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Building Notice vs Full Plans: Timing, Risk, Cost and When a Notice Is Not Allowed

Building notice vs full plans comes down to speed against certainty. A building notice lets you start after giving two clear days' notice, but nobody approves your design first, so any problem may be found after it has been built. A full plans application has your drawings checked before you commit, with a decision normally due within five weeks. This page covers how each route works in England, when a building notice is not allowed at all, what the two cost, and which to choose for a London renovation.

Building notice vs full plans at a glance

How a building notice works

A building notice is the lighter route. Regulation 13 of the Building Regulations 2010 asks for your name and address, a description of the work, and details of the location and use of the building. For an extension you also need to supply a site plan.

The council's building control team does not pass or reject a notice. Instead, an inspector looks at the work as it goes on and tells you what needs to change. As Haringey Council puts it, you do not get the protection of having full plans passed. The council can still ask for plans or calculations where it needs them, under regulation 13(3), so you may end up paying your engineer in any case, only later and in more of a hurry.

The clock is short. The regulations say you must not start until you have given notice and at least two days have passed. A notice stops having effect three years after it was given unless work has started.

How a full plans application works

Under full plans, you send drawings, specifications and usually structural calculations to building control. Brent Council sets out the timing: a council must give a decision within five weeks, unless you agree in writing to extend it, and in practice it is often faster. The maximum extension brings it to two months.

Councils can approve plans subject to conditions, or reject them with reasons, and either result tells you what has to change while it is still only a drawing. You may legally start before the decision arrives, but you carry the risk if the design then turns out to be wrong. Approval can be treated as having no effect if work has not started within three years.

Passed plans are not a final sign-off. Inspectors still visit during the work, and you need a completion certificate when it is finished. If a certificate is missing later on, our page on regularisation certificates explains what can be done.

When a building notice is not allowed

Regulation 12 requires full plans in three situations:

• The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 applies to the building, or will apply after the work. This covers workplaces and other non-domestic premises, as well as the common parts of many blocks of flats.
• A new building fronts onto a private street.
• The work involves paragraph H4 of Schedule 1, which covers building over or close to certain public sewers. This can catch back extensions on London terraces, where a shared drain often runs behind the houses, so check the sewer records early.

If you own a flat, ask building control which route applies before you assume that a notice will do. Separate rules apply to higher-risk residential buildings, which go through the Building Safety Regulator instead. A leasehold flat will probably need your freeholder's consent too: see our page on licence to alter.

What each route costs

Do not choose a notice to save on fees. Councils set their own charges based on costs, and Haringey says its building notice fee is similar to the combined plan and inspection fees under full plans. With full plans you pay in two stages. With a building notice you pay when you submit it. Brent, for example, publishes a schedule for standard work such as extensions and loft conversions, and it works out other jobs from the estimated cost of the work.

The bigger cost difference comes from correction. Moving a badly specified steel or rebuilding a stair that fails the headroom rule costs far more than any fee, and also delays the trades booked after it. That is where a checked design earns its money. Our guide to interior design costs in London shows how to allow for professional fees in your budget.

Which route should you choose?

Use this as a starting point, then confirm it with your building control body:

• A building notice can suit: a simple new toilet or drainage change, window work that is not covered by a registered installer, or a small, straightforward alteration in a house, with a builder who has done the same job many times.
• Choose full plans for: removing a load-bearing wall, extensions, loft conversions, basements and any work where the fire strategy changes.
• Choose full plans if you are getting competitive quotes. Builders can price accurately only from a checked, detailed set of drawings, and a notice leaves more to be argued over later.
• Choose full plans for a finance or sale timetable. A decision on paper gives lenders, buyers and neighbours something firmer to rely on.

Some work needs no application at all, because a registered competent person can self-certify it, which is common with electrics and boilers: see our Part P guide. You can also use a private registered building control approver instead of the council, in which case they give an initial notice to the local authority, and there is no building notice as such. Our building regulations guide explains how these options compare in London.

If you are planning a renovation and want the design and approvals considered together from the start, talk to Vertigo Interiors or return to our homepage to see how we work.