Get building regulations approval in Northern Ireland

Deposit full plans before you start

For business premises, give the council notices and deposit full plans, sections, specifications and written particulars, with the fee. Some classes of building, listed in Schedule 2 to the regulations, are exempt, so ask your council if you are unsure.

The council approves or rejects the plans. If it rejects them, or has not decided within 56 days, you can appeal in writing to the Department of Finance within 56 days. You can also ask the council to relax or dispense with a requirement it has the power to relax. If it refuses, or grants the request with conditions, you can appeal to the Department within 56 days.

Provide fire safety information

From 6 May 2025, if the building is premises covered by the Fire and Rescue Services (Northern Ireland) Order 2006 or contains flats, you must give the person with fire safety duties as-built fire safety information by the date of completion or occupation, whichever is earlier. Tell the council in writing within 5 days afterwards. Residential care premises, and flats and student accommodation with a storey more than 11 metres above ground, must also have an automatic fire suppression system.

Get a completion certificate

When you have given the notices and deposited the plans the regulations require, and the council has been able to confirm that the requirements are met, it must issue a completion certificate. Anyone with an interest in the building can apply for one. The certificate is evidence, though not conclusive evidence, that the requirements it lists were met. The council can serve a contravention notice up to 12 months after it receives a valid notice of completion.

If work was done without approval

If you do not give a notice, the council can require you to cut into, lay open or pull down enough of the work for it to check compliance. If notice was required but not given, apply in writing to the council for a regularisation certificate. Describe the work, give the date it was finished and include a plan. The council can inspect, test drains and sample materials, and may ask you to carry out more work before it decides. The certificate shows compliance with the regulations in force when the work was completed.

If the council serves a contravention notice

The council can serve a contravention notice where work breaks the regulations, usually giving you 28 days to put it right. You can comply, challenge the notice by sending the council a report from a suitably qualified expert, or appeal in writing to the Department of Finance within 28 days. If you tell the council within that time that you will get a report, the period to appeal is extended to 70 days.