How to Check Land Really Has Mobile-Home Permission

Why "has permission" isn't always enough

A plot can have planning permission for something involving a mobile home, but that permission might be:

• Time-limited (a temporary consent for, say, three years).
• Conditional (only while you're working the land, or only for a specified person).
• For a different use (a holiday caravan, not a main residence).
• Lapsed (granted but never implemented, or expired).
• Subject to a Section 106 agreement that ties occupancy to local-connection or income criteria.

So the permission exists on paper, but it may not give you the right to live there full-time, permanently, or sell the plot freely to anyone. That's why verification matters.

For context on what different types of permission mean, see our guide on land with planning permission for a mobile home.

Step 1: Find the planning application reference

Start with the advert or the seller's details. Any genuine permission will have a planning application reference number—something like 21/01234/FUL or P/2020/5678. If the seller can't or won't provide one, that's your first red flag.

Once you have the reference:

1. Go to the local planning authority's (LPA) website. (Find yours via GOV.UK's planning portal.)
2. Navigate to "Planning applications" or "Search the planning register."
3. Enter the reference number.

You should land on the application page, which will show documents: the decision notice, any conditions, site plans, the officer's report, and sometimes neighbour comments or appeal decisions.

Step 2: Read the decision notice and conditions

The decision notice is the formal grant of permission. Download it (it's usually a PDF) and read every word, especially:

• The description of development: Does it say "change of use of land to residential (mobile home)" or "siting of caravan for agricultural worker" or "temporary permission for caravan"? The wording tells you what was actually approved.
• The conditions: These are the numbered paragraphs after "This permission is subject to the following conditions." Common conditions include:
  • Occupancy restrictions: "The caravan shall be occupied only by a person employed or last employed in agriculture…" (an agricultural-occupancy condition, often called an "Ag occ").
  • Time limits: "This permission shall expire on [date] unless…"
  • Materials or size limits: "The mobile home shall not exceed 20 metres by 6.7 metres" (the legal maximum for a "caravan" under the Caravan Sites Act 1960).
  • Removal clauses: "The caravan shall be removed from the land within 28 days of the cessation of…"
  • No sub-division: "The land shall be occupied as a single planning unit and shall not be sub-divided."

If any condition says "temporary," "agricultural occupancy," "holiday use only," or "in connection with," the permission is not unrestricted residential.

Example: What a clean residential permission looks like

"Change of use of land to residential use (Class C3) for the stationing of one mobile home for occupation as a sole or main residence."

Conditions might limit size, materials, landscaping—but if there's no occupancy tie and no time limit, that's a full residential consent.

Example: What a restricted permission looks like

"Temporary permission for the stationing of a caravan for use by an agricultural worker in connection with [named farm], for a period of three years from the date of this decision."

That permission expires, and it's tied to a specific job. When the job ends (or three years pass), the permission lapses.

For more on the difference between a caravan and a dwelling, see can you live in a caravan on your own land.

Step 3: Check the permission was implemented (and hasn't lapsed)

Planning permission typically expires if not implemented within three years (or one year for change-of-use permissions, though mobile-home consents are often treated as operational and given three). "Implemented" usually means some material operation—importing the caravan, laying hardstanding, connecting services.

If the permission was granted in 2015 and nothing happened by 2018, it's lapsed. You can check by:

• Asking the seller for photos or dated receipts (utility connection, caravan delivery) proving the permission was acted on.
• Visiting the site: is there a caravan there now? Hardstanding? A postal address in use?
• Checking the council's enforcement history for that plot (some LPAs publish this; otherwise, you can ask).

If the permission has lapsed, the land effectively has no permission, and you'd be starting from scratch (or relying on a Certificate of Lawful Development if there's been ten years' continuous residential use—but that's rare and hard to prove).

