Apply for building control

Regularisation (approval for work already complete)

Regularisation is work that does not have building regulations approval, that started on or after 11 November 1985.

If the work does not comply with the building regulations, you will need to carry out remedial work.

Once the work complies, we can issue a certificate of regularisation.

Apply for regularisation

You can apply for regularisation if:

  • you are the owner of the property
  • the building work started on or after 11 November 1985

For regularisation of unauthorised works, you need to submit:

  • one copy of the application form
  • a plan of the site
  • the correct payment

You can look at our fees and charges to work out how much you have to pay.

You can make your payment by:

  • paying online
  • phoning our Customer Services team and using a debit or credit card

You can contact us if you are not sure how much you have to pay.

We can only carry our site inspections after you have paid your application fee. 

A certificate of regularisation does not give you retrospective planning permission, and you may need to apply for this as well. Find out if you need planning permission.

A building control officer will need to visit your property to carry out inspections. In most cases this will mean that you will have to expose parts of the structure and open up trial holes. This may result in disruption to the internal decoration or external surfaces of your property.

You may have also have to send us professionally prepared plans and details of the unauthorised work.

We will only issue a certificate of regularisation once the building work complies with building regulations.

Building Control

Address: Causeway House
Bocking End
Braintree
Essex
CM7 9HB

Telephone: 01376 557781