Building Control Fees - Regularisation Charge

[trousers]

To cut a long story short(ish).....

 

I applied for retrospective Building Notice approval (aka Regularisation) for a shower room I had installed a couple of years ago and one area the council picked up on was that I needed the electrics certifying under 'Part P' / BS 7671 regulations. (there was minor electrical work installed by a bog standard builder rather than a certified electrician)

 

I did a bit of digging around on the internet and found numerous references stating that this inspection cost should be covered under the regularisation fee that the council initially charged me.

 

However, having run this by the council they are insisting that inspection of any electrics is not covered by the regularisation fee. I pointed out the following section in their own information sheet:

 

"If you apply for a Regularisation Certificate for unauthorised building work that was started on or after 11 November 1985, you will pay a 'regularisation' fee to cover the cost of assessing your application and all inspections. The fee is equivalent relevant plan fee and inspection fee combined plus 50%. There is no VAT payable on a regularisation charge. "

 

However, the council are sticking by their guns and saying that I need to engage an electrician and pay for the inspection separately.

 

Does anyone know definitively what a council is obliged to cover under the regularisation fee (in particular for an electrics inspections)?

 

Cheers

[Special K]

Most councils provide a disclaimer on Part P work for regularisation certs. If you pursue it further as they didn't tell you or advertise it properly, it will be interesting to see if you are successful.