Submit a full plans application

Do you need a full plans application? 

A full plans application is a type of building control approval for any sort of building work, either domestic, commercial, industrial or large-scale residential schemes.

You’ll need to submit detailed plans if you are doing the following:

• complex domestic building work, for example, multiple building projects at the same time
• building work near a public sewer (check if there’s a sewer or drain inside your property boundary)
• building work on anything other than a house or flat with its own entrance

A full plans application is specifically for building regulations. It’s different to planning permission.

If you’re unsure whether you need a full plans application or a building notice, read our guide to building control

When you’ll need to apply

You must submit your full plans application before you start any building work. Full plans applications take a minimum of 5 weeks to approve. 

What you’ll need

To submit a full plans application, you’ll need the following:

• your planning application reference number, for example, 23/00402/FUL
• a set of technical design drawings and the associated building regulations specification
• details of requirements for fire or means of escape
• a site location plan at a scale of 1:1250 that includes:
  • the property boundaries outlined in red
  • an arrow or compass point indicating the direction north
  • Names of adjoining roads 

How to submit a full plans application

Our online form is the quickest way to process and pay for your application.

Start a full plans application

Alternatively, you can download a building control application form (PDF). 

Return your completed form to building.control@kingston.gov.uk, attaching copies of relevant documents. But this process can take longer.

Full plans application costs

Start your application with our cost calculator, or find the fees on our building control charges page. If you’re applying online, our cost calculator will allow you to ask for a custom quote if your work is not listed. This is known as an individually determined charge.

After you’ve applied

Once you’ve submitted your full plans application online, you’ll receive an email and a reference number confirming your application.

We’ll email you within 5 working days to acknowledge your application. We will contact you within 10 working days if we need more information.

We check that your plans meet building regulations to reduce risk and help you to avoid costly errors and corrective work.

We have up to 5 weeks to approve your plans. We’ll extend the approval window to 8 weeks if you need to prepare revisions or provide more information.

Getting a decision on your application

If we're satisfied your application meets our building regulation standards, we'll send you an approval notice.

We may give conditional approval to certain aspects of the works or where information has yet to be included or covered in the specification or design proposals. This will specify any modifications that need to be made to the plans, or we may advise of other plans that must be provided to us.

We will only reject the application if it breaches the building regulations. 

When the work starts 

We'll come to inspect it at various stages to make sure it meets the building regulations standards. After you've submitted your application, you must let us know when the work starts and book a site inspection.

How to make a payment 

You can make payment once you've completed our online building control application. If you’re submitting your application by post, you can call 020 8547 5000 to pay your fee or pay online.