No building regulations approval? What's the solution?

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No building regulations approval - picture of dog

When a property is up for sale and building work has been carried out on it, the seller will need a form of certification to say that the works have been inspected and that they comply with the building regulations.

At least, that seems to be the current view of many engaged in the conveyancing of properties.

Is building regulations approval really needed?

There are a number of snags with this:

  • Some works don’t need building regulations approval
  • Some could have been done before the regulations changed to include them
  • Others may have been carried out prior to the early 90s, before Certificates of Completion were introduced

Therefore, some works might not have needed approval, some did need approval but have no certificate and, in the worst case, they did need approval but no-one has applied for it!

In all these cases, there will be no documentation to show that the project is compliant with the building regulations.

Routes to building regulations approval

From the 11th November 1985 onwards, there have been two routes to gaining building regulations approval for building work. 

1. Through the local authority.

2. Through a private company, approved by the Secretary of State to carry out such work and issue approvals. Such companies are known as “Approved Inspectors”.

There are differences in the documentation issued, dependent on which route you take.

The key documents are those that are issued to state that the building works have been approved, inspected and passed. Where the work has been undertaken with the council's approval, the document is a “Building Regulations Certificate of Completion” and if an Approved Inspector is used, the document is a “Building Regulations Final Certificate”.

What happens if there is no approval, when there should be?

If building regulations approval and certification should have been obtained for building works and no such approval exists, there are potential consequences. Under the provisions of Section 36(6), Building Act 1984, the council can seek a High Court injunction to require the alteration or removal of work that doesn't comply.

Such an action can be expensive for a buyer. To add to the expense, the costs of either remedying the building or removing the offending work can be high.

Therefore, some have considered it wise to purchase indemnity insurance to cover such costs, should they arise.

The purchase of an insurance indemnity policy may cover the issue for one sale, but it doesn't remove the problem with the property.

What about the next time the property is sold?

The same situation exists, the same delays may occur, the same threat of action by the local authority remains, no progress has been made, the vicious circle continues.

Is this in the best interests of the home owner?

The way forward? Regularisation.

The clear way to break the vicious circle is to obtain regularisation certificate - this is the process by which a retrospective building regulations application can be made.

There are, however, some drawbacks with this:

1. The regularisation process cannot be used for work that was carried out prior to the 11th November 1985.

2. The process is a double-edged sword as what might have been thought to have been a simple lack of paperwork may turn out to be much more complex and expensive to rectify. When the remedial work is not undertaken, a Certificate of Regularisation will not be issued.

Some other issues to take into consideration are that building regulations regularisation can only be obtained from the relevant local authority as private sector Approved Inspectors aren't authorised to undertake this work. Further, the council will charge for the service they provide, and the charge will be higher than the one they would have raised at the time the application should have been made. (This is done deliberately as an incentive to applicants to make submissions in a timely manner.)

Nevertheless, only by making a regularisation application can the applicant find out definitively what is non-compliant with their building works.

How does this affect the sale of your property?

Knowing that approval can be given retrospectively might be enough for a buyer to take on the property. Then again it might not.

Whichever, it will be the owner’s responsibility to undertake the works to achieve building regulations compliance and it's important to know that this can be made a requirement before your sale can go through.

Completion certificates for work done before 2013

Update 20 November 2020. We've had many queries on work done years previously as you can see from the comments below. Here's some further information for those in that position:

Prior to 2013 there was no requirement for local authorities to issue completion certificates in all cases. Some authorities adopted a procedure to issue completions before this date, but not all, and the earlier the date the less likely it is that completion certificates would be available.  Consequently it may not be possible to provide a completion certificate for work carried out  before 2013.  Although there are provisions within the regulations for a local authority to accept applications to regularise work carried out without approval, there is no obligation on a local authority to accept such application. Also  the greater the length of time since work was completed, the less likely this would provide a satisfactory solution.

Conveyancing solicitors have increasingly demanded completion certificates, which was part of the reason for their introduction into regulation in 2013, unfortunately their demands do not take account when building work was completed. Provision of some form of indemnity policy is often promoted as an alternative, however this is usually only to cover legal action by the local authority for contravention of building regulations. A surveyors report indicating the current status of the property in relation to building regulations applicable at the time the work was carried out may be more beneficial to future occupiers.

Homeowner?

Read more on Front Door

 

More on this topic

Further information on home improvements can be found on LABC's Front Door website.

Every care was taken to ensure the information was correct at the time of publication. Any written guidance provided does not replace the user’s professional judgement. It is the responsibility of the dutyholder or person carrying out the work to ensure compliance with relevant building regulations or applicable technical standards.


This article was updated on 21 March 2022

Comments

Reply to: Buying a property that has had work done...

Submitted 4 years 9 months ago

Hi there, thanks for your comment.

