Building work carried out without approval?

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• Building work carried out without approval?

1.  What are the building regulations?

The building regulations are legal requirements that protect your health and safety when you are in and around buildings. The regulations also cover things like saving energy and making buildings suitable for disabled people.

Building regulations approval and planning permission are two separate things.

2.  When do I need building regulations approval?

You will usually need building regulations approval if you or a previous owner have:

• put up a building;
• built an extension or made a room in the loft;
• made structural alterations, such as knocking down a chimney breast or making a through lounge;
• changed the use of a building, for example by converting it into flats; or
• put in, extended or changed the drainage, for example by putting in a new bathroom or a toilet under the stairs.

The regulations do not usually apply to porches, conservatories and carports. You will find more information about this in our leaflet 'Altering or extending your home?' which you can get from our offices.

3.  What is the regularisation procedure?

This process lets you put in a backdated building regulations application if work has been done but no approval has been asked for. You can only use this procedure if the work has been done since 11 November 1985 when the regulations came into force.

Once we are happy that the work meets the regulations in force at the time, we will give you a regularisation certificate.

4.  How do I make a regularisation application?

1. You must fill in a regularisation application form. If you have any plans of the work, please give us a copy.
2. Send the form to us with the right payment.
3. We will tell you when we have received the form.
4. If you pay cash, we can usually inspect the work within two working days. If you give us a cheque, we will ask that you contact us 10 days later to arrange for an inspection after the payment has cleared.
5. We will try to find out whether the work meets the regulations which were in force when the work was done. We will probably need you to uncover parts of the work so that we can see if it is good enough. But we will only ask you to do this if it is absolutely necessary. You or your builder may have to cause some damage and, if so, you will have to pay to repair it.
6. We will tell you if you need to do any work to meet the regulations. We will inspect any extra work you need to do until we are happy with it.
7. We will give you a regularisation certificate.

If at any time you decide not to go ahead with your application, please let us know. If the work has been finished for at least 12 months and any problems are not life-threatening, we will close our file. Unfortunately, we won't be able to refund any part of the charge you have paid.

5.  How long does it take to get a regularisation certificate?

The quicker you can reply to our requests for extra work or more checks, the sooner we can give you your certificate. Once we are happy with the work, we aim to give you a certificate within 24 hours.

6.  How much do I have to pay?

You will have to pay our normal building notice charge plus 20%. You won't have to pay VAT on this charge.

You can find out more about our charges in the 'Guidance note on charges' which you can get from our offices or by visiting our website. You can also get more information about charges by phoning 020 8547 4699.