Change of commercial use (permissions)

​Planning permission

Essentially, any change of use of land or a building from a current use to a significantly different use is likely to require planning permission. The intensification of a use may also attract the need for planning permission.  

Care must be taken when assessing the significance of a change of use as this area of the law is complex. We would therefore recommend that you contact Planning and Building Services for free pre-application advice.

Some changes of use do not require planning permission and these are set out in Part 8 of the Planning and Building General Development Order 2011.

Planning & Building (General Development) (Jersey) Order 2011
Pre-application advice 
Making an application - planning

Building permission

If a change of use is proposed as defined below you will require building permission.

The information provided below is intended as a guide so that you can obtain an idea of when there may be a material change of use of a building or to land. It does not substitute the need for obtaining appropriate professional advice and we would recommend that you contact Planning and Building Services for free pre-application advice before carrying out any work.

For the purposes of the building bye-laws a material change of use occurs if the use of a building, or part, has changed so that:

• it is used as a dwelling, where previously it was not
• it contains a flat, where previously it did not
• it is used as a hotel or boarding house, where previously it was not
• it is used as a institution, where previously it was not
• it is used as a public building, where previously it was not
• it is not an 'exempt building', where previously it was
• where it contains at least 1 dwelling, contains a greater or lesser number of dwellings that it did previously
• it is used as a shop, where previously it was not
• it is used as an office, where previously it was not
• in the case of a building that is or contains a dwelling or garage, part of the building is used as a habitable room where previously the part was not

Making an application - building​