Building Warrant and Planning Permission Scotland

[AndrewR]

I am just starting my first conversion project on an old building in Scotland. I wanted to do my own planning permission and building warrant for reasons of saving on expenditure and the self-satisfaction. I put in pre-application advice for planning, but have only been e-mailing for pre-submission advice from Buidling Standards (warrant) because I wanted to be sure that I didn't get the submission rejected.  It is a very small project. Can someone please advise on the following:

1. Are all Building Warrant 'verifiers' the same, and how does one deal with them? They don't help. I ask questions, and they drip feed information. They won't tell me what I should do, but are free to tell me what I shouldn't do. They give negative responses which I believe are wrong according to the Building Standards Technical Handbook and when I ask them to verify which part of the standards they refer to when making this decision they don't respond [I won't go into details because I don't want to be identified]. Or is it just that I have got a bad verifier? I honestly believe that he doesn't know.

2. Based on 1, it is a big puzzle to me when to actually submit both planning and warrant applications. This is because the two are inter-connected. Planning tell me (in their pre-planning advice - which I paid £140 for) that their decision is based on what I might have to change to comply with building warrant, but (as above) building warrant are at worst obstructive. So, do I first submit building warrant and get this accepted, but taking the risk that Planning might reject it, or do I submit both simultaneously and do we then go back and forth with negotiation until the plans are mutually acceptable to all parties? Based on what I have encountered so far, I worry that they will just not help and that the warrant application will be rejected. I know that there is recourse to go to ministers, but if I do this while my planning application is being considered then would they hold off making a decision on my planning application???

3. A couple of people have told me over the years that it is best to ignore both planning and building standards and just wait until they contact you. This is not my way, but I'm beginning to think that it is the best course to take. Any opinions?

Thanks,

Andrew

[Temp]

Sadly both Planning and Building Control are under resourced and overworked. Years ago you could get lots of free advice from both. These days it's a different matter. Planning will hardly talk to you until you pay the pre-application advice fee and even then they aren't always very responsive. I was over a year in the pre-application stage but that's an exception. Building control are usually more helpful but again they may not want to spend time on a development that hasn't yet got planning permission especially as you haven't paid the fee yet.

 

Where there are structural questions or similar design issues Building Control will check the design has been done and validated by a suitably qualified person but might not actually check the details themselves. They may give some advice but will be reluctant to be in any way "responsible for the design". They expect "you" to submit a design package that meets the regs and is supported by any necessary calculations. They don't always have time to explain how to change a non-compliant design to make it comply. 

 

When an architect designs a new house he does so with knowledge of the building regulations to avoid problems later. You might have to hire someone familiar with the building regs to provide input for your planning application. Then submit the planning application. Once thats granted proceed with the Building Warrant Application.

 

I should add I'm more familiar with the system in England. Others here know Scottish regs.

 

 

 

 

Edited June 15, 2020 by Temp

[jamieled]

You are very unlikely to get pre-app bc advice in Scotland I reckon. I'm not aware of BC rejecting applications, they may ask for modifications if you don't include all the relevant detail they want.

 

It sounds like an unusual project if you think you need bc input to define planning. Most folk would tend to do the planning first, then apply for the warrant? Planning is pretty high level in my opinion, dealing with visual aspect, change of use etc. You don't necessarily need  lot of detail for a planning app.

 

Are you doing any structural work and if so how are you going about getting that certified?

[AndrewR]

Thanks,

Jamie:

It is not a complex project. It is a conversion. The planning pre-app' came back fine with a few recommendations about access and external material types.

Would you please explain what you mean by 'going about getting structural work certified'? I don't want to specify details of the project because I don't want to be identified as being critical of the verifier. Who certifies what and to whom?

A

[jamieled]

@AndrewR. The comment about structural work being certified is only relevant for the building warrant. If you are doing any structural alterations or work as part of your conversion, then, in Scotland there are two ways you can go about providing building control with the information they need. One is to use an external 'approved certifier of construction'. This is an engineer on an approved register (also known as SER) who will certify that the structural design meets Scottish building standards. The second way is to provide building control with the structural design and they will get it checked to ensure it complies.

 

Building control in Scotland generally discourage the second approach, because they are pushed for resources. They discourage by giving you a discount if you use the SER route, plus it's also usually faster as the building control officer (verifier) just needs to check the certificate and drawings are there.

 

Building standards rarely deal with a lot of the planning related issues (in my opinion) so I'm curious as to how the building warrant requirements are influencing your planning app? In many cases building standards are dealing with very specific detail that would never be mentioned in a planning application.