Did you submit a building regulations application before 15 June 2022?

Changes to Parts B, F, L, O, J, S and R have taken place since that date. The Government allow applications submitted prior to June 2022 to be designed to the previous guidance subject to work starting on site before a prescribed date or the new regulations will apply.

To demonstrate commencement, you must have started one of the following where relevant:

• Piling, strip, raft, trench or pad footings;
• Drainage work specific to the building(s) concerned.

The Government has confirmed that the following would not constitute a commencement for the purposes of building regulations:

• Removal, treatment or dynamic compaction of soil or vegetation;
• Demolition;
• Removal;
• Excavation of trial holes;
• General site servicing works (e.g. roadways).

Where multiple dwellings or buildings are on a single application, work on each unit must have commenced for transitional provisions under Parts F, L and O to apply – so for an application for 100 dwellings, work on all 100 units must have commenced before 15 June 2023. If only 10 of these 100 dwellings have started, only these 10 can be built to the previous standards, the remainder must meet the new standards.

So, make sure that you have a builder ready to start before the relevant commencement date, and arrange for the inspector to come out and witness the commencement. Alternatively, ask your Architect to redesign the scheme if you won’t be able to start by then (further charges may apply for rechecking your application).

Here’s a list of the relevant Approved Documents and the dates you need to be aware of: