Musings of a Chartered Building Surveying, gathered over forty years of being in the Profession, and will be set down over the coming months. It will from time to time, provide information and endeavor to explain the intricacies of matters that affect the lives of Surveyors, the work they do and the legal and other regulations that is their working life.

The format suggested is based on the alphabet, and this week it is "B" and after a couple of months, we may have a Questions and Answer section.

The Building Regulations are a Technical guide to the setting of standards of good construction during the design and construction of all types of buildings. This control is a Local Authority function, even though some Private Practices are now involved, is carried out by Inspecting the Plans of each project, Approving the standard of design and carrying out inspections of the work carried out, at prescribed stages during its construction, prior to issuing a Completion Certificate, after the final inspection.

Building Regulations have come a long way since I was first in the Surveying, in those days the Regulations were generally individual to each Local Authority, who adopted part, and also had some of their own requirements. This made it essential to have a copy of each Authority’s version to ensure you complied with their requirements.

In those days there were approximately 1100 Local Authorities, and they were reduced by approximately 75 %, by the Local Government Act in 1974, making it much easier for Central Government to deal with financially, but it was an upheaval with changes, loss of jobs, restructuring of Electoral areas, and the removing of historic titles for Councilors called Aldermen.

It is against this background that the 1984 Building Act reorganised the Regulations, although minor changes and the standardisation of the Regulations was occurring from time to time.

This Act created the existing format and the Statutory Instruments, which thereafter allows changes without an Act of Parliament. The Regulations are now labeled from Part A to Part P detailing requirements and standards Structure, Fire Safety, Resistance to Moisture & Weather, Sound, Ventilation, Drainage, Heating, Conservation of Heat & Power, Glazing [Safety] and Electrical, all to provide the best Building practices.

The Regulations are backed up with "Robust Details" which have been produced to simplify the checking and passing of the Plans at design stage, otherwise calculations may need to be provided to ensure compliance.

Local Authorities do provide services to the General Public regarding the Regulations, so you can get advice and assistance when you wish to extend or alter your home, so you are aware of the problems you may encounter – ring your Authority and ask for Building Control Department, and a Duty Officer will provide Guidance, send Application Forms and their Charges their service when you deposit your plans.

Charges for these services in relatively new, in the last ten years or so, prior to that the service was free to all, and Developers and Builders from outside the local area also received this free service when they developed new land and obtained profits, not really in the Rate payers interest.

However today it’s a no cost service to the general Rate payers, and perhaps is one of the better charges that the Government has levied.

Quoin [my pseudonym for this article]