Building Control
How Do I Apply?How Do I Apply?
||A Summary Of The Ways Of Making A Building Control Application
There are two ways of applying for Building Control approval.
Register with submit-a-plan
Free registration with submit-a-plan enables you to send your Building Control Applications to participating Building Control Services electronically (using Submit-a-Plan's web site). You can also track your applications through Track-a-Plan allowing you to see how far your application has progressed.
Complete
your building control application online.
Deposit Of Plans
If you deposit "full plans" (Download Building Notice/Full Plans application form PDF) the Local Authority must pass or reject them within 5 weeks, or 2 months if you agree to them in writing. The Local Authority can reject the plans on any of the following grounds:
a) the plans show a contravention
of the regulations
b) the plans are defective e.g. incomplete in that they fail to show compliance with the Regulations
c) they are unsatisfactory as regards one of the Local Authority's statutory functions
d) they fail to show compliance
with relevant local Acts
Building In Accordance With The Plans
You are not obliged to build exactly in conformity with the plans which you deposited - your obligation is to see that the work complies with the requirements of the Regulations. Nevertheless, where you have had your plans passed and the work conforms with them you gain useful protection because the Local Authority may not then serve a notice requiring you to take it down or alter it.
If you deviate from the plans you are advised to consult the Local Authority first.
Under Section 32 of the Building Act, a Local Authority may declare that the deposit of plans is of no effect if the work has not commenced within three years of deposit.
The Building Notice
If you decide to submit a building notice (Download Building Notice/Full Plans application form PDF) you must include with it a site plan (in the case of a new building or extension) and other information as requested. This is to enable the Local Authority to identify the site or the property concerned, the nature of the work proposed, and also consider any aspect of the work to which local legislation might relate.
The Local Authority may ask you to provide certain other plans or information, but there is no requirement for them to pass or reject a building notice or any such plans which you have provided. There is also no procedure to seek a determination from the Secretary of State if there is a disagreement between you and the Local Authority - unless plans are subsequently deposited.
The Local Authority can require work to be altered if it is not satisfactory in respect of any part of the work contravening the Regulations. The building notice enables you to start work without having to provide the Local Authority with plans. You must, however inform them before you start the work. Under Regulation 12(7) a building notice will cease to have effect if the work has not started within three years of deposit.
When a building notice is deposited we assume that you or your builder is fully conversant with the requirements of the current building regulations.
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