Dear Anna,
What certificates do I need at the end of my project and where do I get them from?
There is a lot of paperwork involved in any project and it can be confusing for homeowners.
Approval Notice: if you used a Full Plans application your plans will have been checked and, if they appear to comply with the regulations, your agent will be sent an Approval Notice.
If you submitted a Building Notice, there is no Approval Notice as you won’t have had any plans checked.
Completion Certificate
If your work was carried out in accordance with your Approved Plans and the building inspector was happy that there were no contraventions apparent when they visited the site for the final inspection, the Council will issue a Completion Certificate.
If you have lost this certificate, please contact your local building control team. They may be able to supply a copy but there will be a charge.
If you don’t think you ever received one, and your builder cannot help, you should contact your local building control team. It is possible that a final inspection was not carried out, or that there were still some outstanding issues that meant your building inspector could not issue the certificate.
If the work was carried out several years ago under a Building Notice, you may simply have a letter that confirms that the work was completed, as Completion Certificates were not always issued under Building Notices in the past.
Other Certificates
If your home was a new build, you may also have a Warranty Certificate or an Architects Certificate. These were not issued by Building Control so unfortunately, they will not be able to help provide copies. Here is a link if you need to contact LABC Warranty. If the structural warranty was provided by another provider, then you will have to directly contact them.
You may also have been supplied with certificates from Competent Persons Schemes for works carried out by electricians, plumbers, or gas engineers, for example. Building control does not have copies of these, so please keep them safe. If you need to obtain certification for these works you will then have to contact the relevant scheme operator.
If the building control function for your project was carried out by a private Approved Inspector, you must contact them for copies of any certificates.
Further reading
To find out more about completion certificates and their importance, you can read more here ‘why you need a completion certificate? – Ask Anna Question of the Week’ article
