Three weeks into a kitchen and bathroom project, an electrician asks whether building control has been notified. Nobody has. The homeowner assumed the builder handled it. The builder assumed the homeowner arranged it when the drawings were done.
Work stops while it is sorted, and someone is paying for that fortnight.
Step 1: establish what the project actually needs
Structural work, drainage changes, electrical work, gas work, window replacement and anything affecting escape routes commonly trigger requirements. Clients assume a kitchen is cosmetic and often it is not.
Step 2: say plainly who applies
In the quote, in writing. Whether you handle notification, whether the client does, or whether a designer or engineer is responsible. One sentence prevents the whole problem.
Step 3: separate permission from building regulations
Planning permission and building control are different things with different processes, and clients conflate them entirely. Explaining the distinction is genuinely useful.
Step 4: publish the inspection stages
When an inspector attends, what must be visible, and that work cannot be covered until it has been seen. Clients plan around a finish date without knowing the programme has fixed pause points.
Step 5: build inspections into the programme
An inspection that needs booking with notice, on a day the inspector is available, is a real constraint on the schedule. Explaining this prevents a client thinking you are slow.
Step 6: explain what completion documentation means
The certificate at the end, what it is for and why it matters when the property is sold or insured. Clients care enormously about this once they understand it.
Step 7: handle self-certification correctly
Where a registered trade can self-certify its own work, explain which parts that covers and what the client receives. It is faster and clients should know it is happening.
Step 8: address work already done
Homeowners frequently have previous unapproved work. Explaining that it may need addressing, and how, is better than discovering it mid-project.
Step 9: never advise on the requirements themselves
What a particular project needs is a matter for the authority and the client's own professionals. Point to official guidance rather than interpreting it.
Step 10: capture what determines the answer
Property type and age, what is proposed, whether walls are being removed, whether drainage or electrics change, whether it is a flat and whether there is a lease.
Step 10b: explain what happens if an inspection fails
Work occasionally does not pass, and clients imagine the worst. Setting out what usually causes it, that remedial work and a reinspection are normal rather than catastrophic, and who bears the cost depending on the cause, turns a frightening prospect into a procedural one and prevents a client assuming their house is now unsellable.
Step 11: leases and flats add a layer
Freeholder consent and lease conditions sit on top of everything else, which is a similar documentary problem to commercial survey and dilapidations enquiries.
Step 12: it interacts with everything else
Disruption is covered in living through a renovation and the questions it raises, the appointment model in design and build versus separate contractor questions, and knowing where to stop in how to handle sensitive questions in your chatbot.
Getting started
Publish who applies, the inspection stages and what documentation the client receives, then capture project details at any hour. Setting up takes minutes with install the widget and train your bot. SpideyChat for builders and contractors answers from your published pages.