Licences and Permits - a Refusal That Must Be Reasoned and a Silence That Counts as Consent
A licence or permit is the entry ticket to a business and often to a profession: a clinic, a school, a pharmacy, a construction company, a transport operator, a gambling business, a drinks producer, any activity with an environmental impact - none starts without the state's consent and all of them stop when it is withdrawn. The law counters that power with strict procedure: exhaustive conditions, a fixed period, an opportunity to cure defects, a reasoned refusal and, where the period passes without an answer, deemed approval.
This page covers licence and permit disputes: what a refusal must contain to be lawful, how the silence rule works and how to have it recorded, what rights a licence holder has in revocation proceedings, how the loss of a status or a refusal of registration is appealed, and which defects render the body's decision void. Supervision of construction permits and construction fines have their own page.
Updated · Practice area: Administrative law lawyer
Five Typical Licence and Permit Disputes
Each dispute has the body's own favourite mistake, and that mistake is the lawyer's first check.
Appealing a Licence Refusal - the Stages
The legal "anatomy" of the refusal
The lawyer tests the refusal on three questions: does it cite the specific unmet condition and its legal rule; is that condition set by law or "added" by the body's practice; was the applicant given a period to cure the defect before the refusal. A negative answer to any of the three voids the refusal, even where the body was right in substance.
Requesting the file and public information
The body's internal opinions, expert reports, decisions on other applicants under the same condition - obtained under the public information procedure within 10 days. A breach of equal treatment (a licence issued to one applicant and refused to another on the same facts) is an independent ground and can be proven only with these documents.
Curing the defect or filing in parallel
Where the defect is real and curable, the lawyer often prepares a new, complete application alongside the appeal - the business needs the licence today, while the dispute takes months. The two routes do not exclude each other, and a refusal of the second application strengthens the argument in the first dispute.
Complaint to the superior body
Within one month of notification of the act; the complaint goes to the body superior to the licensing authority (the minister, the head of the agency) or, where none exists, directly to court. The complaint addresses both procedural breaches and the misinterpretation of the condition, citing the file.
Court and the form of the claim
In the administrative court the lawyer seeks not only annulment of the refusal but an order obliging the body to issue the licence - otherwise the annulled refusal is replaced by a new, "better reasoned" one. Where the body has discretion, the court orders a fresh review of the matter in line with its instructions.
Damages for a licence issued late
Months lost to an unlawful refusal - lost revenue, collapsed contracts, idle equipment - are recoverable from the state once the refusal is declared unlawful. The lawyer starts documenting the loss from the first day of the dispute, not after the win.
The Deemed Licence - How a Body's Silence Becomes Consent and How to Have It Recorded
The Law on Licences and Permits sets the body a period for reviewing an application (one month for a licence, shorter for a permit depending on its type) and attaches a direct consequence to an unanswered expiry: the licence or permit is deemed issued. This rule is one of the strongest tools in a citizen's hands - and one of the least used, because the applicant keeps waiting for an answer while the body sends a "late refusal" after the deadline as though the period never existed.
Three things are needed to use the rule: a confirmed date of filing (an entry in the electronic system or the registry stamp), a complete application (a notice of defects stops the clock, so the lawfulness of that notice is examined too), and, immediately upon expiry, a written demand to the body to confirm the deemed act and enter the licence in the register. If the body still sends a refusal after that, the refusal amounts to revocation of an existing licence - and requires the revocation procedure (hearing, grounds), which as a rule has not been followed.
In practice bodies use two ways of "stretching" the period: repeated notices of defects on minor points, and suspension of the period through requests for "additional information" that the law does not provide for. The lawyer examines each such notice separately: a lawful defect is only the absence of a document required by law, not the body's wish. An unlawful notice does not stop the clock - and the silence rule still operates.
What a Licence Dispute Rests On - Periods and Principles
- One month for review
- The general period for reviewing a licence application; often shorter for permits. The period runs from the filing of a complete application and is stopped by a lawful notice of defects - only a lawful one.
- Period to cure defects
- The body must notify defects once, in full and specifically, and grant a reasonable period to cure them; a refusal on grounds of a defect without an opportunity to cure it is not permitted. Notifying defects "drop by drop" is a procedural breach.
- Exhaustive conditions
- The conditions for issuing a licence or permit are set by law or government decree, and the body has no power to "clarify" or add to them. A condition added by an internal instruction cannot ground a refusal.
- Grounds for revocation
- A licence may be revoked only on grounds expressly set by law: the holder's request, breach of conditions after a warning, a court decision. A hearing and, as a rule, a remediation period are mandatory before revocation.
