Partnership

Local Authorities have a national agreement whereby plans approved by one local building control office (partner) are accepted by another (host) authority. A partnership can be between an architectural practice or a company and a building control authority.

The partnership is in no way a legally binding agreement between the partner and the client, the agreement is an arrangement between the local authorities. This means that should the client choose to submit an application outside of the partnership, for instance, to a local building control office that they have a working relationship with, the partnership agreement does not prevent them from doing so.

The application for building regulation approval is made via the partner authority. The partner authority will identify a member of the building control section to be the initial contact for all schemes being considered by the client, in effect becoming part of the design team.

The partner authority will have been working closely with the customer/client throughout the design, helping with the specification, thus ensuring that at the time the design is complete it is ready to be processed for approval.

The partner authority will establish early contact with the host authority so that consideration can be given to any local Acts or ground conditions that may impact on the design. This early contact will also enable communications to be speeded up with the local authorities.

The benefits of a partnership at a glance:

• fast and efficient processing of applications - it would be expected to receive formal approval within five working weeks
• the customer is dealing with a single authority, the partner, with whom they have a good working relationship
• there are no additional costs; the movement of monies is carried out between the two authorities
• consistency of interpretation
• easy, convenient access to a single point of contact
• our service can be tailored to meet your requirements
• the partner authority will carry out all statutory undertakings, resolving any issues raised