The distinction that causes the most trouble
Planning permission governs what a building looks like and how it affects other people - size, siting, appearance, amenity, the character of the area. Building Regulations govern whether it is safe and fit to use - structure, fire, insulation, ventilation, drainage, accessibility.
Two separate systems, two separate applications, two separate decisions. A great many domestic alterations need Building Regulations approval and no planning permission at all - removing a load-bearing wall is the standard example. A few need the reverse. Plenty need both.
Structural work that is notifiable
If you are doing any of the following, Building Control needs to know before it happens and sign it off afterwards:
- Removing or altering a load-bearing wall
- Removing a chimney breast
- Forming or widening an opening in a load-bearing wall
- Converting a loft into habitable space
- Building an extension
- Underpinning, or altering foundations
- Structural repair work following movement or damage
The two routes, and the timescales
A full plans application is submitted, checked and determined before work starts. The statutory determination period is five weeks, or eight weeks where you agree an extension in writing. In practice, for ordinary domestic structural work, the programme is usually governed by how fast complete calculations arrive rather than by the authority - a submission that triggers a query goes round again.
A building notice is the lighter route for simpler work: no plan check in advance, with the inspector assessing the work on site. It starts faster and carries a risk - if the inspector is not satisfied with what has been built, it is being changed after it exists. For anything involving a beam, we would rather the calculations existed first.
You can use the local authority's own Building Control service or a registered private building control approver. The structural submission is the same either way.
Get the completion certificate
This is the one that costs people money years later. The completion certificate is the document a buyer's solicitor asks for, and unevidenced structural work is one of the most common reasons a sale stalls at the enquiries stage - long after the builder has gone and the paperwork has been lost.
If you have inherited undocumented structural work from a previous owner, an engineer's inspection and report is usually what unsticks it.