I am having a front "porch" built. (Note that under the planning portal it actually comes under single extension due to being larger than 3 m^2 in area and flush with the front-most wall of the house). Planning permission is not required. And, due to being sufficiently small and retaining the external door between house and porch, building regs are not required either. However, we're wondering whether it might be worth applying for them anyway. I can't find much advice online as to the value of building regulations beyond being a legal necessity, but my builder insists that we should apply.
The potential benefits I can see are:
- The regular inspections provides us assurance that the builder is doing his job properly throughout the build. This seems to be a benefit of getting regs now rather than applying for them retrospectively.
- Means guarantee of receiving a regs certificate if done during build. I.e. presumably a retrospective application could potentially fail if building regs were to change.
- Perhaps adds value to the house (when coming to sell) if we have a building regs certificate for the porch
- Means we could legally replace or remove the external door between our house and the porch at a later date
The single (but significant) downside is the cost: about £500.
My current inclination is just to bite the bullet and go for building regs.
But it would be useful for me to hear other's experiences or opinions. This is the first building project I will have had done. Am I missing anything in my assessment?
Any help much appreciated.
