Unauthorised building works

If you do not have a Building Warrant

It is an offence in terms of the Building (Scotland) Act for anyone to carry out work to which the building regulations apply without a building warrant.
If you have carried out building work and have not obtained a Building Warrant, you may wish the Council to inform you if they intend to take any enforcement action. This is likely to be important if you are selling your house or commercial property.
The Council deal with unauthorised building work according to the date the work was carried out as follows:-

• Building work carried out on or after 1st May 2005
• Building work carried out between June 1964 and 30th April 2005
• Building work carried out before June 1964

Please read the appropriate section further down this page.

If you have a Building Warrant but it has expired

Do you have a Building Warrant but have not received either a Notification of Acceptance of a Completion Certificate for applications submitted on or after 1st May 2005 or a Certificate of Completion for applications submitted before 1st May 2005 and the warrant has expired?

If so then Building Standards will on request inspect the work that was carried out in terms of the existing Building Warrant. Use this link to read details about the Confirmation of Completion service which is also known as 'obtaining a letter of comfort'.

 

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Building work carried on or after 1st May 2005

Where work has been carried out without a warrant when there should have been a warrant applied for, a completion certificate must still be submitted.

A submission is made on the Completion Certificate where no Building Warrant Obtained - Submission form and sent along with the appropriate fee and sufficient plans and specifications to enable Building Standards to assess if the work carried out complies with the Scottish Building Regulations.

The appropriate fee is a statutory fee based on the 'value of the works', please see the appropriate section in the fee table.

Building work carried out between June 1964 and 30th April 2005

If you have carried out minor building work to a house or flat between June 1964 and 30th April 2005 you may still want the Council to tell you if the work is completed satisfactorily.

This is likely to be important if you are selling your house or flat. The service is not applicable to commercial property or property which has been divided into separate houses.

Use this link to download the Application for Property Inspection Service form. There is a charge for this service as shown on the back of the form.

A Building Standards Surveyor will contact you to arrange an inspection of the work within fourteen (14) days.

Once the work has been inspected you will be notified by:-

• either a letter confirming that Building Standards will take no enforcement action regarding the unauthorised works
• or a letter listing items requiring action.

If there are items listed which require to be rectified then once the work has been carried out please contact the Surveyor to arrange for a further inspection of the work. If the works is now satisfactory we may issue a letter confirming that Building Standards will take no enforcement action regarding the unauthorised works.

Building work carried out before June 1964

The Council is not concerned with work carried out before June 1964.