Completion Certificates

The Completion Inspection - the final seal of approval

You should request a final inspection once the building work is complete ( except for decoration ). Notice should be given not more than 5 days after completion of the work. Contact details are included in your Inspection Plan document which is supplied to you when you made your Building Regulation application.

Please note that the completion inspection should be carried out before your business relationship with your builder has been terminated and has left the site. Failing this, any remedial work required will be your responsibility to complete and may involve additional costs. This may also delay the sale of your property, if the completion inspection has not been carried out, it will then be declared as an outstanding matter on any legal search carried out by your purchaser's solicitors and not be able to be included in any Home Information Pack for potential purchasers of the property.

When you have finished the building work and we have carried out a satisfactory completion inspection, a Completion Certificate will be issued to the applicant free of charge. This Certificate of Completion or 'seal of approval' is issued subject to sufficient work having been inspected to ascertain compliance with the Building Regulations. It is therefore of the utmost importance that you ensure that your builder requests all the relevent statutory inspections that are required. These are detailed in the Inspection Plan document which is included with the acknowledgement letter that you received on the submission of your Building Regulation application. This fully details all you need to know about the involvement of Building Control in your development. Failure to obtain all the necessary inspections will mean that a Completion Certificate will not be able to be issued. Please check this with your builder.

This certificate is also required by solicitors as part of the house sale process to prove that the work complies with the Building Regulations. It will be needed if you sell your property in the future. The sale of your property may not be possible without it. We would recommend this certificate is kept safe, possibly with the deeds of your property. Please remember, future copies will not be obtainable free of charge.

The recent introduction of Home Information Packs ( HIP's) by the Government, makes the requirement to hold a completion certificate for any works undertaken to your property as essential. These will be required before the property can be marketed and sold.

Please note that it will not be possible to carry out a completion inspection at a later date, such as when the property is sold.

Your Local Authority Building Control Completion Certificate is the guarantee of thorough, independent inspections and service.

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