What are Building Regulations? Is It Necessary to Have Them?

Now that your plans have been approved, what’s next? Hurray!

We cannot stress enough the importance of ensuring your building regulations approval is in place, no matter how much you want to skip over the “boring bits” and move on to the fun stuff. The homeowner must obtain building regulations approval before he or she can appoint a builder. We are here to help you get up to speed on the proper steps and how to do them.

What is the point?

Building regulation approval is a requirement of the government to ensure buildings comply with the Building Regulations & Associated Legislation. Approval is essential to ensure safety and health for all who live on the property. The regulations cover the structure of the building and other aspects such as energy efficiency, sustainability, and fire safety. They are important not only for daily building matters but also have long-term environmental benefits.

What is the difference between Building Regulations & Planning Permission?

Both require approval. Planning permission is for the overall development of a town, city, or countryside. Building regulations focus more on each property. These regulations cover structural safety and health, household fuel and energy conservation, as well as the facilities in a building, such as disabled accessibility. While building regulation and planning approval are required in most cases, approval for building regulations may be needed in certain instances (e.g., internal alterations).

Building Regulations approval is required for certain projects:

• Construction of a new building
• Modification or extension of an existing building
• Loft conversions
• If you provide services or fittings to a building such as drainage and replacement windows and fuel-burning appliances.
• A wide range of electrical works on buildings.

Submitting your application

Your plans can be submitted through a Local Authority Building Control (LABC) or through private building control, where you are assigned an approved private inspector. The decision is ultimately yours. There are three options to choose from:

• Full plans – This is the most detailed option. It can take up to 5 weeks to approve or 2 months with your permission. After your building work is completed, the certificate of completion will be issued within 8 weeks.
• Building notice – You will need to apply for a building notice for smaller projects. The formal approval you receive with full plans is not the same as building notice. You can begin your building work within 2 days of submitting.
• Regularisation – For work that has previously been done without permission, regularisation is a retrospective application. This plan is only applicable to building works completed after November 1985.

Many people are involved in the building regulation process, including architects, surveyors, and architectural technologists. Udex offers a package of building regulations designed by our architects to help you every step of the way.

Costs

The cost of building regulations is part of the broader RIBA Stage 4 (Technical Design) phase, which typically accounts for 3% to 15% of the total construction cost, depending on the complexity of the project.

Within this phase:

• The work directly related to building regulations, including preparing detailed drawings, specifications, and liaising with building control, typically constitutes 1% to 5% of the total construction cost. This means building regulations costs are a subset of the overall RIBA Stage 4 costs.

For example:

• On a project with a £200,000 construction budget, RIBA Stage 4 costs could range between £6,000 and £30,000.
• Of this, £2,000 to £10,000 might specifically go toward building regulations-related tasks.

By factoring these costs into your budget early, you can ensure a smoother project journey while meeting all technical and regulatory requirements.

You can still use our calculator to estimate the construction cost of your project.

Our friendly team can help you get your building regulations approved. Book a free architectural consultation to discuss your project and get a Udex expert. We’d love to assist you.

Get a quote today to discover more about your project and get a Udex expert.

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