Building Control Applications in London

Building control approval can be obtained through a full plans application or a building notice. A full plans route, supported by a complete drawing package, is checked before work starts and gives more certainty and a better basis for contractor pricing. A building notice allows work to proceed with inspection but less up-front scrutiny, which suits simpler projects. We advise which route suits your project and prepare the submission accordingly.

Residential building control can be carried out by local authority building control or by a registered building control approver (formerly an approved inspector). We coordinate the submission and the inspection regime with whichever body is appointed, and ensure the drawings and consultant information support a smooth approval. For higher-risk buildings, additional regimes apply and specialist support would be arranged.

Building control is not a one-off check; it is a series of inspections through the build. The inspector is typically notified to attend at key stages — excavation and foundations, the damp-proof course, drainage before it is covered, structural elements, insulation and, finally, completion — and the work must not be covered up before the relevant inspection. Missing a stage can mean opening up finished work to prove compliance. We make sure the drawings anticipate these stages and that the contractor understands the notification points, so inspections confirm progress rather than interrupt it.

The end point of the process is a completion certificate, the building control body’s confirmation that the work complies with the regulations. It is easy to overlook in the rush to finish, but it is the document a buyer’s solicitor or a lender will ask for, and unfinished or uncertified work routinely complicates a sale or remortgage years later. We help keep the application live to completion so the certificate is actually issued, rather than the project being abandoned at practical completion with the paperwork left open.

For most houses and individual flats, the routes above apply. For higher-risk buildings — broadly those over eighteen metres or seven storeys — a separate, more rigorous regime under the Building Safety Regulator applies, with formal gateways and dutyholder responsibilities. This rarely affects a typical prime-residential project, but where a scheme approaches that threshold we are clear about it and arrange the specialist support the regime requires, rather than treating it as ordinary building control.

Full plans front-loads certainty: drawings are checked before you build, reducing mid-build redesign. Building notice is quicker to start but leaves compliance to inspection as work proceeds. For structural openings, lofts and complex refurbishments we usually recommend full plans. We prepare the drawing package so a full plans submission is complete rather than iterative.

Building control fees are separate from our design fees and are paid to the building control body.

Applications rely on coordinated technical drawings and supporting information: structure, fire, insulation, ventilation, drainage and any specialist notes. Incomplete packs generate conditions and delays. We align engineer calculations and energy information with the architectural set so the story is consistent.

Planning permission does not equal building control approval. Both may be required; neither replaces the other.

Even with full plans approval, site inspections and possible amendments occur. Construction-stage architectural support helps when unexpected conditions appear. We keep clients clear on what building control signs off versus what the contractor must still deliver under the building contract.

Regularisation of unauthorised completed work is a different, harder path — better to apply before you build.