If you have carried out illegal building work you may be
able to apply for retrospective Building Regulations approval. This
is known as a Regularisation Application.
This does not replace our enforcement powers and is not a short
cut for those who failed to follow the correct procedure.
If you sell your property you will almost certainly be asked to
provide a Building Regulations Completion Certificate for any
building work which has been carried out. If you do not have this
you may have difficulty selling.
A Regularisation Application allows us to consider work which
has been carried out since 11 November 1985 which did not have the
necessary Building Regulations approval.
The work may have been done by you or by a previous owner of the
property.
An application for a Regularisation Certificate can relate only
to completed work.
An owner is under no obligation to make an application for a
Regularisation Certificate and we are under no obligation to accept
it.
If you want to use the Regularisation process you are advised to
contact our Building Control
team. You will need to ask us for a form and check how much it
will cost as it will be more than a normal
Building
Regulations application. Alternatively you can download
a Regularisation Form (pdf, Nov 10, 68KB).
When we receive a valid application and correct fee we will
inspect the work on site to determine whether it complies with the
Building Regulations that were in force at the time of
construction.
We may ask for certain parts of the work to be opened up for
inspection, such as foundations, joists or beams, and may require
alterations to be carried out.
We may also need further evidence to prove compliance, for
example structural calculations. Unless we are satisfied that the
work was carried out in compliance with the Building Regulations,
the Regularisation Certificate will not be issued.
In this case the Regularisation Charge will not be refunded as
it is payable for the inspection of the site works, and not for
issuing the certificate.
When we are happy the building work has been done in line with
Building Regulations we will issue a Regularisation Certificate.
This may be used when selling the property to show that the work
complies with Building Regulations.
For more information contact our
Building Control
team.
