'Full plans application submitted for work being carried out but is either invalid, still being processed or rejected by the council'

There are occasions when, although plans have been submitted for building regulations consent, building work will commence before the consent has been issued. This can happen when:

  • the application is being held as invalid due to the absence of certain essential details and/or payments that are due before formal processing can begin
  • the application is valid but processing by the Building Control Surveyor has not been completed
  • the application has been rejected because the work has not been shown to comply with the technical requirements of the building regulations.

Whilst the second category is, by its nature temporary due to the fact that we will eventually issue a decision, one way or the other, on the application, the other two situations are not necessary so.

Either way, for all three situations, it is our policy to write to the owner of the building work and, where possible requesting the necessary details and/or modifications to the plans.

It is also stressed that any building work carried out is done at the owners own risk as corrections may be required later when the plans are approved.


Failure to comply

Failure to ultimately obtain Building Regulations consent has the following consequences:

  • the Building Control Surveyor will be unable to determine that the work complies with the technical requirements of the building regulations and so will be unable to issue a Certificate of Completion for the work
  • a breach of the procedural requirements of the Building Regulations will have occurred.

Under these circumstances, we will consider bringing prosecution proceedings against either or both, the owner of the building work, or the person who has carried it out.

The facts of the matter will also be recorded on our Property Register and revealed to future purchasers should the property ever be marketed for sale.

Last updated: Mon 29th February, 2016 @ 16:11