquisitionsBarn conversionsAgricultural dwellingsConservation area propertiesListed buildingsGreen Belt sitesFlood zone propertiesNational Park properties
Unresolved CLEUD riskEnforcement historyWithdrawn applicationsOccupancy conditionsSection 106 obligationsRural property due diligence
The scenario that comes up repeatedly

The vendor has a development story.
The record tells a different one.

Rural property is regularly marketed with permitted development potential, conversion opportunity or extension capacity. The planning record tells you whether that story is accurate before your client makes an offer.

What vendors sometimes claim
Extensive Class Q permitted development potential on agricultural buildings
Residential conversion approved in principle at pre-application stage
No planning history of note on the property
Enforcement notice resolved years ago — nothing outstanding
The 4-year rule applies — occupation is now lawful
What the record sometimes shows
Article 4 Direction removes Class Q rights — no PD conversion possible
Pre-application advice was informal, negative and never disclosed
A CLEUD withdrawal in 2009 — lawful status of dwelling unconfirmed
Enforcement notice still live — breach of condition never discharged
The 10-year clock never started — no evidence of continuous occupation
Pricing

Less than one hour of your time.
More protection than any standard search provides.

Acquisition Intelligence Report

£149–£249
Simple history check to full multi-system complex rural case · 48 hours · all in
Full planning history — subject property & postcode cluster
Withdrawn applications — including CLEUDs and lawfulness applications
Enforcement history — all relevant authorities including pre-merger
Agricultural occupancy conditions — planning record and title
Land Registry title constraints — covenants, conditions, restrictions
Comparable cluster decisions — approved, refused, withdrawn
Professional PDF report — delivered in 48 hours
Scope agreed before payment — no upfront cost
Buying agents with regular acquisition flow
Running multiple acquisitions a year? Our pricing for regular work looks very different.

Our retail rate is £149–249 per report. For buying agents commissioning acquisition intelligence on a regular basis — whether as part of your standard due diligence process or for specific high-value mandates — we price it to fit your client fee structure.

Tell us what a typical mandate looks like. Country house? Rural agricultural? AONB? What level of planning intelligence would you want as standard, and what would make sense to pass as a disbursement to your client? Get in touch when you commission your first report and we will take it from there.

Talk to us about regular mandate pricing →
We do not publish rate cards for professional relationships. First report at retail — then we talk.
See the depth before you commission

Download a sample report.

Real intelligence from real acquisitions. Anonymised. This is exactly what we deliver.

Planning guides for buying agents

Understand the risks
before you advise your client to commit.

Planning due diligence for buying agents — what to check before advising
The specific planning history checks that matter on rural, AONB and country house acquisitions — and why standard searches do not reliably surface them.
Read guide →
Agricultural occupancy conditions — what buying agents need to know
How to identify AOCs before your client commits, what they mean for value and mortgageability, and when the breach history matters.
Read guide →
Planning history checks on country house and rural property acquisitions
What the planning record reveals on high-value rural acquisitions that standard conveyancing searches miss entirely.
Read guide →
CLEUD withdrawals — the pre-exchange risk nobody talks about
A withdrawn Certificate of Lawfulness leaves the legal status of a property unconfirmed. Sellers sometimes know. Buyers rarely do until it is too late.
Read guide →
Planning enforcement — what an active notice means for an acquisition
How enforcement notices affect rural property sales, what the register does and does not show, and how pre-merger notices stay hidden from standard searches.
Read guide →
Withdrawn planning applications — what they reveal about a property
Why withdrawn applications are the most revealing intelligence on any site — and why standard portal searches miss them entirely.
Read guide →
Commission an acquisition intelligence report

Tell us the property.
We scope, you decide. No payment upfront.

Submit the postcode and what you need to know before advising your client. We confirm scope, cost and turnaround. Payment by Stripe before we start.

Postcode of the site you need intelligence on.
The more context, the better we can scope the work. Max 600 characters.

Intelligence reports produced by Sierra21 Software Studio — the team behind Planning Decoder. Proprietary extraction systems that query planning portals at a depth most professionals cannot access manually.