You can find out more about the regularisation process (retrospective building control application) here:

https://www.labc.co.uk/homeowners/what-type-building-regulation-application#regularisation

It's best to seek advice from your local authority building control team to discuss your individual circumstances before submitting a building control regularisation application. You can find your local team's contact details here: https://www.labc.co.uk/your-local-council-building-control-department — simply enter your postcode and click 'Search'.

Regards,

LABC

Handrails on stairs

Submitted 4 years 9 months ago

Is a holiday lets company allowed to rent out a cottage without a handrail on the stairs, even though the cottage in question is about 100 years old and may be Grade 2 listed? The interior of the cottage has been thoroughly re-furbished to modern standards.

Reply to: Handrails on stairs

Submitted 4 years 9 months ago

Hi there, thanks for your question.

For this specific case it would be best to seek advice from your local building control team. You can find their contact details here: https://www.labc.co.uk/your-local-council-building-control-department — simply enter the postcode of the cottage and click 'Search'.

Kind regards,

LABC

building control

Submitted 4 years 8 months ago

i recently engaged a renowned company to provide me with building control for a rear extension and a loft conversion paid my money upfront and had one visit from inspector to discuss with builder intended plan of action and method one week later received letter from LA saying my project had been transferred to them because original company could not get the correct insurance in place to continue as building control provider, it now transpires that my LA has taken on so much of others work which has been transferred to them that they cannot tell me when they can undertake the necessary inspections or even do an initial inspection to verify what has already been built and have advised me to halt the build which i cannot do as my house is now open to the elements they also tell me they want their fee upfront before taking the project on, when i said i would find another building control company they informed me that i am now legally bound to use their services even though i have no idea of their costs as this not something i envisaged when i started this project and do not know of anyone who has had to deal with this problem i would appreciate any information regarding this situation as a footnote i have started a civil action to recover my initial fees to original company who will not respond to e mails or telephone calls .

Reply to: Building control

Submitted 4 years 8 months ago

Hi there, thanks for letting us know about your experience.

Unfortunately, as the company that you engaged didn't submit the paperwork required of them, the work must now revert to your local authority by law. While we appreciate your frustration, please be aware that this isn't the fault of your local authority and the job is reverting to them because of the inaction of a private company.

Many thousands of people have been affected in the same way and local authorities are attempting to assist all of them as quickly as possible. This will involve prioritising the different projects that have reverted and dealing with them in order. We hope that this does not result in any delay on your build. If you wish to make a complaint about how this company have dealt with you, please contact CICAIR or the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government who are responsible for regulating and approving companies like the one that you engaged.

Kind regards,

LABC

Completion Certificate

Submitted 4 years 8 months ago

My daughter is in the process of buying a house with a two storey extension, sellers have stated they can not locate the final certificate so she has asked if they can obtain duplicate,hopefully this is the case. But she is asking them did they actually not get that final visit! We wondered if she did go ahead & buy is she able to apply to the council for a final visit & certification? or is it only the original applicant that can do this?

Reply to: Completion Certificate

Submitted 4 years 8 months ago

Hi there, thanks for your question.

It would be possible to apply to the local authority, however, this may not be just a 'final visit and certification'. If no certificate was issued and depending on how long ago the work was carried out and whether the original application was made to the local authority or an Approved Inspector, the local authority could be looking at a regularisation which could be intrusive and costly.

Regards,

LABC

No building regs on 20 year old house

Submitted 4 years 8 months ago

I'm in the process of buying a 20 yesr old house and have just found out that although it has full planning permission, the LA have no record of the property being signed off by building regs. The house had an internal wall removed and an extention built at seperate times, which both have the correct paper work. There is an indemnity policy but would this now be invalid as my solicitor contacted the LA? I'm sure the house is sound in view of how long it is since it was built but am concerned that if I buy I may then have a problem selling it at a later date. Could building regs sign off now after inspecting? Would that be very expensive? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks

Reply to: No building regs on 20 year old house

Submitted 4 years 8 months ago

Hi there, thanks for your enquiry.

Regarding the validity of the indemnity policy, we're not sure whether your solicitor having contacted the local authority would void this. They'll need to contact the insurer for clarification.

If a regularisation application is made to the local authority (by the owner, i.e. the seller before the sale, or the buyer after the sale) the property could receive Building Regulations sign-off and certification.

However, they should note that the regularisation of a whole house is likely to be very invasive. The costs will be determined by the local authority but won't be less than they would have charged for an application made at the time of construction.

Regards,

LABC

Loft Conversion

Submitted 4 years 8 months ago

We bought our house with the loft conversion already done in 1991 but the staircase did not comply to building regs, so we had to buy as a two bedroom property. We have just had the staircase done to conform to regs but our builder did not tell us that we needed to apply for this before the works were done. Can we apply for building regs after the work has been done?

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