Where you have used the ‘Full Plans’ application route, provided all plan approval conditions and all issues found on inspections are satisfactorily resolved, all statutory notifications have been made to building control and the required building services commissioning and test certification have been provided; once the Building Control Surveyor has made a completion inspection and is satisfied that the work as inspected appears to comply with the Building Regulations, a "Completion Certificate" can be issued. This certificate is often now required for the sale of your property.
Again you are reminded that this certificate is considered as evidence (but not conclusive evidence) that, insofar as the authority has been able to ascertain, the works as described in the certificate are in compliance with the requirements of the Building Regulations. They are not a guarantee of a projects compliance with all building standards, nor of a projects workmanship quality.
Late Completion requests - There is a legal requirement for the owner to give the local authority written notification a minimum of 5 days prior to occupation or completion of the works related to the Building Regulations application.
Where this has failed to be provided and the works are more than 3 years old from our last recorded visit our files are normally written off. No completion requests can be accepted after this time due to the failure to comply with this legal notification request and the expiration of our statutory 2 year enforcement time period.
Provision of late completion inspection for jobs under 3 years from our last recorded inspection - due to the requirement to open up the archived files and verify its inspection history, a request has to be put in writing to building control. If the case history is sufficient to allow for a completion inspection to be made and all necessary supporting test information is provided, an additional charge as set out in our scale of charges will be required to be paid in advance of the completion inspection. This process can take up to 28 days.
Completion certification can only be issued where the project is determined to comply with the Building Regulations requirements. Should additional works be found to be required on our completion visit, all works will have to be corrected and re-inspected to verify compliance (additional charges may be incurred in accordance with our scale of charges).
Note: Completion Certificates were and cannot be issued on projects completed prior to 1 January 2000.