Building Regulations are minimum standards for structure, fire safety, energy, ventilation and electrical safety. They apply to most building work in England, even when planning permission isn't needed. You show compliance through a building control body, using full plans or a building notice, or by using a registered competent person installer. Either way, you should get a certificate.
What do Building Regulations cover?
Building Regulations are the national technical rules for how building work is done. They are set out in the Building Regulations 2010 and explained in guidance called Approved Documents, each identified by a letter.
Planning decides whether you can build something. Building Regulations decide how it must be built. A job can need one, both or neither. The parts homeowners meet most often are:
- Part A – structure: foundations, beams, walls and roofs.
- Part B – fire safety: smoke alarms, escape routes and fire doors.
- Part F – ventilation: extractor fans and trickle vents.
- Part H – drainage, including building over or near public sewers.
- Part K – stairs, guarding and safety glazing.
- Part L – energy: insulation, windows and heating efficiency.
- Part M – access to and use of buildings.
- Part P – electrical safety in homes.
Which jobs need Building Regulations approval?
Extensions, loft and garage conversions, removing load-bearing walls, adding a bathroom where there wasn't one, replacing windows and external doors, replacing a roof covering, new heating systems and most new electrical circuits all come under the regulations.
GOV.UK lists work that usually doesn't need approval. It includes most like-for-like repairs and maintenance (but not heating systems, oil tanks, fuse boxes or glazing units), replacing baths, toilets, basins and sinks, adding sockets or lights to existing circuits away from baths and showers, insulating a loft or under a timber floor, gutters and downpipes, and external doors that are less than half glazed. Even then, the work must meet the standards.
Some jobs catch people out. Replacing a roof covering, removing a chimney breast, adding a shower room that needs new drainage, and fitting a new boiler all come under the regulations, even though none of them needs planning permission. If you aren't sure, ask a building control body before you start. It is much cheaper than finding out afterwards.
Should I use a full plans application or a building notice?
You can apply to your council's building control service or to a private registered building control approver. Their charges are separate from any planning fees. There are two main routes:
- Full plans: you submit detailed drawings and specifications before work starts. The building control body has 5 weeks to decide, or 2 months if you agree. You get a formal approval, so you know the design complies before anyone builds it. This is the safer route for extensions, lofts and structural alterations.
- Building notice: you give notice and can start 2 days later, without approved plans. It suits smaller, simpler jobs. The risk is that if an inspector finds something that doesn't comply, it has to be put right after it is built.
- When a building notice can't be used: for example, work to a building covered by fire safety law (most non-domestic premises and the common parts of blocks of flats), or work covered by the rules on building over or close to a public sewer, which usually means within 3 m. Those need full plans.
What happens while the work is going on?
Since October 2023, building control must be told at least two working days before work starts. Inspectors then visit at key stages, typically foundations, damp-proof course, drainage, structural steel, insulation and completion. Your builder normally books these visits. If something changes on site, such as a different beam size or a moved drain, building control should be told before it is built so the inspector can agree it. If work hasn't started within three years, the approval lapses.
The same 2023 changes set out duties for everyone involved. As a homeowner, most of the responsibility for compliance passes to the designer and builder you appoint. Your part is to appoint people who are competent and to share what you know about the property, such as the location of drains or previous alterations.
What is a completion certificate and why does it matter?
When the work is finished and complies, building control issues a completion certificate, or a final certificate if a private approver did the checks. GOV.UK says you will usually get it within 8 weeks of the work being completed. Keep it with your property documents.
When you sell, the buyer's solicitor will ask for certificates for work done while you owned the house. Without them a sale can stall. For work done without approval after 11 November 1985, the council can consider a regularisation application, but you may have to open up the work for inspection and pay to put things right.
What is a competent person scheme?
Competent person schemes are government-authorised schemes that let registered installers certify their own work as compliant, without a separate building control application. They cover jobs such as replacement windows and doors, electrical installations, heating and hot water, roof coverings and insulation. FENSA and CERTASS are examples for windows. NAPIT, and Certsure, which runs NICEIC, are examples for electrical work. Gas work must be done by a Gas Safe registered engineer.
The installer must give you a certificate, and notify building control, within 30 days of completing the work. If no certificate has arrived after 30 days, contact the scheme operator. You can check whether an installer is registered for a particular type of work on the scheme's own website. If your installer isn't registered for the type of work they are doing, you need building control approval instead.
What happens if building work doesn't comply?
The person doing the work can be prosecuted and fined, and the council can require faulty work to be put right at the owner's cost. You may also struggle to sell without the certificates a buyer expects.
The practical protection is simple. Before you sign, ask who is responsible for Building Regulations on your job, which route they will use, whether the fees are in the price, and what certificate you will receive at the end. A good builder will put those answers in writing.
Sources
- GOV.UK – Building regulations approval
- GOV.UK – Competent person schemes: current schemes
- legislation.gov.uk – Building Regulations 2010, regulation 12
- legislation.gov.uk – Building Regulations 2010, regulation 20 (competent person certificates)
This guide is general information for homes in England, not legal or professional advice for your property. Rules change — check with your council or the Planning Portal before you rely on it.