Local Authority Building Control (LABC), which represents all local authority building control teams in England and Wales, has issued guidelines on what to do if your Approved Inspector (AI) is unable to continue trading.
The guidelines have been produced following news that a number of private AIs have been unable to secure professional indemnity insurance. Further cases of AIs being denied renewed insurance is possible.
A number of insurers have backed away from providing professional indemnity cover to the construction market following the Grenfell Tower fire and the subsequent Hackitt review of building regulations and fire safety.
Where AIs are unable to secure insurance, they must pass any existing work to local authority building control who are dealing with the referred building notices (reversions). By law, the builder or the AI who has been unable to secure professional indemnity insurance must cancel the existing Initial Notice.
Being local authority-approved, Derbyshire Building Control Partnership (DBCP) has the responsibility to handle all reversions.
DBCP was formed in 2017 following the merger of six established Local Authority Building Control Services from Derby City Council, Chesterfield Borough Council, Derbyshire Dales District Council, North East Derbyshire District Council, Bolsover District Council and Amber Valley Borough Council.
Unlike AIs, DBCP has enforcement powers to ensure that building works comply with the requirements of the Building Regulations. Passing the work onto another private building inspector is illegal.
If you’re affected by an AI which is unable to operate, LABC has issued the following guidelines:
- Either the AI or the person carrying out the works (the builder) must cancel the existing Initial Notice lodged with a local authority.
- If work has started on site, any work not covered by a lawfully issued Final Certificate must – by law – be passed back to local authority building control to ensure compliance with the Building Regulations. Only if work has not started then another AI can submit an Initial Notice for the work.
- You will have to complete a Reversion Application as agreed with local authority building control and fill in a copy of Form 7 under the Approved Inspector regulations which cancels the Initial Notice submitted by the AI. These should be available on your local council’s website.
- When work is ‘reverted’ to local authority building control in this way, you will need to provide them with as much information as possible to help them determine the work so far complies with the relevant regulations. All local authorities are obliged by law to levy a fee for work that is reverted to them, but this fee will be individually assessed based on the size of the project and the amount of time needed to determine compliance with the Building Regulations. Any information you have about inspections undertaken so far, plus any building plans, structural calculations or photographs of the work in progress will be of great assistance and may help to limit fees.
- Local authority building control will then assess all of this and advise you of the next steps in the process and any applicable fees.
- If local authority building control cannot ascertain compliance with particular parts of the work they may have to ask for certain works to be uncovered for inspection. It is always DBCPs aim to keep this to a minimum.
If you are concerned about any aspect of building control or have been dealing with an affected AI, contact DBCP’s team of experts on 0333 880 2000.
Read the LABC guidelines – ‘Approved Inspector insurance – what you need to know’ – here