Q.
What is the effect of Town and Country Planning Act, 1976 on property owner like you?
A.
Town and Country Planning Act, 1976 (hereafter TCPA) has more impact on development charge to the Property Developers as they deal with land.
Property developer must conform to this Act and pay up the development charge before they can develop the land. Therefore, what has it to do with property owner like you and me? We have already paid up for all costs to own the property, and likely the land is no more for development, right?
You may be right, but only to a certain extend. TCPA also affects building! It is not just land!
S.18 of TCPA specifies:
Use of land and buildings
18. (1) No person shall use or permit to be used any land or building otherwise than in conformity with the local plan.
(2) Subsection (1) shall not apply to the use of any land or building for the purposes described in paragraph 19(2)(d).
[S.19(2)(d) is about use of land or building for less than 1 month, for purposes like religious, festivity, fair, show, theater, exhibition, amusement park, social ceremony of temporary and mobile nature.]
(3) Subsection (1) shall not affect the continuance of the use of any land or building for the purposes for which and to the extent to which it was lawfully being used prior to the date when a local plan first came into effect in the area concerned or, where there has been a change of local plans or in a local plan, the date when the change became effective.
The Act goes on with prohibition of development without planning permission in S.19.
Prohibition of development without planning permission
19. (1) No person, other than a local authority, shall commence, undertake, or carry out any development unless planning permission in respect of the development has been granted to him under section 22 or extended under subsection 24(3).
[Subsection 24(3) is about permission granted earlier and being extended or further extended.]
(2) Notwithstanding subsection (1), no planning permission shall be necessary—
(a) for the carrying out of such works as are necessary for the maintenance, improvement, or other alteration of a building, being works that affect only the interior of the building and do not—
- (i) involve any change in the use of the building or the land to which it is attached;
- (ii) materially affect the external appearance of the building;
- (iii) involve any increase in the height or floor area of the building;
- (iv) involve any addition to or alteration of a building that affects or is likely to affect its drainage, sanitary arrangements, or its soundness; or
- (v) contravene or involve or result in any inconsistency with any provision in the local plan;
(b) for the carrying out by any authority established by law to provide utilities of any works for the purpose of laying, inspecting, repairing, or renewing any drains, sewers, mains, pipes, cables, or other apparatus, or for the purpose of maintaining or repairing roads, including the breaking open of any road or ground for those purposes;
(c) for any excavation, including excavation of or for wells, made in the ordinary course of agricultural operations in areas zoned for agriculture;
(d) for the use of any land or building for a period not exceeding one month or such further period as the local planning authority may allow for purposes of—
- (i) a temporary or mobile cinema, theatre, or show;
- (ii) a temporary amusement park, fair, or exhibition; or
- (iii) a temporary ceremony or festivity of a religious, social, or other character, and for any development necessary to give effect to such use;
(e) for the construction or erection on any land of temporary buildings for the accommodation of workers involved in the construction or erection of a building on the land, for which planning permission has been granted;
(f) for the use of any land or building within the curtilage of a dwelling-house for any purpose incidental to the enjoyment of the dwelling-house as such; or
(g) for the making of such material change in the use of land or building as the State Authority may prescribe to be a material change for which no planning permission is necessary.
[On 'material change' please read 'material change' under TCPA' here.]
Prohibition of development contrary to planning permission
20. No person shall commence, undertake, or carry out any development otherwise than in conformity with the planning permission granted to him under section 22 in respect of the
development or with the conditions of the planning permission.
Ref:
S.18 - 20 Town and Country Planning Act, 1976.