Building Regulations 1985

JurisdictionUK Non-devolved
CitationSI 1985/1065
Year1985

1985 No. 1065

BUILDING AND BUILDINGS

The Building Regulations 1985

11thJuly 1985

17thJuly 1985

11thNovember 1985

ARRANGEMENT OF REGULATIONS

PART I: GENERAL

1. Title, commencement and application.

2. Interpretation.

PART II: CONTROL OF BUILDING WORK

3. Meaning of building work.

4. Requirements relating to building work.

5. Meaning of material change of use.

6. Requirements relating to material change of use.

7. Materials and workmanship.

8. Limitation on requirements.

9. Exempt buildings and work.

PART III: RELAXATION OF REQUIREMENTS

10. Power to dispense with or relax requirements.

PART IV: NOTICES AND PLANS

11. Giving of a building notice or deposit of plans.

12. Particulars and plans where a building notice is given.

13. Full plans.

14. Notice of commencement and completion of certain stages of work.

PART V: MISCELLANEOUS

15. Testing of drains and private sewers.

16. Sampling of material.

17. Supervision of building work otherwise than by local authorities.

18. Repeals.

19. Revocations.

20. Transitional provisions.

SCHEDULES:

SCHEDULE 1 — REQUIREMENTS.

SCHEDULE 2 — FACILITIES FOR DISABLED PEOPLE.

SCHEDULE 3 — EXEMPT BUILDINGS AND WORK.

SCHEDULE 4 — REVOCATIONS.

The Secretary of State, in exercise of the powers conferred upon him by sections 1(1), 3(1) and 8(2) of, and paragraphs 1, 2, 7, 8, 10 and 11 of Schedule 1 to, the Building Act 1984 (a) and of all other powers enabling him in that behalf, after consulting the Building Regulations Advisory Committee and such other bodies as appear to him to be representative of the interests concerned in accordance with section 14(3) of that Act, hereby makes the following regulations:—

PART I: GENERAL

Title, commencement and application

1.—(1) These regulations may be cited as the Building Regulations 1985 and shall come into operation on 11th November 1985.

(2) These regulations shall not apply in inner London.

Interpretation

2.—(1) In these regulations unless the context otherwise requires—

"the Act" means the Building Act 1984;

"area", in relation to a building, means the area calculated by reference to its finished internal faces;

"basement" means a storey of which the floor is at any point more than 1.2 metres below the finished surface of the ground adjacent to it;

"building" means any permanent or temporary building but not any other kind of structure or erection, and a reference to a building includes a reference to part of a building;

"building notice" has the meaning given in regulation 11(1)(a);

"building work" has the meaning given in regulation 3(1);

"controlled service or fitting" has the meaning given in regulation 3(3);

"dwelling" includes a dwelling-house and a flat;

"dwelling-house" does not include a flat or a building containing a flat;

"element" has the meaning given in paragraph L1 of Schedule 1;

"exposed" has the meaning given in paragraph L1 of Schedule 1;

"flat" means separate and self-contained premises constructed or adapted for use for residential purposes and forming part of a building from some other part of which it is divided horizontally;

"floor area" means the aggregate area of every floor in a building or extension, calculated by reference to the finished internal faces of the walls enclosing the area, or if at any point there is no such wall, by reference to the outermost edge of the floor;

"full plans" means the plans referred to in regulation 13(3);

"height" means the height of the building measured from the mean level of the ground adjoining the outside of the external walls of the building to the level of half the vertical height of the roof of the building, or to the top of the walls or of the parapet, if any, whichever is the higher;

(a) 1984 c.55.

"industrial building" has the meaning given in paragraph L1 of Schedule 1;

"institution" means a hospital, home, school or other similar establishment used as living accommodation for, or for the treatment, care or maintenance of, persons suffering from disabilities due to illness or old age or other physical or mental disability, or under the age of five years, where such persons sleep in the premises;

"material alteration" has the meaning given in regulation 3(2);

"material change of use" has the meaning given in regulation 5;

"office" includes premises used for the purposes of administration, clerical work (including writing, book-keeping, sorting papers, filing, typing, duplicating, machine calculating, drawing and the editorial preparation of matter for publication), handling money or telephone and telegraph operating;

"residential building" has the meaning given in paragraph L1 in Schedule 1;

