We enforce building regulations, a set of legal requirements designed to ensure a minimum standard of building construction works.
This includes both new and existing domestic and non-domestic buildings which are being modified, altered or extended. The regulations cover issues of health and safety and access in and around buildings, but also increasingly cover issues of sustainability, including heat-loss and water consumption.
Report a building contravention
Request a property history search
Do I need building regulations approval?
Check the Planning portal for planning and buildings regulations guidance. A number of guides are available for many common building work projects
Alternatively you can use the Planning Portal Interactive House tool to determine whether you need building regulations approval.
You may also wish to read our ebook - Guide to Extending your home - which provides a comprehensive guide to extending your home.
Building notices
Building notices contain a limited amount of information concerning your proposal and enable work to be carried out without preparing detailed plans. We will not issue an approval notice where a building notice is given, and may ask for additional information or plans to be submitted at a later date.
If you submit a building notice you can start work on site after the statutory period of 48 hours, although if you contact us you may be able to start earlier. However, the correct charge must accompany your notice. There are additional risks in commencing work under a building notice for complex projects where no plans and particulars have been submitted.
In the case of a new building or extension, the building notice must be accompanied by a site location plan at a scale of 1:1250, particulars of the drainage and a statement of the number of storeys involved in the development. .
Building notices are well suited to simple jobs such as installing a new bathroom or other more usual types of work. They should however, be used with care for more complex projects. Building notices are not acceptable for all types of building work and in particular cannot be used if you are proposing to build over or close to a public sewer, in which case a full plans application is required.
Full plans application
Full plans consist of detailed drawings and other particulars of your proposals, drawn to scale. They are examined for compliance with the Building Regulations and if found to be satisfactory we will issue an approval notice. Additional information in respect of particular forms of construction may be required following receipt of the full plans application.
When making a full plans application you should enclose the appropriate charge together with two copies of the drawings and if appropriate, structural calculations, giving full details of your proposals. Charges are set locally within a framework set by the government. The statutory limit for dealing with your full plans application is five weeks although a decision may be made within a shorter time.
Rejection of your application is not refusal of the scheme as a whole and will generally only occur if it shows major contravention of the building regulations, or there is insufficient information. Wherever possible approval, if necessary with conditions where we need additional information or if minor changes are needed, will be granted.
Additional charges are not required where further information has to be given to the council, provided the work remains substantially the same. If you, or your agent, disagree with our decision to reject the full plans application, you have the right to appeal to the Department of Communities and Local Government, under this application route.
Building control charges
Our charges can be found on this page, in the documents for download section.
There are three groups of fees:
group 1 relates to new dwellings (new build and conversions)
group 2 relates to domestic extensions and alterations to a single dwelling
group 3 relates to non-domestic new build, extensions and alterations
Each group covers the main types of work that are regularly submitted. Any proposed works that are not specifically covered in the group tables will require the fee to be ‘individually assessed’.
The request for ‘Fee Quotation Form’ is also available in the documents for download section.
Inspections
If you submit a full plan application or a building notice you can start work on site after giving the statutory period of 48 hours notice in writing, although if you contact us you may be able to start earlier. However, the correct charge must accompany your notice.
Inspection of the work on site will be undertaken to ensure compliance with the building regulations. In particular the following aspects of the work has to be notified and may be examined:
Foundation excavations
Completed foundations
Ground floor oversite preparation
Damp proof courses and membranes
Drainage systems before and after covering
Occupation
Completion
The notifiable inspections will, in effect, constitute the council's inspection regime as appropriate to the type of work proposed. We use a risk assessment process to determine what building regulation inspections are undertaken on a daily basis, subject to availability of building control surveyors.
Please provide a daytime telephone contact number when requesting site inspection visits.
When you or your builder have notified us that the work is completed, and a satisfactory final inspection has been made, a formal certificate of completion may be issued to show that, as far as can be ascertained, the work complies with the building regulations.
This can be particularly useful if the building is subsequently sold or if you are securing additional funds. You may request this at the beginning of the project or at its completion. An additional charge is made for completion certificates under the building notice route.
Party walls
Apart from any building work needing to comply with building regulations in the first instance, party walls come under separate legislation, which the council cannot deal with. You may need to contact a specialist party wall surveyor.
Demolishing a building
No person is permitted to begin a demolition unless notice is first given to us and either a counter notice is given under Section 81 of the Building Act 1984 or six weeks has expired from the giving of the demolition notice under Section 80. Failure to give notice, can result in a fine not exceeding £2,000 on the current scale.
Notice is not required in respect of a building not more than 1,750 cubic feet in volume by external measurement although consideration must also be given to the requirements of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (send to: planningcomments@hounslow.gov.uk) as it may relate to demolition and ‘development’.
Demolition work must also comply with the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 1994 and a health and safety plan produced by the principal contractor.
Contact us
Tel: 020 8583 5454
E-mail: buildingcontrol@hounslow.gov.uk
Building Control Section
Borough Planning Department
Civic Centre
Lampton Road
Hounslow
TW3 4DN