Part 3: Building Act 1984 Building control authorities and building regulations Section 36: Lapse of building control approval etc Background
Section 32 of the Building Act 1984 currently provides a power for a local authority to issue a notice declaring that its approval of the plans for that work has no effect, if work has not commenced within three years of the plans being deposited.
	Section 52(5) of the Building Act 1984 currently provides a power for a local authority to cancel an initial notice if work has not commenced within three years of the notice being issued, and section 50(8) provides a power for a local authority to rescind acceptance of a plans certificate if work has not started within three years of the certificate being issued. Similar provision is made for a public body’s plans certificate in paragraph 2(6) of Schedule 4 to the Building Act 1984.
Example
Building control approvals, initial notices, plans certificates, and public body’s notices and plans certificates, will lapse automatically rather than requiring a local authority to take proactive action to declare that approval has no effect, or to cancel the notice. This is in line with the arrangements in planning legislation where planning permission lapses automatically after three years if work on the development has not started.
Also, if work has not started on an individual building on a multi building site within three years, the building control approval in respect of that building will lapse, even if work on the remainder of the site has commenced.