Building Control Issues

[Adele Tractor]

Hello there, I have just joined buildhub so I hope I am using this forum correctly. My partner and I are at the very beginning of our 1st house self build and we went with the local council building control as they were considerably cheaper than private and we are building on a shoe string. After the very brief first site visit, we have found him almost impossible to contact. He won't answer the phone and doesn't respond to emails. We have done all our ground clearance and are ready to get the foundations done before autumn kicks in, but can't move forward until we can iron out the issues he raised. Can I ask what peoples experiences are with council run building control vs Private and can people let me know what a reasonable time limit is, to get a response for general questions and then more in depth issues. Trying to understand what is the norm so we may work with realistic expectations in how we plan and run this build. Thanks, Adele

[Mr Punter]

Hello @Adele Tractor and welcome.

 

Private or Local Authority, building control are overrun with work and do not have time to talk to you.  You need to work out how to comply and they will check the plans and visit key stages.  They will probably only visit site 3 or 4 times.

 

Why don't you post what you are unsure about on here and see what replies you get?  There are lots of members with considerable skill and experience.

[Adele Tractor]

Thanks for your reply. I do appreciate they are really busy, and not looking for them to come up with the solutions. We are having issues with the B5 compliance, we had contacted the fire service who said they needed to talk to the building control officer. Our officer said to forward the information over to him which we did immediately. This was 2 weeks ago and he is not replying to any of our attempts to contact him, even though he has mentioned the issue to our structural engineer while disusing a different issue. Its cost us money and time. We are now unsure of how to proceed.

[Mr Punter]

You can often make contact with the fire service and I have found them quite helpful.  Did the fire service speak to BC?  Were they happy with your proposals?  Did the fire service bring this up as an issue at planning stage?  They will often relax some guidelines for a single dwelling.

[ETC]

Do you have BC Plan Approval?

What is complicated about B5 compliance?

[Gema]

@Adele Tractor, which local council are you with?

[MikeGrahamT21]

As above, what council are you under…they should be a department and more than a single person, although you have a named contact, others there should also be able to come out and advise. May also be worth copying in the entire department email address along with your named contact, could help move things along… and the other thing, they could just be on annual leave

[SteamyTea]

Summer holidays have just finished, should be easier getting hold of people now, until last week of October.

[Great_scot_selfbuild]

On 27/08/2026 at 18:09, Adele Tractor said:

Thanks for your reply. I do appreciate they are really busy, and not looking for them to come up with the solutions. We are having issues with the B5 compliance, we had contacted the fire service who said they needed to talk to the building control officer. Our officer said to forward the information over to him which we did immediately. This was 2 weeks ago and he is not replying to any of our attempts to contact him, even though he has mentioned the issue to our structural engineer while disusing a different issue. Its cost us money and time. We are now unsure of how to proceed.

@Adele Tractor we had to get fire officer assessment but they refused to speak to us directly and would only deal with requests from a Building Control Officer / approved inspector. Quite frustrating but we got there in the end. We’re with private (Stroma). No personal experience of our local council BC - good luck. 

[saveasteading]

 If the bco isn't asking perhaps letc it run.

 

An example: in our case the fire service asked for a 10m3 water tank. But bco ignored that. So don't overthink.

 

I agreed btw as, although there is no mains,  an appliance could drive adjacent ( and we have 3m3 drinking water).  I don't know if the bco gave it that much thought.

 

But bco did ask about fire doors and alarms. Best ask them.

 

[SteveG40]

I have found when dealing with Council building control as someone previously mentioned they are a team and seem to have an ‘on duty’ officer.  So often you’ll get whoever is available that day to visit the site, not assigned a particular officer for that particular project, as backward as it sounds. Although usually as officer is assigned to a specific area I guess for just ease of transport. On my last project I have 3 different officers at the various stages of works. Previous project I had 2 separate officers (tho only 2 visits).  My current project is the first time I’m using a private BCO as it’s in a different local authority area (Cornwall) and they had a bad reputation. So now just have the one guy to handle the whole project.  I would possibly try and use the main contact details/email for the department rather than trying to contact a particular person. Using your project reference/case number and then get a response via the general enquiry line. Usually it will get picked up by an admin body who can direct it to someone to action even if it isn’t the person you originally dealt with. They should have all the notes available.

[saveasteading]

1 hour ago, SteveG40 said:

3 different officers

I've known that to be a problem when they have individual preferences and opinions, greater or lesser knowledge, or showing off how tough or clever they are. 

Maybe it's less risky  re stage inspections.

 

In your case do you have a formal proposal for them to consider, or wanting advice? You said above that you have sent them information.  Can you tell us more?

Edited 5 hours ago by saveasteading

[SteveG40]

1 hour ago, saveasteading said:

I've known that to be a problem when they have individual preferences and opinions, greater or lesser knowledge, or showing off how tough or clever they are. 

Maybe it's less risky  re stage inspections.

 

In your case do you have a formal proposal for them to consider, or wanting advice? You said above that you have sent them information.  Can you tell us more?

On that particular project it wasn't too much of an issue as it was just alterations. We moved a kitchen to another room and removed a wall.  So an officer just needed eyes on a new drain and sight of a concrete lintel, following officer just needed to see the job completed. Not much room to input their personal opinions! But I can imagine on a whole house build where many multiply regulations need to be met then it can open to different officers wanting different things.