Planning disputes from the perspective of court rulings on building conditions. A case study of Poland

ABSTRACT Our main aim is to identify the key features of spatial disputes concerning decisions on building conditions that concluded with a court decision. Parties to such planning disputes, directions of court decisions and territorial regularities were all identified. Both the database of administrative rulings of the Supreme Administrative Court (391 judgments in 205 municipalities) and data on local spatial planning documents (2.5 million decisions in 2,477 municipalities in Poland) were used. The results show that the initiators of planning disputes concluded in court are mainly property owners and their neighbours. Courts are more likely to uphold an investor’s complaint.