Anyone know about buildings regulations?

[jasper]

We plan to take down a wall which divides our smallish kitchen and dining room to make one big room.It is not a supporting wall, and there are no rooms upstairs.
I thought we could just go ahead, but a friend has said we should inform the local council and they might request a buildings certificate ( not sure if this is the right term), and would inspect the room before and after the work. Something to do with should we ever sell the house.
Can anyone advise? What kind of timescale is involved? How much will it cost? Thanks.

Try giving a local architect a ring - some will give an initial free consultation. Or ring the council yourself.

We looked into having our loft converted and our architect told us that the building regs. would cost us just under £300 - now obviously that is a major job, so I would have thought just taking down a wall would be alot cheaper if you did have to undertake building regs.

Your friend is right, you should check out whether you need to comply because it could save a lot of hassle in the future. Good luck - I'm sure it will all turn out OK.

Hi Jasper

This is purely speculation as I have absolutely no idea but I would have thought that, as the wall is non-supporting, you do not need planning permission as you are not altering the structure of the building. I base this reasoning on the fact that new loft style properties are built with stud walls (i.e. non load-bearing partiton walls) so that they can be moved around to your hearts desire without having to consult anyone.

It would probably be best to consult the local authority's planning department to clarify the situation. We will be removing a similar wall in our house shortly so it would be handy to know the truth!

Sorry I haven't been more useful.

Sorry for jumping in. I had some work done on my house recently, and according to the architect, you have to go register the change with your local authority's "building control" department, even if you don't require planning permission to do the work. A new law came in a couple of years ago that means any prospective buyer should be able to check with building control what has been done to the house. If they see work that is clearly recent, but not registered, it could cause you problems selling. Your local authority's building control department or an architect would be able to give you full details of what to do. Any "structural change" - like knocking down a wall - usually requires registration.

Had quite a bit of work down on a house once and was considering some elsewhere. The building regulation people were really helpful so I'd say just give them a ring and talk it through with them. They actually came to look at the second house for free to give me advice. Anyone with a decent solicitor should ask if you've made any changes to the house and they may then want to see something to demonstrate the wall wasn't load bearing. If you don't need approval its handy to have a letter from the building reg people saying that.

If you do need approval you need properly drawn plans and two sets of them. That is where most of the cost comes in.

I think it's worth getting a building cert, in case you decide to sell one day. We had all sorts of hassle during our last house sale, because the previous owners to us hadn't had building approval for the 10 yr old replacement double glazing. We had to get an official letter from the council to say that due to the passage of time they wouldn't issue a building cert!! Cynical me couldn't help thinking it was just a moneymaking scam thought up by the Council and solicitors, as they charged us handsomely for all the letters that went to and fro. Our buyers didn't even want the letter as they intended to replace with more modern double glazing anyway! Oh, the memory makes me shudder, even now.

Update! Thank you all for your contributions. I am constantly amazed at this great resource.
I have been it touch with the building/planning dept. at the local council. Tech has explained it 100% correctly! It is a quite separate issue from planning permission ( which is NOT needed).It does not make an awful lot of logical sense to me, but as tech rightly says, you really should register any changes to your property such as removing a wall as the problem may arise if the property is later sold. I had to draw before and after plans , provide a "location plan "(that's a map to you and me) and a "block plan" which is an arial outline of your house in relation to other nearby houses, with the area of alterations marked.You need three copies of all the above, and there is a form to fill in. The council office were relly pleasant and helpful. The fee payable is on a sliding scale depending on the cost of alterations. For anything up to £3,800 ( roughly, this is from memory) the fee is £70.