Building regulation inspections

To book an inspection please contact us on 01524 582952. Please note that during busy periods we may require up to 4 working days notice.

To ensure that your building works comply with the Building Regulations and other relevant legislation, a Registered Building Inspector will inspect your project as it progresses. You must tell us when certain stages of building work, for either a full plans or Building Notice application have been reached. The stages are as follows:

• When building work is about to commence, and
• When building work has been completed, and
• Before a building is occupied, but the work has not been completed, and
• Any inspections we think are necessary and which we have told you about

These inspections are necessary to check that any work that would otherwise be covered over has been built to meet with minimum building standards and with the details on plans approved for building regulations purposes.

Inspections are limited to only those necessary to check that building regulations have been met. They are not quality control or warranty inspections, nor are they inspections for other legislation; for example, planning permission.

It's advisable to take a personal involvement in any building work and by arranging to meet with the builder and the Building Control surveyor together during inspections. This will assist in understanding any problems that may occur and what work or information needs to be provided to resolve any non-compliance situation, before your builder leaves the site.

In some cases inspections might be combined, such as a commencement inspection with a foundation inspection, or a drainage inspection with the inspection of a floor slab.

If we have not been told that building work has reached a stage that is necessary to be inspected, then we might ask you to expose, lay open or pull down as much of the work as we feel is necessary to allow us to inspect the work. Moreover, it might not be possible for us to give you a completion certificate if we've not been able to inspect parts of the work. We could also take enforcement action, which might result in you being a fined for not having given us the proper notice to inspect.

Last updated: 30 June 2025