Planning and regeneration Building regulation inspections

How much time do we need before an inspection

We need to know about an inspection in advance and this usually means giving us one or more days notice before you continue with your building work.

In all cases you should be give us at least two days notice before you begin the work.

You should tell us to inspect five days before the occupation of a building where the work hasn't been finished.

We should be told to make a completion inspection within five days of you having finished all the building work.

For all other types of inspections we will tell to you in writing how much notice you must give us, but generally you will need to give us between one and five days notice, depending on the circumstances.

The term ‘days notice’ – means the time between the end of the day when you give us the notice to inspect, until the end of the working day that you asked us to make the inspection on. It does not include weekends and bank holidays, for example one days’ notice, given at 9am on a normal Monday morning will expire at 4.30pm on the Tuesday. Two days’ notice, given at 9am on the Thursday before Good Friday, will expire at 4.30pm on the Wednesday after Easter Monday.

You can notify us about an inspection in the following ways.

  • Telephone – 0161 234 4490 (please do not leave voice or text messages on an individual inspectors phone/mobile phone as this might not be checked in time if the officer is absent)
  • Email – building.control@manchester.gov.uk - notice starts on the date we get the email (please do not send email messages to an individuals email address. By all means cc an inspector in to your request)
  • Letter – Manchester City Council, Building Control, PO Box 532, Town Hall, M60 2LA - notice starts on the date we get the letter
  • In person - Face to face with an inspector or with one of the building control team, or
  • Using the LABC inspections app

If you leave a phone message or send an email after working hours, you should treat this as though you gave us the notice on the next working day.

When you email an inspection notice to us we recommend that you turn on your computers 'return receipt' feature. This will show you when we get your notice. If you're unsure about the delivery of an email notice to us then you can call us on 0161 234 4490 to check  

Our office hours are typically between 9am and 4pm – Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).

If you give us an inspection request before 10am we will, where possible, make every effort to inspect your work on the same day and not later than the next day - but only if it relates to work that requires one days notice (please check the inspection notification schedule attached to our acknowledgement letter to you about your Full Plans or Building Notice application). During busy periods it might only be possible for an inspector to attend site on the next available working day

If we make an inspection and we identify a non-compliance, we will need to re-inspect the work after it's been altered. In cases of a reinspection you will need to give us the same amount of notice as if it was the first time you had requested an inspection.

 

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