# Legal responsibility regarding appeals to ABP?



## SoundBiy (7 May 2012)

Hi 

We recently received planning permission from our local authority. Subsequent to that, a neighbour raised an appeal with ABP in which he sites false information with no substantiating documentation. 

What are his legal obligations regarding the information submitted and what are our options to address this?

Thanks


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## Woodie (7 May 2012)

Hi Soundbiy, welcome
If the neighbour has made a technically legitimate submittal to An Bord Planeala in respect to time,  entitlement to appeal, fees, etc.  then the appeal may be considered.  If as you say the issues presented within the appeal are not planning related they will be dismissed by the Bord.    The Bord will give the Council the opportunity to reason why they made the grant of planning and may well forward the opportunity to you also; not 100% sure of the procedures as it's been a while since I had a similar experience.  Maybe a call to the local Planning Dept would help you, after all if a decision to reverse your planning is made it will be against their decision.
The job of the Bord is to ensure that the Council followed the correct decision making process in granting your planning.


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## SoundBiy (7 May 2012)

Hi Woodie, thanks for the reply. 
To be honest we're not really not concerned with the decision being overturned, it's a straight-forward application with no real grounds for appeal. Our concern is that theyve have claims in the appeal regarding heights and distances which are incorrect and they have questioned our figures which we've backed up with surveys and drawings. 
We feel the appeal serves only to delay our build with the hope that we'll just give up and walk away. 
What we are hoping to find out is if we can take a legal action action separate to the appeal where we can oblige them to supply evidence of the claims they've made in their appeal.


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## threebedsemi (7 May 2012)

The Bord will likely give you the chance to submit a response to the initial grounds of appeal. Unfortunately most appeals (especially those prepared by non-professionals) will combine a range of grounds of appeal, many of which will be totally unrelated to the application or planning law at all. 
While the Bord will ignore anything not relevant, if they deem the appeal legitimate, they will, as Woodie has said, consider the application in its entirety, and may well refuse it on grounds not raised by the appeallants at all.

The other problem is that appeals are still taking a long time to be processed. There are only three Board members at present, the lowest number in (I think) over 20 years. They have just gotten through a couple of big ones however (childrens hospital and 'china in athlone') so perhaps they will start getting through them quicker now... 

www.studioplustwo.com


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## SoundBiy (7 May 2012)

Thanks threebedsemi
The delay is really our main concern. We are submitting our reply this week with a complete engineering survey proving all of our figures and also a letter from a planning consultant. 
My main concern is being able to bring the appellant before a judge after we're done and forcing him to back up his claims. Surely he has a legal requirement to back up any dimensions he cites in his appeal with evidence. I've spoken with him and asked to see where he was getting his figures from to be told 'I dunno'


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## lowCO2design (9 May 2012)

good luck with that


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## SoundBiy (10 May 2012)

Apparently ABP can impose penalties on parties for lodging appeals with no evidence or legitimate grounds. Appeals solely intended to delay a development. I don't know how often they impose these penalties though.


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## lowCO2design (10 May 2012)

I'm aware of any such cases but I'd be interested to know more


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## SoundBiy (10 May 2012)

Expenses of appeal or referral

A significant inhibiting factor on the bringing of appeals has been introduced by the spectre of an award of costs being made by the Board. Planning authorities may also be punished for poor decision-making in certain cases, irrespective of the result of the appeal or referral.

The Board may, if it considers it proper to do so and irrespective of the result of the appeal or referral, direct the planning authority to pay -

The expenses of the appellant or person making the referral.
The expenses incurred by the Board in relation to the appeal or referral.
The appellant or person making the referral may be directed to pay the expenses of an appeal or referral in circumstances where the decision of the planning authority is confirmed or varied and the Board -

Does not accede in substance to the grounds of appeal or referral, or
*Considers that the appeal or referral was made with the intention of delaying the development or securing a monetary gain by a third party.
In these circumstances, the Board may direct the appellant or person making the referral to pay the expenses of the planning authority, any of the other parties to the appeal or referral and the expenses incurred by the Board in relation to the appeal or referral. In each case, the Board has a discretion to give a direction as to the payment of expenses "if it so thinks proper" and has an absolute discretion as to the amount payable.

(This paper was delivered at the Bar Council Conference on the 24th February, 20001, entitled "The Planning and Development Act, 2000: Implications for Practitioners". This paper is not intended to provide or act as a substitute for legal advice and the author disclaims liability for the consequences of any error which may be contained therein).


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## odt (11 May 2012)

threebedsemi said:


> The other problem is that appeals are still taking a long time to be processed. There are only three Board members at present, the lowest number in (I think) over 20 years. They have just gotten through a couple of big ones however (childrens hospital and 'china in athlone') so perhaps they will start getting through them quicker now...



To give the OP a case example to give a sense of the delay to expect. I am involved with an appeal lodged on 14/11/2011 - two decision dates have been provided by ABP, both of which have passed without decision. Coming up to 6 months now, the status on the ABP website is now 'Proposed decision date not available at this time'. 

I would suggest that you should expect a 6-9 months timeframe for a decision considering the current back-log.


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## SoundBiy (11 May 2012)

As it stands, there are 4 members of ABP. the minister hired 4 new members last month. They are all due to start in the next couple of weeks. Hopefully this will help with the backlog.


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## lowCO2design (11 May 2012)

I've been involved in a few including a public oral hearing ,imho dont expect any change within six months, even with 4 new board members...


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