Building Regulations for homeowners

What is the difference between planning permission and Building Regulations?

Planning is how the appearance and size of a building or extension will fit in with the area. Building Regulations are to check how the building work is designed and physically constructed.

Who is responsible for ensuring that work complies with the regulations?

It is important to understand that it is the owner of the building who is legally responsible for ensuring that the work carried out is compliant.

What happens if I choose not to apply for permission?

It is a criminal offence to carry out building work without having obtained Building Regulation permission if it is needed. In doing so you could be prosecuted and face a hefty fine.

In addition to this, if you come to sell your property this may be difficult as you will not have a Building Regulation completion certificate for the work.

If the work has already been carried out, can I still apply?

Don’t worry sometimes this happens but the good news is that you can still apply, there is a process called regularisation. This is a backdated application to make sure that the work follows the regulations.

Some of the work may need to be exposed for our surveyor to inspect, in some instances you may need to carry out additional work in order to have the job signed off.