Apply for Building Regulations Approval

As of 1 April 2024, Nottingham City Council will charge an hourly rate of £36.81 to the Building Safety Regulator (BSR), as the BSR Building Control Hourly Rate. This rate will apply to all High Risk Buildings related work, directed under the BSR. 

If you are building something new or making changes to an existing building, you may need building regulation approval.

Regulations Approval helps you make sure the work meets health and safety, energy and accessibility standards. When the work is complete and has been inspected at all relevant stages, you will receive a compliance certificate.
You will need this when you want to sell your home or building.

You should also apply for building regulation approval for intended works. This means that work has not started.

If you have started your building work without applying, we may still be able to give you approval. You need to tell us straight away and request for Regularisation.

It is illegal not to tell us about your building work.

You should contact Severn Trent Water 08457 500 500 before starting building work to check for public sewers that may affect your proposal.

Contacting your water authority

Estimates and Supplementary Charge Guidance Notice

The Building (Local Authority Charges) Regulations 2010

Please take note of the following changes to our Estimated Charges and Supplementary Charges below.

This may affect your total building control charges that we have estimated for your project.

Under the above, Building Control delivers a professional and skilful service, which we are obliged to charge for.

Where unexpected work which is outside the scope of our estimated charge occurs, we will apply an additional fee to cover this work, to ensure our charges reflect the time our Team/officers spend with you.  Examples of such unexpected works are shown below, although the list is not exhaustive.

Calculating charges

Nottingham City Council Building Control will determine your estimated charge based on the information you have provided to us. Most applications will be based on the standard time required for the service to be delivered.  However, where applicable, more detailed information is needed to be assessed which will affect the overall building control estimated quote/charges.  This information may include;

• Complex foundation design requiring additional inspections (i.e. raft, piling etc.) prior to concreting.
• Building over sewer measures, especially unknown shared private sewers owned by Severn Trent Water which can affect foundations.
• Design calculations for elements of the superstructure.

Our calculated charges are determined as follows:

• The Plan charge is structured to allow for consultations with all relevant internal and external bodies and the plan assessment through to issuing a decision.

• The Inspection charge or Building Notice charge allows for all site inspections at key stages, including maintaining a record of the projects progress, through to issuing a Completion Certificate if we have been able to ascertain that the works described in the application show compliance with the requirements of the Building Regulations.

• On larger/specialist schemes your designer/engineer may be required to submit BS9001 Quality Assurance Certificates to ensure that the drawings and calculation sheets show high standards of design/engineering practice, resulting in a safe acceptable design.

• For Full Plan applications a full set of working drawings will be required at the time of submission and also on completion if the design has changed.

• Pre application guidance/site meetings that are requested to gain an understanding of how the Building Regulation requirements will be applied to the proposal, will be charged at 10% of the overall estimate. This will be deducted from the total estimate, upon receipt of a valid formal application.

If sufficient information is provided at the calculating stage of every application, our service can continue to be charged more accurately and fairly.  In most instances, where competent professionals and contractors/builders provide timely information, additional charges are rarely required.  However, unforeseen circumstances can occur on building projects, and where this is the case supplementary charges may be charged.

Supplementary Charges

We endeavour to ensure our fees remain as quoted and charged. However, on a case by case basis, where additional involvement / inspections are required, we may have to raise a supplementary charge, in addition to our initial quote / charges, in respect of unplanned time spent on your project.

The additional involvement / inspection may have materialised as a result of certain problems being encountered on site that were unknown, which required additional Building Control attention and time to ensure compliance. For example, they may include the following situations, although the list is not exhaustive.

• Foundations requiring return inspections.
• Discovery of an unknown Severn Trent sewer, and the necessary additional building work required to be inspected.
• Poor building techniques requiring remedial work and further inspections, in order to avoid contravention of the Building regulations.
• Items to be corrected following a ‘final’ inspection, which return inspections.
• Additional or revised plans requiring extra consideration and approval.
• We may also raise a supplementary charge for booked inspections where we are unable to approve due to incomplete work or unable to access the site if you fail to be present.

You must notify us of your building work, either by submitting a 'building notice' or a 'full plans' application. You need to tell us at least two days before any work starts. Here's how:

A building notice application is for small projects, like alterations and extensions. You will not get formal approval as you do with full plans, but we will acknowledge your building notice.

A Building Notice is valid for 3 years from the date the notice was given to the local authority. After which it will automatically lapse if the building work has not commenced. On satisfactory completion of work, we will issue a completion certificate under the Building Notice procedures.

A Full Plans application can apply to any type of building work but must always be submitted for works on:

• A commercial building,
• Schools,
• Shops,
• Offices,
• Railway premises,
• Factories and hotels

This could be work to a building where the Regulatory Reforms (Fire Safety) Order 2005 applies.

This application must include:

• Plans,
• Specifications
• Where necessary structural calculations

You will get a formal decision notice.

The details are checked to make sure they follow the guidance within the building regulations. Once the application is checked and found to be satisfactory, it will be approved. It will be valid for 3 years from the date the notice was given to the local authority.

If not a letter will be sent, advising what amendments and extra information are required to enable an approval to be issued. If no response is received or the revisions are not satisfactory we may have no alternative but reject the application.

Apply To Regularise Unauthorised Building Work

The Regularisation Application procedure allows the Council to formally consider works carried out and completed without the submission of a Full Plans or Building Notice application. This is also referred to as unauthorised work.

The Regularisation application is to ensure that the works are compliant with the relevant set of Building Regulations that were in operation when the work was in progress.

 A Regularisation form must be submitted to the Building Control Service by the person who is legally responsible for the works.

Regularisation Pack

Please download the regularisation pack.

Once a Regularisation Application has been received, Building Control Services will arrange to survey the work.

The Building Control Officer will assess compliance of the work with Building Regulations. We can advise of any necessary remedial work that needs to be carried out for a certificate to be issued.

• How to make a Regularisation application
• Regularise information leaflet

The completed application must have:

• A description of the unauthorised work or works (including a current plan, existing plan and a specification for some types of works that have been done)
• The date these works were undertaken
• The use of the building

Once a Regularisation Application has been received, Building Control Services will arrange to survey the work. The Building Control Officer will assess compliance of the work with Building Regulations and advice of any necessary remedial work that needs to be carried out for a certificate to be issued.

Your Approved Inspector (AI) needs to issue a cancellation notice to us to proceed.

When we have received the cancellation notice you need to apply for a building notice application for the remainder of the work. This is based on the inspection notes from your AI.

These notes need to show what they have approved to justify the reduced fee. We will then tailor your fee for the project and issue a completion certificate. If these inspection notes are not with the application we may have to ask you to expose works to show compliance.

You should pursue your AI for the cost associated with these new applications and for uncovering work.