Certificate Of Immunity

Certificates of Immunity (COI) provide assurance that a building will not be listed and will not be subject to a building preservation notice for the following five years. This offers peace of mind to owners or developers planning work on buildings that may qualify for listing, ensuring their proposals won’t face obstacles.

Since the enactment of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013, certificates of immunity can be sought at any time, a departure from the previous requirement of needing a planning application for the building in question.

To obtain a COI, applicants submit their requests to Historic England, with a copy sent to the local planning authority. Historic England then evaluates the application and forwards a recommendation to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media, and Sport, who ultimately decides on granting the certificate.

Applying for a certificate of immunity carries some risk, as failure to obtain one may result in the building being listed. Therefore, applications should only be pursued if there’s a genuine threat of future listings significantly impeding proposed developments.

Given the significant impact of COIs on preventing listing for five years, applications undergo thorough scrutiny, which may reveal grounds for listing even if previous attempts to list the building were unsuccessful.

Applicants retain the option to withdraw their applications at any stage of the process by notifying Historic England in writing.