About the Building Control Service

Every year the Council's Building Control department assess thousands of applications and undertakes many more site inspections. The Building Control department strives to assist designers, builders, and the public to comply with the Northern Ireland Building Regulations. 

Building Control is a statutory, council service, primarily empowered to enforce the Building Regulations, which are legal requirements that anyone wishing to carry out building works must follow. 

Applicants are responsible for ensuring that work is carried out to building regulations. Designers are responsible to the client, to design a scheme that meets the functional requirements of the building regulations, while builders, act on their client's instructions, to construct the work in accordance with building regulations. 

There are key stages of the work where the regulations require that the Council be notified: the applicant is responsible for ensuring that such notices are given in a timely manner. A list of statutory notices is included in the Inspections section. 

Building Control usually communicates with the designer or the builder, unless the applicant expressly asks to have correspondence sent directly to them. 

Building Control staff also provide other services including: 

• the control of certain dangerous buildings and structures, 
• property searches, 
• postal numbering, and 
• providing technical advice. 

It is not the function of Building Control to provide a site supervision service, or to provide a warranty for construction work. These services may be obtained from architects, building surveyors, clerks of works and various warranty schemes. It is not the Council's role to act as a mediation service between applicant and builder. 

Pre-submission enquiries are welcomed in relation to specific questions e.g.  where a designer, having produced sketches for a scheme requires clarification around an issue that falls outside the scope of guidance in the Building Regulations Technical Booklets. Pre-submission enquiries generally need to be accompanied by drawings and questions. Such enquiries will not lead to a full assessment of the scheme; this can only be carried out on the receipt of a valid application.