Step 4: Check for planning constraints and designations

Even if the permission itself looks clean, the land might sit in an area with restrictions that affect future changes or additions. Check:

• Green Belt: Planning permission can be granted in green belt, but it's much harder to vary or extend. If you later want to add a second caravan or replace the mobile home with a permanent building, the council will apply "very special circumstances" tests. (Look for green belt on the council's local plan map.)
• Article 4 directions: These remove certain permitted development rights (the minor works you can do without planning permission). An Article 4 covering caravans might mean you can't swap your mobile home for a different model without a new application. Check the council's planning constraints map or ask the planning department.
• Conservation areas, AONBs, National Parks, Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI): All add layers of control. In a conservation area, even painting the caravan might (in theory) need consent; in practice, enforcement varies, but be aware.
• Flood zones: Check the Environment Agency's flood map. If the plot is in Flood Zone 2 or 3, insurance may be expensive or impossible, and the council may have conditioned the permission on flood-resilience measures.
• Tree Preservation Orders (TPOs) and protected hedgerows: If there are TPOs on site, you can't fell or prune those trees without consent, which might limit where you can position services or a driveway.

Most councils publish an interactive constraints map on their planning pages. Spend ten minutes clicking around the plot's postcode.

Step 5: Verify lawful vehicular access

A planning permission for a mobile home is worthless if you can't legally get to it. Check:

• Does the permission include or mention access? Some decision notices have a condition like "The access shown on Drawing 01 shall be formed before first occupation." If so, that access is approved.
• Is the access currently in use? Visit the site. Is there a gate onto a public road? A track? Is it gated by someone else's land?
• Check the title plan and deed: Does the land have a right of way over any intervening track, or does the title include road frontage? (Your solicitor will do this during conveyancing, but you can request the title register from HM Land Registry for £3 to get an early view.)
• Adoption status: Is the access road publicly maintained (adopted), or private? If private, who maintains it, and are there any recorded access disputes?

If there's no legal access, the planning permission is essentially landlocked. The council won't enforce a lack of access (that's a civil matter), but you won't be able to move in, get post, or connect utilities.

For plots advertised as cheap land for a mobile home, access issues are a common reason for the low price.

Step 6: Check for Section 106 agreements or unilateral undertakings

Some planning permissions are granted alongside a Section 106 agreement (under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990) that imposes additional obligations, such as:

• Occupancy restrictions: "Only persons meeting the local-connection criteria of [parish] may occupy the dwelling."
• Affordable-housing clauses: The caravan must be sold or let at below-market rates.
• Land-management obligations: You must maintain a buffer zone, plant hedgerows, or allow public access.

Section 106 agreements are registered as local land charges and should show up in your solicitor's local search. You can also see them referenced in the planning decision documents (look for a condition that says "in accordance with the Section 106 agreement dated…").

If a Section 106 restricts who can live there, the plot's resale value and mortgageability may be affected.

Step 7: Look for enforcement notices or breach-of-condition notices

Sometimes a plot has permission, but the current use is in breach of its conditions. For example:

• The permission was for one caravan; there are now two.
• The permission was agricultural-occupancy; the current occupier is retired and no longer farming.
• The permission required landscaping; none was done.

The council's planning register sometimes shows enforcement history. You can also submit a formal enquiry to the council's planning enforcement team (most LPAs have an online form) asking: "Are there any live enforcement cases or breach-of-condition notices affecting [address or grid reference]?"

If there's an outstanding breach, you inherit the liability when you buy. The council can serve an enforcement notice on the landowner, requiring you to remedy the breach (remove the extra caravan, vacate if you don't meet the occupancy condition, etc.). This is one reason why agricultural land with a mobile home can be risky if you're not actually farming.

Step 8: Cross-check the seller's claims

Finally, compare what the seller has told you with what the documents say:

• Seller: "It's got full residential permission." Documents: "Temporary consent for three years." → Red flag.
• Seller: "You can live here permanently." Condition 3: "Occupation restricted to persons employed in forestry." → Red flag.
• Seller: "The mobile home can be any size." Condition 5: "The caravan shall not exceed 20m x 6.7m." → That's actually the legal maximum anyway (Caravan Sites Act 1960), so fine, but if they're wrong about that, what else are they wrong about?

If the seller's story doesn't match the decision notice, walk away or renegotiate hard.

Red flags: when to dig deeper or walk away

• No planning reference provided: Either there's no permission, or the seller is hiding something.
• Permission is temporary or personal: You'll have a deadline or occupancy restriction.
• Permission granted on appeal after initial refusal: Not necessarily a red flag (appeals can succeed), but read the inspector's decision letter carefully—sometimes appeals are won on very specific grounds (e.g., "the agricultural need is proven") that won't apply to you.
• Multiple refusals on the planning history: Suggests the site is contentious or in an area where the council really doesn't want development.
• Vendor refuses a site visit: You need to see the plot, the access, and the caravan (if present) with your own eyes.
• Price too good to be true: Often reflects a hidden problem—restricted permission, no access, contamination, flood risk, or an aggressive neighbour with a history of objecting to planning applications.

