Building Standards in Scotland
Thursday, September 01, 2005
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Scotland has a new system of Building Control. Any building works including construction, alteration or demolition works (“Works”) must comply with the Building Regulations. There is no change here from the previous system. What has changed is the introduction of Guidance Documents containing functional guidelines on how the Regulations may be complied with. The new Guidance Documents replace the old mandatory technical standards. Although the Guidance Documents are not mandatory, works which comply with Guidance Documents will be presumed to comply with Regulations.
The previous system of Building Control required those responsible for Works to obtain a Building Warrant and a Completion Certificate from the Local Authority. From 1 May the system of Building Control, now to be known as Building Standards, is a three step process which works as follows:
Step One – Obtain Building Warrant
Building warrants will still be required before Works can take place. These will be applied for and obtained from Verifiers. For now, the 32 local authorities have been appointed as Verifiers but the legislation does allow for private independent Verifiers to be appointed by the Scottish Ministers.
Step Two – Submit Certificate of Completion
Having obtained a Building Warrant and completed the Works the person responsible for the Works or an approved Certifier must submit a certificate of completion to the Verifier confirming that the design or construction of the Works complies with the Building Regulations.
Certain aspects of the Works (in both the design and the construction) can now be certified by an approved Certifier. An approved Certifier will be registered under the appropriate scheme of works such as structural design, drainage and disabled facilities in which they are qualified to act. Currently there are only 2 operational schemes. These are for Certification of Design (Building Structures) and Certification of Construction (Electrical Installations to BS7671) but in future there will be a number of schemes to allow certification of all aspects of design and construction.
A certificate of completion from an approved Certifier can be taken as evidence of compliance in respect of the relevant aspect of the design or construction.
Step Three – Obtain an Acceptance of Completion Certificate
Upon receipt of a Certificate of Completion, the Verifier will not have to inspect the aspect of the Works covered by the Certificate but may carry out such investigations as are necessary for them (ie checking that the Certifier is properly registered etc) to issue an acceptance of a completion certificate.
If a Certifier has not been employed for every aspect of the Works (which will still be the case for the foreseeable future), the aspects of the Works not covered by a Certificate will still be inspected by the Verifier.
The Verifier when satisfied that the Works do comply with the Building Regulations will issue an acceptance of a completion certificate. An acceptance of a completion certificate is required before any new or altered building can be lawfully occupied.
Building Standards Register
From now on the details of all applications for Building Warrants and acceptance of completion certificates will be held in a Building Standards Register to be set up by each Local Authority.
Building Standards Assessments
In the event that the proper consents under Building Standards are not in place for existing works/works carried out under the new regime, the old system of obtaining a Letter of Comfort from the Council is to be replaced by Building Standards Assessments. A property owner may apply to their local authority at any time to assess whether their property complies with the Building Standards current at the time of the application. Whilst the owner is not obliged to bring the building up to the required Standards, the local authority does reserve the right to order that serious contraventions be corrected by requesting that a late Building Warrant Application is submitted.
What Works are affected by the new system?
The new system will apply only to Works for which Building Warrant applications are lodged after 1 May. The old system will continue to apply to Works for which a Building Warrant was issued or an application for a Building Warrant was lodged before 1 May.
We await confirmation of the date on which Building Standards Assessments are to commence. Recent communications from the Scottish Executive suggest that the new system may only become operational in May 2007. Meantime, the system of obtaining a Letter of Comfort remains in place.
The information contained in this article is given for general information only and does not constitute legal advice on any specific matter.