We recommend that you apply for the full plans option if you wish to have your plans to be checked and approved before the work starts and to avoid any costly errors and corrective work on site by not being fully up to speed with the ever changing regulations.
An application for building regulations approval deposited under this procedure needs to contain plans and other information showing all construction details. this is best done well in advance of when work is due to start on site.
Your local authority will check your plans and consult any appropriate authorities.
If your plans comply with the building regulations you will receive a notice stating that they have been approved. If your local authority is not satisfied you may be asked to make amendments or provide more details, or a conditional approval may be issued. This will either specify modifications which must be made to the plans, or will specify further plans which must be deposited with your authority.
If your plans are rejected the reasons will be stated in the notice.
A full plans approval application is valid for three years from the date of deposit of the application. Once work has commenced the application will be valid until such time as the work is satisfactorily completed and a certificate issued.
If the work is uncomplicated and you are happy that you or your builder has a reasonably good understanding of the building regulations, then you can use the building notice option.
The advantage of the building notice procedure is that detailed drawings are not formally required for approval, although some details such as structural calculations may be required. You may start work 48 hours after your notice has been received by the local authority.
Plans are not required with this process so it’s quicker and less detailed than the full plans application. It is designed to enable some types of building work to get under way quickly, although it is perhaps best suited to small or basic work.
There are also specific exclusions in the regulations as to when building notices cannot be used in relation to domestic work, a building notice cannot be used:
If the work has already recently started, or possibly even been completed, without proper consent, then a retrospective application can be made using a regularisation form.
You can even use this if the work was carried out by a former owner. Any work can potentially be regularised as long as it was carried out after the 11 November 1985.
The purpose of the process is to regularise the unauthorised works and obtain a certificate of regularisation. Depending on the circumstances, exposure, removal and/or rectification of works may be necessary to establish compliance with the building regulations.
It's best to contact your local authority building control (LABC) team to discuss your individual circumstances before submitting a building control regularisation application.
Under the Building Act 1984 it is possible for a third party approved inspector to carry out the building control function for controllable work, to do so they submit an initial notice to the council. This removes the council from any obligation to control the work and approval of the work is therefore subject to the approved inspectors control.
Where the approved inspector is no longer able to carry out that function, for whatever reason, and the work has not started, the initial notice will need to be cancelled in the first instance to allow another approved body, such as your local authority building control team, to undertake the regulatory work. The cancellation notice can either be submitted by the approved inspector or by the person carrying out the work.
The work will then need to revert to your local authority building control team in the form of a reversion application. Your local authority building control team are the only body allowed to retrospectively approve work.
Please note a person failing to submit, without reasonable excuse, a cancellation notice, in the case of an approved inspector no longer being able to carry out their building control function, is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.
In order to make a reversion application you will need to contact your local authority building control (LABC) team. They will arrange for a surveyor to come to site to assess the status of work, what will need to be done to obtain compliance and to confirm our fee to do so. We will aim to work with you to ensure works can be approved and appropriate certification issued in as timely a fashion as possible.
Unfortunately, you will not be able to submit a reversion application online due to the bespoke nature of each application. Please Contact us to discuss your application.
Exemptions only relate to building control applications and you may need to apply for planning permission separately, particularly if you live in, or are carrying out work, to a property that is listed or within a conservation area.
Work that does not need building control approval:
Buildings that do not need building control approval:
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