Do you handle the building control notification?

What that involves

Submitting the building notice to the local authority before work starts. Arranging inspection at the stages the inspector wants to see, usually the structural opening before it is covered up. And obtaining the completion certificate at the end.

What it costs

The authority’s fee, which we show as its own line on the quotation rather than absorbing it into a total. You can see what it is.

Our time in arranging it is included.

When it is not needed

A like for like replacement into the same opening is generally not notifiable as structural work. The unit still has to meet the thermal standard, and we specify accordingly.

We will tell you which category your job is in at survey.

Where the work is part of an extension

The rooflight is covered by the extension’s own approval and the main contractor handles it. We provide whatever product information the inspector needs.

Why we do it rather than leaving it to you

Because the inspector needs to see the structural work before it is covered, and that timing sits with whoever is on site. Leaving notification to a householder means somebody has to know when to call, and that is how work ends up uninspected.

The certificate

Keep it with the quotation and the product data. It is what a buyer’s solicitor asks for, and work that was notifiable and never notified is a conveyancing problem years later.

Yes, and it is a named line on the quotation

Where a rooflight installation is notifiable, we deal with Building Control. It appears on the quotation rather than being assumed, so you can see whether it is included and by which route.

A quotation that is silent on Building Control has left the notification to you, and that is the sort of thing discovered at the point of sale rather than at the point of fitting.

Which route

Competent person self certification. The installer certifies the work against the regulations and notifies the local authority afterwards. You receive a certificate. No application, no council fee and no inspection visit. This is the usual route for a straightforward replacement.

Building notice or full plans. An application to the local authority or an approved inspector, with a fee and inspection visits at agreed stages, typically when the structure is open and again at completion. At the end you receive a completion certificate.

This is the right route where an opening is being formed or widened, particularly in a trussed rafter roof where a designed trimmer is required. An independent inspection of structural work is worth having rather than a burden.

When nothing separate is needed

Where the rooflight forms part of an extension or a loft conversion already going through Building Control, it is covered by that application. Tell us if that is the situation and we take it off the quotation rather than charging you twice.

Repair is not notifiable either. Renewing a flashing, replacing a broken pane in an existing frame or servicing an actuator is maintenance rather than building work.

What you receive

The certificate, a written specification naming the unit, the glazing and the flashing kit, and our ten year workmanship guarantee. All three are handed over on completion rather than posted later.

Keep them with the house paperwork. A buyer’s solicitor will ask, and producing the certificate takes a minute where reconstructing it years later takes weeks.

If a previous installer did not

Tell us. We can usually say whether it is worth regularising and what that would involve. Sometimes the honest answer is that it is not: regularisation years after the event is difficult, because the installation is buried and nobody can inspect what is behind the lining, and an indemnity policy at the point of sale is frequently the pragmatic route.

What to ask any installer

Whether they are registered with a competent person scheme, or whether they will make a building notice application on your behalf. And whether either is included in the price or excluded from it.

A quotation silent on Building Control has left the notification to you, and that is the sort of thing discovered at the point of sale rather than the point of fitting.

If a previous installer left this unresolved on your property, tell us. We can usually say whether it is worth regularising and what that would involve, and sometimes the honest answer is that an indemnity policy at the point of sale is the pragmatic route, because the installation is buried and nobody can inspect it now.

The two routes

Competent person self certification. Where the installer is registered under an appropriate scheme, they certify the work themselves and a certificate is issued to you and lodged with the local authority. No separate building control application, no inspection visits.

A building control application. Made either to the local authority or an approved inspector, with inspections at appropriate stages and a completion certificate at the end.

Which applies depends on the work. A straightforward rooflight replacement usually goes the first route. Anything involving structural alteration, a new opening of size, or work forming part of a larger project usually goes the second.

What we do

We tell you which route applies before the work starts, we handle the notification for the work we carry out, and we make sure the certificate reaches you rather than sitting in a file.

Where structural design is needed we coordinate with the engineer so that building control has the drawing it needs at the right time rather than after the fact.

Why the paperwork matters more than it seems

It surfaces at sale. Conveyancing enquiries ask for evidence that controlled work was properly notified, and a missing certificate is far more awkward and expensive to resolve years later than to obtain at the time.

Regularisation after the event is possible and it is neither quick nor cheap, and on structural work it may require opening up to inspect what is already covered.

What building control is not

Planning permission. Separate system, separate rules, and satisfying one says nothing about the other. On a listed building or in a conservation area, the consent question comes first.