Building standards customer information and performance

Purpose of Building Standards Charter

The Building Standards Charter provides information about the standards of service that all verifiers should meet. This gives customers the reassurance that a consistent, high quality service will be delivered no matter which verifier provides the service.

It is divided into two parts:-

1. National Charter; and
2. Local Charter

Part 1: National Charter

Our Aims:

To grant building warrants and accept completion certificates.

• to secure the health, safety, welfare and convenience of persons in and about buildings and others who may be affected by buildings or matters connected with buildings
• furthering the conservation of fuel and power; and
• furthering the achievement of sustainable development

Our Vision/Values:

To provide a professional and informative service to all our customers.

Our Commitments:

We will:

1. Seek to minimise the time it takes for customers to obtain a building warrant or amendment to a building warrant.

2. Ensure continuous improvement around the robustness of our verification assessments to ensure compliance.

3. Meet and seek to exceed customer expectations.

4. Carry out local customer satisfaction research, such as surveys, focus groups etc.

5. Address feedback obtained through local and national customer satisfaction research (including a National Customer Satisfaction Survey) to improve the customer experience.

6. Provide information on local formal complaints procedures, the LABSS Dispute Resolution Service, and refer customers as required.

7. Provide accurate financial data that is evidence based.

8. Engage and participate in partnership working at local and national level to identify and embed service improvements at a national level. Matters to be dealt with:-

• technical consistency
• training
• resource sharing

9. Adhere to a national annual performance report outlining our objectives, targets and performance.

10. Fully adhere to the commitments outlined in this Charter. including information on customer dissatisfaction in relation to building warrant processing timescales, processes and technical interpretation.

National Performance Targets:

Issue 95% of first reports (for building warrants and amendments) within 20 days (including building warrants and amendments issued without a first report).

Issue 90% of building warrants and amendments within 10 days from receipt of all satisfactory information (not including building warrants and amendments issued without a first report).

National Information on Verification:

National information on verification performance can be found at the Scottish Government website.

Customer Satisfaction:

Our target is to achieve a minimum overall average satisfaction rating of 7.5 out of 10 in any national customer survey undertaken by Scottish Government.

Part 2: Local Commitments

Pre-Application Discussions and Asking for Information or Advice

Where appropriate pre-application discussions are welcomed so as to encourage high quality Building Warrant applications. This will allow Building Warrants, when submitted, to be dealt with as efficiently as possible.

By having pre-application discussions it will ultimately save you and the Council time in assessing/approving your Warrant. It will pinpoint areas where compliance is not being achieved at an early stage, thus reducing costly mistakes in the design process.

Building Standards, if you require, can arrange joint meetings with other interested bodies such as Scottish Fire & Rescue (Fire Safety Section), Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Development Standards Section, Environmental & Consumer Protection Section etc. to discuss your proposals in order that they can ultimately be given approval from all the relevant statutory bodies.

Any advice given will be without prejudice to the formal consideration of your proposals include:-

• Best Practice
• Technical Consistency
• Training
• Appropriate Resource Sharing

Building Standards work fully agile and therefore we are not office based the majority of the time.

Officers are available for remote contact during normal office hours. It is recommended that an appointment be made with the Building Standards Officer or Technician dealing with your application or if an application has not been made, the Building Standards Officer/Technician for the area. If an appointment is not made and the Building Standards Officer/Technician dealing with your application is not available, you will be able to discuss with the duty Building Standards Officer.

If you are unable to call in to the office through disability or you may prefer to discuss your proposals on site, a site visit can be arranged.

When face to face meetings are arranged and if you visit us, we will meet you within 10 minutes of arrival if you have an appointment and 15 minutes if you don't.

We will provide a 15 working day response to formal letters, faxes and e-mails, irrespective of whether a site visit is or is not necessary.

Acknowledgements may not always be issued  in  respect of normal written correspondence,  the emphasis being placed on early replies within the above framework.

Telephone calls will be answered quickly, normally within 22 seconds. Whilst every effort will be made to respond to your query, if the person dealing with your application or area is not available it may be necessary to leave a message and have the relevant person ring you back, whenever possible within one working day. Sometimes it will be necessary, indeed in your own interest, to put the substance of your query in writing and to then receive a written response.

Building Warrant Applications

It is the applicant’s or agent’s responsibility to make sure that the application is submitted correctly. There are two methods of submitting an application. These are:-

• online at ebuildingstandards.scot
• by completing an application form

Whatever method is used the warrant application must be accompanied by the correct fee before it can be validated. 

Building Standards staff are available remotely to assist you in applying for a building warrant.

For a fee the Council can provide you with an Ordnance Survey site plan.

The following are the standards of service you can expect from us in dealing with Building Warrant applications. We may not be able to meet these targets in all cases but we expect to most of the time.

