NNDC - Application Forms

Building Regulation Charges

The Building (Local Authority Charges) Regulations 2010 came into force on 1 April 2010 and have required all local authorities to review, revise and publish a new charges scheme by 1 October 2010. North Norfolk District Council’s scheme was approved by Full Council on 22 September 2010 and is available for inspection, at any time during normal offices hours, at the Council Offices, Holt Road, Cromer.

The new regime is based firmly on the ‘user pays’ principal whereby charges are set solely to recover the cost of providing the service. There are a number of significant differences to the 1998 Regulations:

Whilst the authority is still required to break even over a continuing cycle in terms of total income, it is now also required to break even on individual project categories (ie larger projects should not subsidise smaller ones).

Refunds or supplementary charges can be levied where the level of input varies considerably from that originally envisaged. Also additional charges can be levied where expert advice or consultation has to be bought in (eg electrical testing where a competent tradesman has not been used, structural engineering checking etc).

Although straightforward projects will have standard charges, many more charges than before will be individually determined and negotiated.

Where this occurs and the scheme you are submitting falls outside the standard charges, shown in the enclosed documents, it will be necessary for us to establish the charges for the project from the plans and specification. This will be based on the estimated time it will take us to check the plans and undertake the necessary inspections. We must then inform you, in writing, of the charge we intend to make for the project.

Where this occurs we suggest that you deposit the application, without the fee, which will enable us to establish the fee for the project from the details submitted. We will then inform you of the fee, in writing (hopefully by email). Once payment has been received we can register the application and commence the checking procedure.

We realise that this is slightly cumbersome and will inevitably result in a minor delay in the normal registration process, however this is the statutory procedure we are being required to follow at the present time. We intend to monitor this situation and if it creates major problems we will have to review it to see what changes can be made. Of course any suggestions you may have in this regard would be appreciated.

The reliance on estimated costs of works will be much reduced as charges will be set to cover the actual time and effort involved in providing the service. The total charge when using a Building Notice will not always be the same as Full Plans (sometimes the Building Notice process will be more expensive).

As local authorities’ hourly rates and on costs will inevitably vary it is likely that charges will vary geographically, although within Norfolk we are trying to maintain a degree of consistency. We will certainly be specifying very similar project categories against which to list standard charges.

In establishing our new level of charges it has been inevitable that some of the current charges have changed. Some have increased whilst others will be less. You will also note that the categories in Table C have changed and increased,

A copy of our revised charges are available below.

As the charges scheme is both new to you and ourselves we anticipate that there may be some ‘teething issues’. If you have any questions regarding these changes, please do not hesitate to contact Mike Radley on 01263 516132 or Nichola Ransome on 01263 516023.

Building Control application forms and charges can be downloaded from this page in either word or PDF format.

We strongly advise that you contact the Building Control Section before the submission of a Regularisation Application as the issue of any certificate could be dependant upon remedial works being undertaken or in some cases work having to be exposed to prove compliance.

Submit a Building Control Application online

North Norfolk District Council accepts Building Control Applications and accompanying documents as attachments to an email. Payment can also be made by card by telephoning Nichola Ransome on 01263 516023 or Tina Self on 01263 516134 during office hours.

Please read the section under ATTACHMENTS further down this page before going through the following steps to complete your submission.

Download the Word version of the relevant forms found above. (You will need MS Word to edit the form.)

Fill in, rename and save a copy of the Word form(s) needed for your application.
Name and save copies of any MS Office format files you are going to send.
Name and save any photographic images, to JPG format.
Name and convert to PDF, any CAD drawings to be sent.
Start an email to building.control@north-norfolk.gov.uk
- Include your name, contact details and a list of the files you are attaching.
- Include any other details that are relevant. eg the planning application number of any Development Control application for the same site if there is one, the name of any officer to whom you have spoken about the application.
- Please indicate which method of payment you will be using - see note below
- Attach the files to the email.
Check the email and send it

Attachments

Individual attachments must not exceed 5MB in size and the total size of attachments to one email must not exceed 25MB. Please send attachments in the following formats -

Text - .txt, .pdf, MS Office .doc, .xls, .ppt
video - mpg, avi, wmv
photographs - jpg
CAD drawings - please convert these to PDF

Payment can be made:

By Credit/Debit Card by telephoning the Technical Officer/Assistant on 01263 516023 or 01263 516134 during office hours.
By cheque made out to North Norfolk District Council. This can be posted to:-

              Building Control
              North Norfolk District Council
            Holt Road, Cromer
            Norfolk NR27 9EN

Your application cannot be registered and will not proceed further, until the application charge has been received by the Council.