The Building Acts
The Building Act 1984 is the main piece of primary legislation which gives Ministers of the Crown the powers to make Building Regulations via secondary legislation.
The powers to make Building Regulations have been amended and extended in their scope by two recent Acts of Parliament; the Sustainable and Secure Buildings Act 2004 and the Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Act 2006.
The Building Act 1984 is the main piece of primary legislation which gives Ministers of the Crown the powers to make Building Regulations via secondary legislation.
The powers to make Building Regulations have been amended and extended in their scope by two recent Acts of Parliament; the Sustainable and Secure Buildings Act 2004 and the Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Act 2006.
- Building Act 1984: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/RevisedStatutes/Acts/ukpga/1984/cukpga_19840055_en_1
- Sustainable and Secure Buildings Act 2004: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2004/ukpga_20040022_en_1
- Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Act 2006: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2006/ukpga_20060019_en_1[/list]These Acts have been amended by various Statutory Instruments, and with reference to the disclaimer below possibly by other primary legislation.
- http://search.opsi.gov.uk/search?q=...eet=opsisearch_semaphore&site=opsi_collection
- http://search.opsi.gov.uk/search?q=...eet=opsisearch_semaphore&site=opsi_collection
- http://search.opsi.gov.uk/search?q=...isearch_semaphore&site=opsi_collection[/list]
The Building Regulations
The Building Regulations consist of a number of Statutory Instruments, all of which can be found (but not easily) on the OPSI website.
Most of the SIs have been consolidated into a single document on the Planning Portal website, but that hasn't been kept up to date, and recent SIs have not been incorporated.
For a more up do date picture you will need to search for later ones and see how they affect earlier rules.
The Party Wall Act
In this land of semis and closely packed houses the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 can easily apply to building work, even if Planning or Building Regulations do not. It doesn't have to involve an actual "party wall" - note the "etc" in the title.
If you intend to carry out building work which involves one of the following categories:- work on an existing wall or structure shared with another property (section 2 of the Act)
- building a free standing wall or a wall of a building up to or astride the boundary with a neighbouring property (section 1 of the Act)
- excavating near a neighbouring building (section 6 of the Act)
Search for legislation here.
Explanatory booklet here.
Useful links- OPSI website (legislation can be found here): http://www.opsi.gov.uk/
- Planning Portal: http://www.planningportal.gov.uk
- DCLG Planning & Building website: http://www.communities.gov.uk/planningandbuilding/
- Ebuild Planning & Building Regulations fora: http://www.ebuild.co.uk/forums/messages/11009/11009.html?1242899860[/list](The last one may be seen as disloyal to this forum, but it will take a while for a useful body of work to build up here, and in the meantime there is a wealth of practical knowledge there.
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Disclaimer
IANAL.
I am confident that nothing I have posted here is wrong, but much less confident that is is complete, and none of it applies to Scotland or Northern Ireland.
If your interest is just interest then follow the links, search for updates etc, until you are satisfied. It would be helpful if you could post the links to any SIs later than 2006/3318 here.
If your interest is for more formal reasons then please take proper legal advice.