"shop" means premises used for the carrying on of a retail trade or business (including the sale to members of the public of food or drink for immediate consumption, retail sales by auction, the business of lending books or periodicals for the purpose of gain, and the business of a barber or hairdresser), and premises to which members of the public are invited to resort for the purposes of delivering there goods for repair or other treatment, or of themselves carrying out repairs to or other treatment of goods;

"solid parts" has the meaning given in paragraph L1 of Schedule 1;

"U value" has the meaning given in paragraph L1 of Schedule 1;

"wall", for the purposes of Part L of Schedule 1, has the meaning given in paragraph L1 of that Schedule; and

"window" has the meaning given in paragraph L1 of Schedule 1.

(2) In these regulations "public building" means a building consisting of or containing—

(a) a theatre, hall or other place of public resort;

(b) a school or other educational establishment not exempted from the operation of building regulations by virtue of section 4(1)(a) of the Act; or

(c) a place of public worship;

but a building is not to be treated as a public building on the ground that it consists of or contains a restaurant, shop, store or warehouse, or is a private house to which members of the public are occasionally admitted.

(3) In these regulations a basement is not to be regarded as a storey except in this regulation and in paragraph A3 of Schedule 1.

(4) For the purposes of regulations 3(2)(a) and 4(2) work shall be regarded as adversely affecting an existing building or an existing controlled service or fitting if the building, service or fitting as extended or altered—

(a) would not comply with any applicable requirement of Schedule 1 or 2 specified in the relevant regulation which the existing building, service or fitting complies with, or

(b) would not comply with any such requirement which does not apply to the existing building, service or fitting, or

(c) would not comply with any such requirement which relates to the existing building, service or fitting, and would in relation to compliance with such a requirement be more unsatisfactory than the existing building, service or fitting.

(5) In considering whether work is to be regarded as adversely affecting an existing building, service or fitting, it is to be assumed—

(a) that the altered or extended building, service or fitting is being erected or provided in its proposed form, and

(b) that the existing building, service or fitting is being newly erected or provided in its existing form.

(6) In considering whether—

(a) any requirement of Schedule 1 or 2 applies to or would be complied with by a building, service or fitting, or

(b) a building, service or fitting would be more unsatisfactory in relation to compliance with such a requirement,

regard shall be had to the use to which it is intended that the building, or the building in connection with which the service or fitting is provided, will be put after the work has been carried out or the use has been materially changed.

PART II: CONTROL OF BUILDING WORK

Meaning of building work

3.—(1) In these regulations "building work" means—

(a) the erection or extension of a building;

(b) the material alteration of a building;

(c) the provision, extension or material alteration of a controlled service or fitting in or in connection with a building; or

(d) work required by regulation 6.

(2) An alteration is material for the purposes of these regulations if—

(a) the work, or any part of it, carried out by itself would at any stage adversely affect the existing building in relation to compliance with the requirements contained in Part A (structure), paragraph B1 (means of escape in case of fire), paragraph B3 (internal fire spread — structure) or paragraph B4 (external fire spread) of Schedule 1, or

(b) it involves the insertion of insulating material into the cavity wall of a building, or

(c) it involves work to underpin a building.

(3) In these regulations "controlled service or fitting" means a service or fitting in relation to which paragraph G2, G3, or G4, Part H or J or paragraph L4 or L5 of Schedule 1 imposes a requirement.

Requirements relating to building work

4.—(1) Building work shall be carried out so that—

(a) it complies with the relevant requirements contained in Schedules 1 and 2, and

(b) the method of complying with any such requirement does not result in the failure of any part of the building work to comply with another such requirement.

(2) Building work shall be carried out so that, after it has been completed—

(a) no building which is extended or to which a material alteration is made,

(b) no building in or in connection with which a controlled service or fitting is provided, extended or materially altered, and

(c) no controlled service or fitting,

is adversely affected in relation to compliance with any relevant requirement contained in Schedule 1.

Meaning of material change of use

5. For the purposes of paragraph 8(1)(e) of Schedule 1 to the Act and of these regulations, there is a material change of use where there is a change in the purposes for which or the circumstances in which a building is used, so that after that change—

(a) the building is used for the purposes of a dwelling, where previously it was not;

(b) the...

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