Engaging with Legal Services on s.106

Before Legal Services are instructed

The planning officer will only instruct Legal Services when all of the information needed to progress the s.106 has been provided. 

The planning officer needs the following from you:

1. Details and email address of the solicitor who will deal with the s.106 on behalf of the applicant;
2. The applicant's agreement to the Heads of Terms table (Table 1) for the s.106, provided by the planning officer;
3. Affordable Housing Plan*;
4. Affordable Housing Scheme*; and
5. If you need to mitigate the impact of your development on Stodmarsh Lakes:

(a) details of your nutrient calculations and mitigation proposal (please see What information do I need to submit with my application? ; and

(b) the additional information listed on s.106 and Packaged Treatment Plants and/or s.106 and Greenspace.

*only for applications where the details for approval now include housing. The Affordable Housing Plan and Affordable Housing Scheme show the locations and types of affordable housing to be provided and need to be agreed with the Housing Development Team.

Please discuss with the planning officer and email housingdevteam@ashford.gov.uk to understand what may be required.

Instruction of Legal Services

Once the planning officer has all of the information needed for the s.106, they can instruct us.

We will then allocate the case to one of our specialist lawyers, who will then make contact with your solicitor.

We will ask for the following from your solicitor for us to start work:

1. Search of the Index Map from the Land Registry ("SIMR") for the application site;
2. Up-to-date Land Registry title and plan for each title listed on the SIMR*; 
3. Title for any unregistered land shown on the SIMR; and
4. A solicitor's undertaking to cover the Council's legal costs of the s.106 work.

We will provide an estimate for our legal costs, once the SIMR and title information are received.

We will also ask the solicitor to confirm, if there are multiple people signing the s.106, that they will collate comments and pass them to us. This may include a mortgage lender, other landowners, leaseholders or a developer. If this is not done this will add additional costs and unnecessary delay. 

*If the SIMR shows land owned by the Kent County Council, we may require a separate plan which excludes highway land, for use in the s.106.

Please click the Next Page button below to read about the process for drafting and completing the s.106.