These rules apply to land in England. A listing as an asset of community value does not stop you selling, choosing your buyer or setting your price. It delays one step, the point at which you sign a binding contract, so that a local community group has time to prepare a bid.
Check whether your property is listed
The council for the area keeps a list of assets of community value. It must tell you in writing when it adds your land to the list, and it registers a restriction against your title at HM Land Registry if the land is registered. Ask the council to confirm the position before you market the property, because a sale made in breach of the rules is ineffective unless you took all reasonable steps to find out whether the land was listed and did not know that it was.
A listing lasts 5 years. The council removes it earlier if you win a review or appeal, or once the land has been sold in a sale that was subject to the waiting period.
Check whether your sale is caught
The waiting period applies only to a sale of the freehold, or the grant or assignment of a lease with at least 25 years left to run, with vacant possession. A letting or a sale that leaves a tenant in place is outside it.
Even then, certain sales are exempt and need no notice to the council.
Sell a listed property
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Tell the council in writing
Say that you want to sell. No form is prescribed. Every period below runs from the date the council receives your notice, and the council must publicise that it has received it.
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Allow 6 weeks for community interest groups
During this interim period a community interest group can ask in writing to be treated as a potential bidder. If none does, you can sell to anyone at any price.
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Keep selling during the full moratorium
If a group asks, the restriction lasts 6 months from the date the council received your notice. You can market the property, show it to buyers and negotiate, but you cannot exchange contracts or sign any binding agreement with anyone other than a community interest group.
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Sell to whoever you choose
When the 6 weeks or the 6 months end, you can sell to any buyer at any price. A community group has no right of first refusal and you do not have to accept its bid.
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Record your costs
Keep evidence of any loss or expense the listing causes, because a compensation claim has a short deadline.
A community interest group is a parish council with land in its area, or a charity, a company limited by guarantee that does not distribute its surplus, a community benefit society or a community interest company that has a local connection to the land. An unincorporated group can nominate land for listing but cannot be the bidder.
Sell again within 18 months
After a moratorium ends you have a protected period that lasts 18 months from the date the council received your notice. You can sell during the rest of it without giving notice again or waiting again. If you do not sell within it and the land is still listed, you must start again with a new notice.
Challenge the listing
A review or appeal can succeed where the land does not meet the tests for listing, or is land that cannot be listed at all.
Claim compensation
Using the property while it is listed
A listing places no restriction on how you use the property while you own it. Planning policy decides what uses are allowed, but the council can treat the listing as a material consideration when it decides an application for change of use, so check with its planning team before you rely on a new use.
Legal basis
Primary legislation and key regulations