Building Control

To comply with the Building Act 1984 , Building Regulations Approval (sometimes called the 'building regs') is required for most building work on your home.

Building Control Process[edit]

The rules vary for Scotland and Northern Ireland, but in general approval can be obtained by application to a 'Building Control Body' (BCB). There are two types of BCB; either your Local Authority's Building Control Department or a Private BCB (known as an Approved Inspector). If an Approved Inspector is used, then before any controlled building work can start on site they must inform the Local Authority about the work. This is called giving an 'initial notice'. This notice states that a particular Approved Inspector is the Building Control Body for the specified works, at the specified location. If using a Local Authority, approval can be obtained in 1 of 3 ways:-

1. Full Plans

By the "full plans" method where drawings are deposited with the Local Authority and are subsequently checked for compliance with the Building Regulations.

The various stages of the work are also inspected and checked for compliance with the relevant technical requirements of the Building Regulations; by a Building Control Surveyor employed by the Local Authority.

This is the most thorough option. And a response from the Local Authority will typically take 4–8 weeks. However, unlike planning permission, work may start before approval has been granted. It is also quite usual for the final building to differ in some respects to that which received full plans approval, in which case amended "as built" plans are often required to be submitted to the Local Authority. A "completion certificate" is issued upon completion, as long as the completed work complies with the Building Regulations.

2. Building Notice

By the "building notice" method where notice of commencement of (minor) building work is given to the Local Authority at least two days prior to commencement of work. The various stages of the work are then inspected and approved by the Local Authority but no plans are checked.

3. Regularisation

This is the retrospective approval for work already carried out without consent - and can only be administered by a Local Authority.

Most commonly, it is used by the owner of a building to apply for retrospective approval for illegal building work. The Local Authority will assess, and verify by means of site visits, plans and information submitted, identify non-compliant items, open up and inspect works, monitor the making good of defective work and, if satisfied, issue a Certificate.

An application for a Regularisation Certificate does not prevent the Authority taking legal action for failure to comply with the Building Regulations when the work was first carried out.

Documentation[edit]

It is important that a homeowner keeps all documentation about the Building Control for any project they undertake on their home. Most importantly, at the end of any project the Building Control Body should issue a "Completion Certificate" or "Final Certificate" to the homeowner. This will state that the work meets the technical requirements of the Building Regulations and has been built to the specification agreed with them.

Other Interesting Web Sites[edit]

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Building_regulations_approval

Books We Liked[edit]

References[edit]

Building Control

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