- Suspensive effect
- An administrative complaint against a revocation suspends its operation - the business keeps working during the dispute unless the law or the body, with reasons, decides otherwise. In court, suspension is requested by a separate urgent motion.
- One month to appeal
- A refusal, revocation or refusal of registration is appealed within one month of notification; where the act does not state how it can be appealed, the law extends the period. The date of service decides everything.
What to Bring to a Licence Dispute Consultation
- The licence or permit application with proof of filing (electronic record, registry stamp, date) and a list of all attached documents.
- Every notice from the body about defects, requests for additional information and suspension of the period - with dates and proof of delivery.
- The refusal, revocation or suspension act in full, including the reasoning section and the statement of how it may be appealed.
- The inspection report, expert opinion or complaint the revocation relies on, and your response to it if there was one.
- The minutes of the hearing or evidence that none was held - invitation, date, your participation.
- Documents of business loss: collapsed contracts, lost revenue, the cost of idle property - for the damages claim.
Three Licence Cases
A clinic licence issued by silence
A medical facility applied for a licence, the body did not answer within the period, and three weeks after expiry sent a refusal citing "non-compliance of the premises". The lawyer: the period expired unanswered, the licence is deemed issued, the late refusal amounts to revocation, and the revocation procedure (hearing, remediation period) was breached. The superior body annulled the refusal and the licence was entered in the register with the date of expiry of the period.
A transport permit revoked over one complaint
A municipality revoked a minibus route permit on the basis of a single passenger complaint, without a hearing or a warning. The lawyer: a complaint with suspensive effect (the route kept running), breach of the right to be heard, proportionality - a warning for one incident, not revocation. The act was declared void and the body was ordered to conduct fresh proceedings, which ended with a warning.
A registry refusal over a "disputed right"
The Public Registry refused to register title to a plot of land because "a third party has raised a claim" - with no court case pending. The lawyer: the registrar's authority is a formal check of the submitted documents, and someone else's "claim" without a court decision or an injunction is not an obstacle to registration. The refusal was annulled and registration was carried out as of the date of the original application.
Questions About Licences and Permits
The body keeps sending one notice of defects after another and the period never seems to start. What is the way out?
A notice of defects stops the clock only if it is lawful - that is, it concerns the absence of a document required by law and is given once, in full. A second and third notice on new points, or a request for a document that is not on the list, does not stop the period. The lawyer counts the period from the first complete application and demands confirmation of the deemed act from the body.
My licence was "suspended" pending remediation. Do I have to stop the business meanwhile?
A suspension act is an individual act and is appealed within one month; an administrative complaint as a rule has suspensive effect, so the suspension does not operate until the complaint is decided, unless the body has decided otherwise with reasons. At the same time, where the breach is real, the lawyer advises curing it alongside the complaint - a cured breach removes the ground for suspension.
I received a refusal, but the reasoning is one sentence: "does not comply with the requirements of the legislation". Is that enough?
No. An individual act must state its factual and legal basis - which specific condition, on which document and under which rule was not met. A generic phrase is not reasoning and voids the act; at the same time the lawyer requests the file to learn the real reason and to build a second application around it.
A competitor got a licence on the same conditions and I was refused. Is that an argument?
Yes, one of the strongest: the principle of equal treatment obliges the body to decide identical facts identically, and any departure requires special reasoning. The competitor's licence file is public information (minus commercial secrets) and the lawyer obtains it within 10 days - the comparison then becomes the central part of the complaint.
The business stood idle for two months waiting for the licence. Is anyone liable for that loss?
If the refusal or delay is declared unlawful, the state or the municipality compensates the damage caused by the official's conduct - rent, salaries, penalties under collapsed contracts, lost profit with reasonable substantiation. It is a two-stage route: first the finding of unlawfulness, then the damages claim; the documents for both should be gathered now.
Lawyers for Licence and Permit Disputes
A licence dispute is run on two tracks at once: annulling the refusal and obtaining the licence, because the business cannot wait for the dispute to end. In 15 minutes the coordinator gets back to you and selects a lawyer who handles licence cases in your specific sector (medical, transport, construction, gambling).
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Call: 568 330 318Refused, Revoked, or the Period Has Passed With No Answer?
At a free consultation the lawyer tells you whether the refusal is reasoned to the legal standard, whether the silence rule helps in your case and by which day the complaint must be filed. You will not wait more than 15 minutes for the coordinator's call.