Customer charter

Our Customer Charter

The Building Control Partnership is a local authority building control shared service. It is formed from Fareham Borough Council, Gosport Borough Council, Havant Borough Council and Portsmouth City Council building control teams joining together.

Our aim is to provide our clients with efficient, friendly, and competitive building control services that ensure projects are compliant with national Building Regulations.

Over a great many years, we have made it our business to ask you what level of service you want from us. Our Charter contains details of our services and the standards we aim to achieve.

Our staff

When you talk to us you will find us friendly, courteous, and always ready to offer common sense,  practical guidance when dealing with your building projects.

Remember, we are impartial and publicly accountable so you can rely on the information we give you. We also enjoy a close liaison with all other local authority services including the fire service, so if we can’t help, we often know someone who can.

The services we provide

The main services include:

• Building Regulations – Plan examination and site inspection
• Dangerous structures and demolitions
• Road naming and postal numbering

The Building Control Partnership is committed to achieving the following levels of service which greatly exceed those normally expected or required by legislation.

Customer care

• We aim to answer all general correspondence within two working days of receipt.
• A Building Inspector will always be available during the working day to provide general information and advice.
• We will respond to any complaints within five working days.
• All our letters and documents will be in plain language.
• All telephone calls received by building control during normal office hours will be answered promptly.
• On request we will arrange morning or afternoon appointments for your convenience.

Building Regulations services

• Full Plans applications will be examined within 15 working days. Every application will be acknowledged within five working days and the surveyor dealing with your application identified.
• Building Notice applications will be acknowledged (together with a request for additional information if applicable), within 15 working days.
• Pre-submission consultancy will always be available.
• Site inspections requested by 10am on weekday mornings will be carried out that day where possible.
• In the case of an unforeseen problem, a priority visit will be arranged to suit the project timetable.
• An ‘out of hours’ service is available by arrangement.
• A completion certificate will be issued within 8 weeks of the project being satisfactorily completed.

Dangerous structures

• All dangerous sites/structures will be assessed and inspected as necessary on the same day as the report is received.
• Action will be taken to ensure all immediately dangerous structures are either made safe or adequately fenced-off without delay.

Demolitions

• All statutory notices will be processed within a maximum of six weeks.
• A Notice will always be issued to the applicant listing all necessary conditions.
• Site inspection and monitoring will be carried out when notification is received.

Street naming and postal numbering

• We aim to issue all new properties with postal addresses prior to occupation.
• Any remaining properties will have postal addresses issued within three months of occupation.

All the above standards are the minimum you should expect from us. Our aim is to exceed these wherever possible.

Value for money

• Our services are continually assessed to ensure they offer the highest levels of quality and efficiency.
• Building regulations charges are set annually with the intention of covering expenditure and are “not for profit”.

Raising standards

It is our intention to ensure you are always fully satisfied with the services we provide.

It is only by listening to you, our customers, that improvements can be made, and to assist this we carry out online customer surveys at the end of projects to help us understand your views and what matters most.

We always welcome suggestions of possible improvements, so please do let us know by completing our online customer survey.

Unfortunately, things can occasionally go wrong so the Building Control Partnership has a comprehensive complaints procedure in place. If you have a complaint that we have not resolved to your immediate satisfaction, please tell us by phone 01329 824823 or email bcpartnership@fareham.gov.uk or use the online form and we will investigate the matter more formally and respond to you within five working days.

Remember that the Building Control Partnership is also accountable to you through an elected Councillor who will investigate and report back to you.

Fareham Borough Council, Gosport Borough Council, Havant Borough Council and Portsmouth City Council also operate Council wide complaints procedures with details available on the main Council websites.

Finally, you can contact the Local Ombudsman to further investigate your complaint if you are not satisfied with our response.

We are continually trying to raise standards and your comments will always be treated very seriously and acted upon wherever possible.