Building regulations application form and fees schedules

Email for an application form or notice

Contact us for a:

• building regulations application form
• start notice
• commencement notice
• completion notice.

Email: building.control@islington.gov.uk.

What you need to provide on all applications

For all applications, you should present your appraisal of the relevant functional requirements for the proposed building work (parts A to T, except I and N, that apply) using clear information about how the building regulations are being met. Guidance for compliance with building regulations is available on the Government approved documents page.

This will help with the application process and the aid registered building inspector to understand the design of the proposed building work when considering the design for compliance with building regulations.

You can add more information along with the specific declarations of compliance and tell us where it is so that the building inspector can access it during their review.

Inspect new electrical installations in domestic properties

If you are carrying out electrical installations in domestic properties (flats and dwelling houses), you can ask us to inspect the work as it goes on. This will cost extra on top of the Building Regulations fee. Read or dowload our charges document.

We can't inspect until you pay the extra fee.

Building regulations application

Our building regulations form can be used for:

• building notice
• full plans
• regularisation applications.

Tick the correct box at the top of the form. 

When to contact Thames Water

You need to contact Thames Water when:

• submitting a full plan application (see below)
• converting a property into multiple dwellings and the main drain and soil stack pipe becomes a sewer serving the dwellings in the same property.

Building notice application

This is for work carried out in domestic properties. A building notice can't be used for non-domestic properties or residential premises with common areas or when building over existing sewers and drains.

If you would like your plans checked and approved before work begins, you may choose to submit a full plans application (see below).

Submit the application form with the correct fee and you can start the work 48 hours after you give notice. You must contact us at key inspection stages so that we may issue the completion certificate at the end of satisfactory completion of the job.

You should provide enough information to make sure the work is clearly identified and send layout plans and details where possible. The building control surveyor may ask for details or plan layouts if necessary to check you are keeping to the building regulations. 

All applications must be sent with the correct fee. Read or download our charges document or phone us on 020 7527 5999 for a quote.

We will issue completion certificates after satisfactory completion of works in accordance with the building regulations and full payment of fees.

Full plans application

A full plans application must be used for work carried out on:

• offices
• shops
• railway premises
• factories
• hotels
• boarding houses
• all places of work
• residential premises with common areas, and if desired, for domestic use as defined under The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 or when building over existing sewers and or drain.

This form of Building Regulations approval means that we approve your construction details before building work starts on site by checking the plans and calculations. You should include:

• four sets of drawings showing details of the construction and layout, clearly showing what is new and what is already there
• application form
• correct fee (read or download our charges document).

Time needed for approval

We have a statutory obligation to process full plans applications within five weeks or two months if we have your agreement.

Where plans comply, we will issue an approval or conditional approval. If there is not enough information, we may issue a rejection notice and you will need to resubmit your amended plans for approval. 

We strongly advise that you don't start work before you receive approval for your plans. If you start work before we give approval, this is at your own risk and you may be asked to put right any faulty works.

Notice of commencement of work must be given 48 hours before starting. The inspection fee is due after the first visit by us.

Contact Thames Water for a full plan application

A full plan application is needed where you know a sewer will be affected by the proposed building work or a sewer is discovered during the course of the building work and is within three metres of the sewer. If you are not sure, contact Thames Water to confirm this.

Completion notices

• Notice of Completion by a person carrying out building work (England)
• Building Regulations 2010 (as amended)

"A person who is required by Regulation 12 to give a building notice or an application for building control approval with full plans for carrying out building work shall, not more than five days after that work has been completed, give the local authority a notice which complies with Regulation 16 paragraph (4A) as set out below. Requirements of duty holders and their competence can be found in Part 2A of the Building Regulations 2010 (as amended)."

Email us for a notice of completion form: building.control@islington.gov.uk.

Regularisation application

A regularisation application allows you to get a retrospective approval on works that didn't originally have Building Control approval, as long as work was carried out after 6 January 1986.

To regularise these unauthorised works, the owner or agent should apply for a certificate of regularisation, which is dependent on the site works being exposed for inspection and may involve sampling and testing of materials used. You should include:

• drawings showing details of the construction and layout, clearly showing what is new and what is already there
• application form
• correct fee (read or save our charges document) 

If you have any questions, contact us for advice.

Reversion applications

The Building (Approved Inspector) Regulations 2010: The Building Act 1984

The relevant legislation states that if an approved inspector cannot carry out their functions, they or the person carrying out the works must cancel the Initial Notice lodged with a local authority. If work has already commenced on site and the site is in Islington, the work must by law be referred back to Islington Building Control to ensure compliance with the Building Regulations. This is called a reversion.

When work is ‘reverted’ to us in this way, you need to provide us with as much information as possible to help us to determine that any works undertaken to date comply with the relevant regulations. All local authorities are obliged to levy a fee for work that is reverted to them. Our fee is based on the size of the project (cost of work) and the anticipated time needed to be able to confirm compliance with the Building Regulations.

To help us, you should provide:

• information about inspections undertaken so far by the Approved Inspector
• building design plans
• structural design calculations
• third party inspections
• any photographs of the work in progress.

If we cannot confirm compliance with particular parts of the work from your information, we will ask that certain works are uncovered for our inspection. We will try to keep this sort of request to a minimum.

Complaints related to the behavior of any Approved Inspector should be directed to their designated body CICAIR Ltd. first before going to the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).

Acceptable document formats and size

The Building Control service can accept files in the following formats:

• Adobe PDF - .pdf 
• Microsoft Office - .doc / .docx

All documents must have no restrictions on editing/redacting, so that the council can comply with GDPR requirements (minimum requirement: document can be saved as another file name without editing restrictions).

Other formats

Convert the following formats into a pdf or a Word document: 

• Images - .bmp, .gif, .jpg / .jpeg, .png, .tif
• Spreadsheets: .xls / .xlsx
• Text - .rtf, .txt
• CAD (HPGL) - .plt 

If you wish to use another file type, you should check before submission as we may not be able to accept them.

File size

You will not be able to upload files larger than 10MB. Please break the large files into numbered sections to reduce the file size.

Do not submit .EXE files or use ZIP utilities to condense file sizes.