Building notice or full plans — which application should I use?

The difference is when the checking happens. A building notice defers all of it to the site inspection, which is fine for a simple, conventional job and dangerous for anything where the design could be wrong. Full plans moves the argument to a drawing, where changing your mind costs a redraw rather than a demolition.

Step by step

1. Understand what a building notice is.A short notification that work is starting, with limited information and no approved drawings. Compliance is judged entirely at inspection. It suits small, conventional, well-understood work.
2. Understand what a full plans application is.Drawings and structural calculations submitted and checked against the regulations before work starts, resulting in an approval, often with conditions. You then build to the approved drawings.
3. Use full plans for anything structural.Beams, new openings, underpinning, foundations near trees or drains. A structural engineer's calculations get checked before the steel is ordered rather than after it is installed.
4. Use full plans if anyone else needs to see evidence.A lender releasing funds in stages, a warranty provider, a self-build project, or simply a future buyer. An approval plus the completion certificate is a much stronger record than a completion certificate alone.
5. Consider a building notice only for straightforward work.It is not available for all work, and it is a poor choice for anything where the design might be wrong, because the correction happens on site at your cost.
6. Compare local authority building control with the private sector.In England and Wales you can use the council or a private building control body — in England now registered with the building safety regulator. Compare price, availability of inspections, and how quickly they turn around a completion certificate.
7. Note the Scottish position.Scotland requires a building warrant, applied for and granted before work starts, then a completion certificate submitted at the end for acceptance by the local authority verifier. There is no building-notice shortcut.
8. Agree in the contract which route is being used.And who applies, who pays and who calls inspections. This is a two-line clause that prevents a whole category of dispute.

Tips

• Full plans approval does not remove the need for inspections. It approves the design; the site work is still inspected as it goes.
• If a builder pushes strongly for a building notice on structural work, ask why. Notices avoid having a design checked, and there is sometimes a reason for that.
• Take fees from the current schedule of whichever body you use. They vary between authorities and between private bodies.

Alternatives

• Building notice: Fast to start, less paperwork, no approved drawings, and all compliance risk carried on site. Reasonable for simple conventional work in England and Wales.
• Full plans application: Drawings and calculations checked before work starts, producing an approval you build to. Slower and dearer up front, and the right choice for structural work or where evidence matters later.
• Regularisation: The retrospective route for work already carried out without approval. Not a choice you make at the start — see the guide on missing building regulations approval.

Questions people ask