Sunderland City Council

Sunderland City Council
Civic Centre
Burdon Road
Sunderland
SR2 7DN

Tel. (0191) 520 5555

Calls may be recorded for quality and training purposes

Building Regulations Applications

The Building Control inspection service is restricted to ensuring that health and safety requirements are satisfied. Should you wish to have a more extensive supervisory service you are advised to employ a suitably qualified person to carry this out on your behalf.

Full Plans

When preparing a Full Plan application a full constructional details of the proposed work should be included. Unless you have a working knowledge of building regulations and building construction it would be advisable to seek professional advice.

Full Plan applications ( 36kb) should consist of the following:

   The relevant application forms completed with the appropriate fee.
   Detailed scale drawings (commonly 1:50) including floor plans, typical sections and elevations of the proposed work. Positions of boundaries and drainage layouts should also be shown.
    Full written specifications should be provided either on the drawings or suitably cross-referenced to the plans.

All Full Plan applications will be thoroughly checked by Building Control, and if the work shown on the plans complies with regulations you will be issued with an approval notice. If your proposals do not satisfy the regulations you will be invited to amend the plans as necessary to facilitate approval.

A five week statutory time limit applies to the processing of Full Plan applications (extendable to two months with your agreement) however, we will undertake to carry out examination of your plans within 15 working days. Rejection of plans is not viewed as a productive exercise and so this occurrence is rare.

An approval notice remains valid for three years from the date of deposit of plans.

Advantages of Full Plan Applications	Disadvantages of Full Plans Applications
You have the assurance that, providing the work is carried out in accordance with the approved plans, building regulations will be satisfied.	Cost of having detailed plans prepared.
An approval notice can be presented to financial institutions, Solicitors, Surveyors etc. when seeking loans or moving home.	Need to programme work to allow sufficient time for preparation and processing of plans.
Subject to the work being carried out in accordance with the approved plans, and all relevant inspections being carried out with work found to be of a satisfactory standard, then a Completion Certificate can be obtained.

The Building Notice

If you choose this option generally no detailed plans are required, as greater emphasis is placed upon site supervision. However, plans and details can be requested during the course of the work to assist us with checking, but this will only be done if absolutely necessary.

The Building Notice procedure lends itself to works of a relatively straightforward nature to be carried out by persons who are fully conversant with the requirements of the regulations.

Without plans there is not a detailed check of the work before it is carried out and therefore no official decision notice is issued. This procedure is only available in respect of domestic properties. Building Notice form ( pdf symbol 26kb)

Drainage Implications

Please note, if your proposed work is situated over or close to a public sewer (shown on the public sewer map) a Building Notice will not be acceptable, a Full Plans application will therefore be necessary. Please check whether your proposal will affect a public sewer by Contacting Northumbria Water on (0191) 4196577 or Building Control on (0191) 5611550 prior to submitting your Building Notice Application.

Advantages of The Building Notice	Disadvantages of The Building Notice
Savings in time and costs by not having to prepare and submit detailed plans.	No approved plan to work to. Whilst the Building Control Officer will endeavour to anticipate potential problems, delays and costly remedial works may be necessary if the work carried out does not comply with the building regulations.
	Building estimates may be inaccurate without the full design information available.

You may need planning permission for the works that you are carrying out.

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last updated 27/11/08

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