When you submit a Building Warrant application we will:-

• provide you with a technical response, or issue your Building Warrant as applicable, within 20 working days from receipt of your valid application;
• enter into agreement with you (customer agreement) to respond to your Building Warrant application within an agreed timescale.

Other than those applications covered by a customer agreement, if you have not received a technical response, or a Building Warrant, as applicable, within 35 working days from receipt of your valid application you have the right to request resolution to the matter. This may be done, in the first instance, by contacting our Building Standards Manager on 01307 491978 or by e-mail at ThomL@angus.gov.uk

You may also contact the Building Standards Division

Examples of applications where a customer agreement can be entered into are:-

• applications which have an impact on the economic development of Angus
• applications for adaptations to dwellinghouse to suit the needs of a person with a disability
• applications which can be assessed under our Instant Plan Assessment Service

Property transfer procedures (pre 1 May 2005)

Requests for non-statutory “Letters of Comfort” in respect of earlier Building Warrant applications where no Certificate of Completion exists, minor unauthorised works undertaken without the benefit of a Building Warrant, - within 20 working days. See separate Application Form and Guidance Notes for details of services available and fees payable.

Work carried out without the benefit of a building warrant after 1 May 2005 shall be dealt in accordance with the Building(Scotland) Act 2003. This will require the submission of a completion certificate where no warrant was obtained.

Once your Application has been approved

We will:-

• With your Building Warrant approval documents issue a Construction Compliance Notification Plan and associated checklist. The checklist issued will give full details on the documentation that requires to be submitted along with your Completion Certificate.
• The Construction Compliance Notification Plan will give details of the stages of work that we require to verify via physical inspection, remote verification inspection (RVI) via video or another alternative method. It will also give details of the actions that require to be carried out by you as the property owner / developer.
• Carry out routine site visits within 3 working days of the request if required.
• If site visits reveal departures from approved plans or there are areas of work which do not comply with the Building Standards (Scotland) Regulations 2004 the applicant/agent, if not notified on site, shall be notified of them in writing within 5 working days of the site visit. It is the responsibility of the applicant or his agent to notify us when the works are ready for re-inspection.

Full and accurate records of site visits and all drainage inspections/tests will be kept. the records shall indicate:

•  
  • the date the inspection/test was carried out;
  • who carried out the inspection/test;
  • what works were inspected and whether they were found to be in order;
  • any departures from the approved plans;
  • the areas of work which do not comply with the Building Standards (Scotland) Regulations 2004.
• Respond to Certificate of Completion submissions within 10 working days.
• An acceptance of Certificate of Completion will be issued within five working days of the last inspection/required documentation where:-
  • all work was found to have been completed in accordance with the approved plans and the Building Standards (Scotland) Regulations 2004; and
  • all appropriate Certification has been received; and
  • the application has been made in the appropriate manner; and
  • if minor faults are noted, the applicant/agent shall be notified  of these in writing within five working days of the site visit. It is the responsibility of the applicant/agent to notify us when the works are ready for re-inspection.

COMPLIMENTS, COMMENTS AND COMPLAINTS

Customer Satisfaction - in 2022 the new National Customer Survey was launched where Angus helped develop the questions so we ask the questions we feel are important to our customers. We have set our target for Customer Satisfaction to consistently exceed the National Average for overall satisfaction out of 10.

Our purpose is to provide all our customers with a good quality service that gets things right first time. We email out a Customer Survey Response link with every Building Warrant approval and Completion Certificate Acceptance. This gives you the opportunity to tell us how we dealt with your Building Warrant and/or Completion Certificate. Alternatively you can complete our online survey at National Customer Survey Building Standards (smartsurvey.co.uk)

Problems can normally be resolved informally by simply contacting us. If however you do wish to make a formal complaint, the Council operates a formal complaints procedure.

You can record details of any compliment or comment on service delivery by referring to the Council’s Customer Care Standards.

If you disagree with an interpretation of the building standards that we are adopting in the consideration of a building warrant that you have submitted or will require to submit you may request an interpretation through the LABSS (Local Authority Building Standards Scotland) Dispute Resolution Process.

HOW TO CONTACT US

Building Standards correspondence address:

Angus House, Orchardbank Business Park, Orchardbank, Forfar, DD8 1AN - The team are available to meet in person through appointment only.

Telephone: 03452 777 778.

By reference to the Council’s website you can obtain details of all Building Standards team members, who to contact, how to arrange a pre-warrant consultation and CCNP inspection in person of remotely.

Guidance notes and application forms noted in this Charter are available:

• by visiting the Council’s website at www.angus.gov.uk and accessing the Building Standards page; or
• by telephoning 03452 777 778 and requesting information to be sent to you, or
• by e-mailing BSProcessing@angus.gov.uk