Building regulations drawings in Newham

Renters, owners and who commissions the drawings in Newham

Only 30.8 per cent of Newham households own their home, and 47.1 per cent live in a house or bungalow. Most households are therefore not owner-occupiers, so the person commissioning the drawings may be a landlord improving a house to let rather than an owner extending a family home.

That changes the brief. A landlord often needs fire separation, escape routes and sound insulation drawn clearly, since those are the points a tenant, a mortgage lender or a licensing officer will ask about. Newham also has an Article 4 direction for houses in multiple occupation, so dividing a house into shared accommodation needs a planning application before the technical work starts.

If that is your project, tell us at the first call. A shared house raises fire and escape duties that a family house does not, and the drawings are scoped to match.

Planning speed in Newham and what it means for the building control timetable

Newham decided 388 householder applications in its latest published year. It granted 86.9 per cent and decided 97.2 per cent on time.

Those figures cover every householder scheme and say nothing about your house, but the timing is a fair guide. Where planning is quick, the technical drawings become the longer job, so we start them as soon as the design is fixed and aim to have them ready when the decision arrives.

The borough also holds 9 conservation areas and 125 list entries. We check every address against them at the start.

Full plans, notices and the penalty for skipping them

Building control body must decide a full plans application within 5 weeks, or longer if agreed in writing. Full plans give you a decided set before work begins, and it is the route we use for extensions and conversions.

Building work without approval is an offence: Contravening building regulations: on indictment up to 2 years' imprisonment or a fine (or both). In practice councils work with owners, but unapproved work can block a sale or a remortgage, which matters to a landlord with a portfolio.

Notices are part of compliance too. Give notice of intention to start; work may start 2 days after the notice, and at the end: Notify completion within 5 days of completing the work.

What the Newham set includes and what it costs

The set normally holds foundation and floor plans, sections, wall, floor and roof build-ups, drainage, fire and escape notes where they apply, and a materials specification. A second chartered technologist checks each sheet. Building regulations drawings start at £845 with VAT included, and revised sheets after a building control query carry no extra fee.

We ask for the planning decision or certificate, any survey you already hold and the freehold details if the house has been converted. We say at the outset if a missing document will hold the set up.

Earlier in the job see planning drawings in Newham. The engineer's figures come through structural calculations in Newham, and the SAP assessor is coordinated through SAP calculations in Newham.

Nearby boroughs and the wider Newham service

For the whole borough, start at architectural drawings in Newham. Across the boundary, see building regulations drawings in Tower Hamlets, in Redbridge or in Waltham Forest, each following its own council's planning guidance.