Why do I need a completion certificate for building work in my house?
Why is it important to have a completion certificate for certain types of construction work in your house? Here's why...
A completion certificate helps ensure building work is safe
When building work has been inspected by suitably competent building control surveyors, with a completion certificate issued at the end, it means that as far as the surveyor is able to ascertain, the work done has complied with the building regulations. When building control surveyors carry out inspections on your property they'll assess things like the following (these will vary and be pre-agreed depending on your project):
- foundations
- ground and floors
- roof structure
- structural stability
- thermal insulation
- ventilation
- fire protection
- damp proofing
- drainage
(View our Do I need a building regulations application page for further details.)
Please note they will only visit the site periodically (when requested to do so by you or your builder) so won’t see everything. They will check the work at pre-agreed stages to ensure that it appears to comply and issue a completion certificate only if no contraventions are apparent after the final inspection.
You can find out more about getting building control approval in our 5 steps to building regulations approval page.
Additional work may be costly without building regulations approval
Read more about Completion Certificates.