BUILDING REGULATIONS
Proceeding at Risk
The general rule is to wait until you have received your planning permission before starting the Building Regulation Drawings.
However, there are times when this rule becomes less important and the Building Regulation drawings can be started earlier, this is known as ‘proceeding at risk’.
What is proceeding at risk?
Proceeding at risk is when your architect or technician starts the building regulation drawings before you have the Planning approval. It means that you can use the time period of the planning process, often 8-10 weeks, to progress the project and resolve the construction drawings.
This also enables other professionals such as the structural engineer to become involved at an earlier stage. The process of co-ordinating the structural design and construction drawings can take weeks depending on the complexity of the project.
By starting this process during the planning stage, you will be able to start your project soon after planning consent is granted- subject to contractor availability of course.
What is the risk?
The risk will be determined by the sensitivity of the planning application, the planning constraints such as Conservation area status etc. Moon DESIGN will discuss these risks with you and make a recommendation of the likely outcome of the planning application. If we feel there is a real risk of the application being refused we will not recommend ‘proceeding at risk’.
The risk will be the Stage 3 Fees set out in your fee proposal, or at least part of those fees depending on when it becomes apparent that a planning consent looks unlikely.
The other risk will be any third party fees such as a structural engineer or CCTV footage for a drain survey.
Advice
Moon DESIGN will provide you with advice on the Planning risk, but it is not in our control and therefore we cannot take any responsibility for applications that are refused. If an application is refused, we can always re-submit making the necessary changes. This approach will usually allow for part of the Building Regulation drawings to be re-used or altered, reducing the wasted time & fees.
Ultimately, the decision to ‘proceed at risk’ must be yours, as there is no such thing as a guaranteed planning approval. Therefore, we can not be held responsible for the cost of any wasted time and fees as the result of an unsuccessful planning application.
