Making an Application for Building Regulations

There are three types of application for approval you can make.

• Full Plans: Where drawings, details and other supporting information is submitted for checking and a formal decision notice (approval, conditional approval or rejection) is given.
• Building Notice: a less detailed form of application where minimal information is initially required (although we may request further detail) and no formal decision is given. The approval process is much more heavily weighted towards the work in progress. There is a specific Building Notice for the Replacement of windows, doors and rooflights.
• Regularisation: a means of applying for retrospective approval of work that was previously carried out without Building Regulations approval.

There is a charge payable for these applications, which is regulated by the Building (Local Authority Charges) Regulations 2010.

If you are having construction work done, you may also need to notify the Health & Safety Executive (HSE), see below links for more information.

Building Control Charge Regulations 2010

Please note that from 4th January 2011, the new Building (Local Authority Charges) Regulations 2010 will come into affect. We have therefore amended our current schedule of charges in line with these Regulations, and these will be applied to all Building Control applications submitted to Reading Borough Council after 3rd January 2011.

As background, the charges for Building Regulation work are required to cover our costs, but also to ensure that applicants only pay for the service that they need, and this will be dependant on the type of work and complexity of the proposed works. Please note that all work that is carried out for the benefit of a disabled person will remain charge exempt, and this exemption is fully explained in our new ’Scheme of Charges Guidance’.

There will be two methods of establishing the charge for building work:

1. Individually determined charges

2. Standard Charges

For your ease of use, the Building Control application charge for the majority of domestic building work will continue to fall within standard charge tables, and these have been aligned closely with our current fee scale categories that you will be familiar with.

Where any work proposals fall outside these standard charge tables, then we will continue to advise you of an ’individually determined charge’ (fee quotation), and this will be calculated based on your particular application, the construction complexity and our anticipated involvement to assess compliance with the required building regulations and associated technical standards.

We have also now included several new ’fixed fee’ categories for smaller domestic works, and introduced revised charges to control certain electrical installations where a suitably qualified electrician is not involved. Please also note that if you are proposing multiple extensions and / or multiple types of alteration work at the same time, we may be able to reduce our standard charges. Therefore please ask for an individual assessment when you make your application if you believe this will apply.

See below articles for more information on each of the application routes.