About building control

Building notice

This is most suitable for work like small extensions or changes inside your home. For anything else it’s safer to make a full plans application.

Where a building or extension is near a public sewer, you’ll need to make a full plans application. Many sewers cross properties without owners realising, so please check with us as early as possible.

You should make your Building Notice application at least 48 hours in advance of starting work.

Full plans application

This requires detailed plans to be submitted for prior approval and is suitable for larger/more complex projects.

You must make a full plans application if you are building near a public sewer, or if the building is anything other than a house or flat with its own entrance.

Retrospective approval (regularisation)

If you have had building work done since 11 November 1985 without approval, you can apply to us for a regularisation certificate. When you submit your application, you should provide as much information as you can (plans, calculations, invoices, photographs) to show the work complies with building regulations.

In some circumstances, it may be necessary for you to expose all or part of the structural work in order to prove that it meets regulations, although we will try to avoid this if at all possible.  

You can submit a building notice, a full plans application or apply for a regularisation certificate using our online application form. 

Apply for a building control