In October 2023, the government introduced changes to Building Control laws. These changes place new duties of competence on all parties involved, and also affect higher-risk buildings. You can read more about the changes.
Guidance notes on supplementary charges and refunds for building control
If we find that the basis on which we calculated your charge changes, we will either refund you or ask you to pay more as appropriate.
When calculating your charge, we will look at the work we’ve already done, and won’t charge you for the first hour of officer time. Our costs are £91.15 an hour, which includes £15.19 VAT.
If you do need to pay a supplementary charge, we will tell you in writing, detailing how we have calculated the charge.
If you are due a refund and we have done less than an hour’s work on your case, we will refund you in full.
Supplementary charges
We may make a supplementary charge where:
- you have made major variations to the original project design, meaning we have to put in significant additional resources
- we need to carry out an excessive number of extra site visits, compared to our original estimate.
Refunds
We will only consider a refund request for:
- an Application for Building Control Approval with Full Plans after we have issued a ‘Certificate of Completion’
- a Building Notice after we have issued a ‘Certificate of Completion’ or the Notice expires, which is three years from the date of deposit
- a Certificate of Regularisation after we have issued the Certificate of Regularisation
Site visits
We calculate the number of site visits assuming that the builder is competent and will complete the project within 24 months of starting the work.
If your project needs fewer inspections than we originally thought, we will refund you appropriately. This is providing we have received all relevant inspection notifications.
Reimbursements for support provided to the Building Safety Regulator
Section 13 of the Building Safety Act 2022 allows the Building Safety Regulator to get assistance from a local authority to fulfil its functions.
The reimbursement for our costs of complying with a request or direction under section 13 of the Building Safety Act 2022 is based on an hourly rate of £77.77 (excluding VAT).
This guidance is effective from 1 April 2024.