How to check a specific plot

Even with this guide, every plot is different, and every council interprets policy slightly differently. To get a comprehensive picture of a specific piece of land, you need to check:

1. Planning status: Current permission, conditions, history of applications and appeals.
2. Constraints and designations: Green belt, AONB, conservation area, Article 4 directions, TPOs.
3. Flood risk: Environment Agency Flood Zone classification.
4. Access: Rights of way, highway adoption status, title-plan verification.
5. Contamination and ground conditions: Especially if the site was previously industrial or agricultural with intensive use.
6. Utilities: Proximity to mains water, electricity, gas, and sewerage (or the feasibility and cost of off-grid solutions).
7. Local plan policies: What does the council's development plan say about rural residential development, caravan sites, and the specific settlement or parish?

We built the BuyLand Plot Report to pull together all of these checks in one place. It's an £89 PDF report covering planning history, constraints, flood risk, access, utilities, and a plain-English summary of what you can and can't do. You can see a sample report here to understand exactly what you get.

Running a Plot Report before you make an offer (or even before you waste a weekend driving to view a dud plot) can save you thousands in abortive legal fees and heartbreak.

What if the land doesn't have permission?

If your checks reveal the land doesn't have valid, current permission for residential use of a mobile home, you have three options:

1. Apply for planning permission yourself: Budget £500–£2,000 for the application fee and drawings, and several months for a decision. Success isn't guaranteed, especially if the land is in open countryside with no planning history. (See our main guide on living on your own land for the policy tests councils apply.)
2. Negotiate a lower price to reflect the risk and cost of applying. Some buyers do this, especially if they have planning experience or the plot is in a parish with a positive track record.
3. Walk away: Often the wisest choice if the site is in green belt, has been refused multiple times, or the seller won't drop the price to reflect the true planning risk.

Don't assume you can station a caravan and "see what happens." Enforcement is real, and a retrospective application (after you've moved in without permission) is much harder to win, because the council knows you're already in breach and has less incentive to negotiate.

How to verify a Certificate of Lawful Development (CLD)

If the seller claims the use is lawful without planning permission—because it's been going on for ten years—they should have a Certificate of Lawful Existing Use or Development (CLEUD or CLOPUD). This is a formal certificate issued by the council, with its own reference number.

To verify it:

• Ask for the certificate reference and check it on the planning register, just as you would a permission.
• Read the certificate carefully: it will state exactly what use is lawful (e.g., "residential use of the land by stationing of one mobile home").
• Check the evidence that was submitted with the CLD application (often statutory declarations, utility bills, council tax records, photos). The council had to be satisfied on the balance of probability that the use has been continuous for ten years. If the evidence looks thin, the CLD might be vulnerable to challenge (rare, but possible if fraud is alleged).

CLDs are powerful—they're as good as planning permission for the use described—but they're less common than full permissions, and they don't allow you to intensify or change the use. Our CLD guide goes into more detail.

Final thoughts: trust, but verify

Sellers (and even some land agents) may genuinely believe a plot "has permission" because a caravan has been there for years, or because they were told it was OK when they bought it. That doesn't make it true.

Your job as the buyer is to verify every claim against the official record. The planning system is a public record—everything is there, you just have to look. And if you'd rather have a professional do the looking and translate the jargon into plain English, that's exactly what the BuyLand Plot Report is for.

Buying land with genuine, unrestricted mobile-home permission is a brilliant way to own your own space affordably. Buying land with no permission, or with permission that doesn't do what you think, is an expensive mistake. The difference is a few hours of homework—or one Plot Report—before you commit.

Related guides

• Can You Live on Your Own Land in a Mobile Home, Caravan, or Tiny House? (UK, 2026) — the pillar guide covering all the fundamentals.
• Land With Planning Permission for a Mobile Home: What It Really Means — understanding the types and limits of mobile-home permissions.
• Certificate of Lawful Development for a Mobile Home: The CLD/CLEUD Route — when and how lawful use without formal permission applies.
• Cheap Land for a Mobile Home: What to Watch For Before You Buy — the common traps in bargain plots.