Terms & Conditions

These terms govern your use of the PlanningPath website (planningpath.co.uk) and any paid packs you buy from us. PlanningPath is operated by Raines Digital Ltd, registered in England & Wales. By using the site, you agree to these terms. If you buy a paid pack, these terms form the contract between you and us alongside the transaction confirmation email you'll receive from Stripe.

1. What PlanningPath is

PlanningPath is an automated English planning-permission assessment tool. We apply the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 (as amended) and the relevant council-level overlays (conservation areas, Article 4 directions, AONB) to the project inputs you give us. We produce a verdict, supporting analysis, and — if you buy the paid pack — a Lawful Development Certificate letter drafted for you to submit to your council.

Our engine currently covers England only. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland operate under different permitted- development regimes; if you enter a postcode outside England we direct you to a waitlist rather than attempt an assessment.

2. What PlanningPath isn't

• Not legal advice. We are not a firm of solicitors or chartered planning consultants. Our outputs are a professional-quality assessment, not regulated legal or town-planning advice.
• Not a substitute for professional review. For contentious, high-value, unusual, or designated-land projects we recommend you obtain independent advice from a qualified planning consultant, architect, or solicitor.
• Not a planning decision-maker. Only your local planning authority can formally determine whether development is lawful or grant planning permission. We draft the paperwork; the council decides.

3. Your responsibility

The accuracy of our assessment depends on the accuracy of your answers. You are responsible for:

• Providing accurate measurements and project details, including any existing extensions or prior works that affect your permitted-development allowance.
• Providing or commissioning the drawings the Planning Portal requires alongside our letter (site plan, block plan, existing and proposed elevations and floor plans). Our current paid pack does not include drawings.
• Verifying our output before acting on it, including paying council application fees.
• Taking independent advice where the stakes justify it.

4. The free assessment

Your free planning assessment costs nothing. There's no card required to see your verdict, our detailed checks, or the policy citations. The only commitment on your side is giving us accurate answers so the output is useful.

5. The paid packs

We offer paid add-ons priced in pounds sterling. Payment is taken in full at purchase via Stripe. You will receive an emailed receipt. UK VAT is included at the current standard rate where applicable; our VAT status at time of purchase is shown on the checkout page and on your receipt.

Currently available:

• Letter & Report — £14.99 — full assessment, Lawful Development Certificate letter, Planning Portal submission guide, PDF download, 12-month retention, and the guarantee in clause 6.

Further tiers are planned and currently shown as “coming soon, join waitlist” on the site. They will be purchasable as and when they launch, at the prices in force at that time:

• Letter + Site & Block Plans — £49.99 (PD track)
• Complete Pack with full drawings — £134.99 (PD track)
• Planning Pack — Design & Access Statement + Planning Statement + covering letter — from £44.99 (Planning track)
• Planning Pack + Site & Block Plans — £79.99
• Complete Planning Pack with full drawings — £199.99

6. 12-month money-back guarantee

We stand behind our work with a three-tier guarantee. What's covered depends on why the council refused your application:

1. Validity (fully covered).If the Planning Portal or your council rejects your application as invalid because the documents we provided don't meet Planning Portal validation requirements, we refund 100% of what you paid us for the pack and redeliver the pack correctly at no further cost.
2. Substantive (fully covered). If your council issues a refusal decision that cites a specific issue with the letter, report, DAS, Planning Statement or covering letter we provided, we refund 100% of what you paid us for the pack and rewrite the application free of charge.
3. Subjective (not covered, but we'll help). Refusals based on design merit, amenity, overlooking, neighbour objections, conservation officer opinion, or other matters that turn on the case officer's discretion are not covered by the refund. In these cases we will provide a free revision of the relevant document and help with a resubmission. No automated assessment can guarantee approval on a discretionary decision.

Time window. The guarantee applies where the council refusal arrives within 12 months of pack delivery or the first council determination on the application, whichever is later. Planning determinations can slip past the statutory 8-week target, so we extend the window to cover that case.

What's excluded.The guarantee covers PlanningPath-produced documents only. Drawings or plans produced by you, an architect, or a drawings partner are excluded. Changes to the project after the pack was delivered — different dimensions, different materials, different position — are also excluded (we'll honour the guarantee against the inputs you gave us, not against a revised scheme).

How to claim. Submit the refund intake form, or email the refusal notice to refusals@planningpath.co.uk within 30 days of receiving the council decision. We assess the claim against the categories above and respond within 3 working days.

This guarantee is in addition to your rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, which require us to provide the service with reasonable care and skill and in line with the information we've given you. Where statutory rights give you a better outcome than this guarantee, the statutory rights apply.

7. Consumer cancellation right

Under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 you normally have 14 days to cancel an online purchase for a full refund. By purchasing and immediately accessing your digital pack (PDF and letter generated on demand) you are asked to agree that we begin performance of the contract during the cancellation period — which means the right to cancel is lost once the pack has been generated and delivered to you. If you have paid but the pack has not yet been generated (for example, you haven't completed the applicant-details step), you retain the right to cancel within 14 days. Email support@planningpath.co.uk to request cancellation.

8. Liability

We do not exclude or limit liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for any other liability that cannot lawfully be excluded under UK law — including your non-excludable rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

Subject to that, our total liability to you for any claim arising from your use of PlanningPath is limited to the greater of £100 or three times the fee you paid us for the pack that gave rise to the claim. We are not liable for indirect or consequential losses, including lost profits, wasted construction costs, or delay to your project.

9. Intellectual property

All content on the site (excluding your own inputs and the outputs we deliver to you) is owned by Raines Digital Ltd. You receive a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free licence to use your assessment, PDF, and letter for the purposes of your own planning application, including sharing with contractors, architects, or your council. You may not resell, relicense, or incorporate our outputs into a commercial product.

10. Retention and account

There is no user account; access to your pack is via the unique URL we email you. Keep that URL somewhere safe. We retain your session, PDF, and applicant details for 12 months from generation, after which they are automatically anonymised. See our Privacy Policy for details. You can request earlier deletion at /delete-my-data at any time.

11. Termination

You can stop using PlanningPath at any time and request deletion of your data under our Privacy Policy. We reserve the right to refuse service or terminate access if you're using the service fraudulently, abusively, or in breach of these terms.

12. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. Material changes will be notified by email to active customers at least 14 days before they take effect. For paid packs already delivered, the terms in force at the time of purchase continue to apply. Continued use of the site after a material change takes effect constitutes acceptance of the updated terms.

13. Governing law

These terms are governed by English law and any dispute is subject to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales. If you are a consumer resident in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you may also bring proceedings in the courts of the country you live in. Nothing in this clause affects your statutory rights as a consumer.

14. Contact

Raines Digital Ltd
Registered in England & Wales, company no. [company-number].
Registered office: [registered-office-address].
General queries: support@planningpath.co.uk.
Refund claims: refusals@planningpath.co.uk.