If your proposed building work requires Building Regulation Approval you have the choice of making one of two types of applications - Full Plans or  Building Notice.

Full Plans Application

This involves the submission of detailed plans and other relevant information, which is then checked to ensure compliance with the Building Regulations. If satisfactory an Approval Notice is issued. Where the proposals are found to be unsatisfactory a Building Control Surveyor will contact you in order that the plans can be amended. In certain circumstances there may be no alternative but to reject the plans (i.e. where the plans indicate a contravention of the regulations, or contain insufficient information for assessment purposes).

Advantages of Full Plans Applications

1. You know that as long as the work is carried out in line with the approved plans, it will meet the regulations.
2. You can give approval notice to financial institutions, solicitors, and surveyors and so on when you are applying for loans or moving home.
3. As long as the work is carried out in line with the approved plans, and all the relevant inspections find the work is of a satisfactory standard, you will get a completion certificate.

Building Notice

As an alternative to the Full Plans procedure, a Building Notice allows for building work to be executed without the submission of detailed plans. It is generally used when the type of building work is straight forward, and the persons responsible for the execution are conversant with the requirements of the regulations.

The work will be inspected as it proceeds, but you will not receive any official decision notice confirming that the proposals have been passed. As part of the procedure a Building Control Surveyor may request further information to assist with the on-site assessment. This may include such items as structural design calculations, construction details, specification of materials etc.

Advantages of the Building Notice

1. you can save time and money by not having to prepare and submit detailed plans.

Disadvantage of the Building Notice

1. You don’t have an approved plan to work to. Although our surveyor will try to prepare for possible problems, if the work does not meet the regulations, there may be a delay while the work is corrected.
2. Building estimates may not be accurate because full information about the design is not available.

Please click on the relevant form below to open and print the form.  

Building Notice application form (PDF 147KB)

Demolition Notice application form (PDF 152KB)

Full Plans application form (PDF 153KB)

Regularisation Certificate application form (PDF 147KB)

Guidance on Building Regulation Charges (PDF 213KB)

VAT at 20% applies from the 1st of January 2011

Charges with effect from 1 Oct 2010

The charges for Building regulation applications are either established as a standard charge or, for larger scheme, individually determined on a scheme by scheme basis.

Standard Charges

A guidance leaflet on standard charges has been produced for:

• Domestic extensions and alterations

• New dwellings

• All other work

We give reductions on standard charges for repetitive work or repeat work from an owner of plans that have been previously approved by the Authority.

Individually Determined Charges

If the charge for your building work is not listed as a standard charge it will be calculated individually and you should e-mail Building control at building.control@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk preferably with ' Request for Building Regulation charge' in the title of the email and provide a description of the intended work and we will contact you within 24 hours or alternatively telephone our building control main number on  0300 300 8635.
 
We welcome early involvement, particularly on larger projects, prior to the formal deposit of a Building Regulations application to provide maximum assistance to achieve a rapid approval of your scheme.  

Payment of Charges

• Plan Charge - The plan charge is payable at the time of submitting the application
• Inspection Charge - The inspection charge is payable after the first inspection on site by our Building Control Surveyors.  The Applicant will be invoiced for the charge, and it will cover all subsequent inspections. 
• Building Notice Charge - The charge is payable when you submit your application.

If you wish to view our full charges scheme please email your request and we will contact you to arrange an appointment.

Building Control Surveyors manage the Building Regulations. Our highly qualified and experienced teams examine and comment on plans for developments and inspect work that is in progress. Their wide knowledge of materials and building methods is available to you at all stages of the building process.

Before you carry out building work, you or your agent (i.e. architect, builder or surveyor) must advise the Building Control Service by submitting Full Plans for approval or through the Building Notice procedure.

What else do we offer?

• Local knowledge - we have extensive knowledge of local conditions and problems.
• Advice - we offer advice and assistance from design to completion.
• One stop shop - we provide close links with other Council experts and Fire Safety Officers.
• Same Day Service - we will carry out site inspections on the same day if the request is made to the Council before 10am.
• After hours efficiency - too busy to stop work and phone. You can access this website 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and download any important documents or application forms. "Bookmark" it to your "favourites".
• Impartiality - we are completely impartial. We aim to give a prompt, efficient and courteous service.
• Peace of mind - we will issue a completion certificate if all statutory inspections have been carried out and the works comply with the Building Regulations. 

You may start work by giving two days notice of commencement after you have submitted a valid Full Plans application or Building Notice. 

Please refer to your ‘Inspection Service Plan’ which identifies the stages of work that you are required to provide notification for inspection of  your project.  These stages will be reviewed with you / your builder at the first inspection.

Our 24 hr hotline for inspection requests only is 0300 300 8116, any requests received before 10am can have a site inspection that day, (Monday to Friday), this is an answer phone only service.

To help us to help you when you phone the hotline, please give the following information:

1. The site address
2. The application reference number
3. What the inspection is for (stage of work) and the date of inspection

We place great emphasis on the inspection process and our customer commitment is based on carrying out all notifiable inspections as set out in the ‘Inspection Service Plan’. This plan and the stages of inspection within it are based on our assessment of the risks associated with achieving compliance with the building regulations and will be reviewed throughout the project.

If you are a developer, we believe that it is in your interest that first class inspections of your property take place to ensure that any faults found are corrected at that time rather than costly problems occurring later with possible litigation. If you are a building owner, we also believe that we are acting in your interest to ensure that you do not inherit any problems by way of major defects becoming apparent later.

Where a Full Plans application has been deposited and Approved and the building works have been carried out in a satisfactory manner, a Completion Certificate will be issued to the applicant. (This will not be possible if the application is refused or there are undischarged conditions on an approval.)

Where a Building Notice application has been deposited and the building works have been carried out in a satisfactory manner,  a Completion Certificate will be issued after the final inspection.  

Please note the following decisions and certificates are not held by Central Bedfordshire Council:

CPS = Competent Persons Scheme - With regard to the competent person scheme the owner or occupier of the property should be asked to produce any such certificate.

AI = Approved Inspector - With regard to an approved inspector application the approved inspector or owner or occupier of the property should be asked to produce any decisions or certificates.

Please indicate that you understand by clicking the link below before proceeding to the Building Control Information page:

Submit and view a Central Bedfordshire building control application

If you want to submit an online application using submit-a-plan please use the link below

Submit-a-plan online application