Sign-in problems

Symptom: you can't get into your account, or you're signed out as soon as you get in.

Nine times out of ten it's the password, or a different email address than the one you registered with.

Reset the password — it's faster than working out which. See Reset your password. If no reset email arrives at the address you're trying, that address probably isn't registered.

This is the one you can't self-serve. Contact the office — you'll need to verify your identity before the address can be changed.

Have ready: your name as registered, any project or permit numbers, and the property address.

One account is better than two. Creating a second when you can't get into the first splits your projects across two logins, and someone has to untangle it later. Reset the password or give them a call instead.

Retrying the same password won't help. Repeated attempts can lock the account, which turns a small problem into a bigger one.

Contact the office handling your application — the phone number and email address are shown on your portal, along with their hours. They're the right first call even when the problem looks like a software fault; they'll pass it on if it needs to go further, and they need to know you're stuck either way.

Have these ready. They turn a long call into a short one:

• The email address you're trying to sign in with
• What happens when you try — and the exact message, if there is one
• Whether you've already tried a password reset
• Your project or permit number, if you have one
• The property address

If you're facing a deadline — a closing date, a scheduled pour, an expiring approval — say so at the start. An office can often help with a genuine constraint raised early, and rarely with one raised afterwards.