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Determinations and appeals are two procedures which provide for the National Assembly for Wales (NAW) (or the Secretary of State in England), as appropriate, to adjudicate in disputes between people carrying out building work subject to the Building Regulations and a building control body (i.e. Denbighshire County Council, another  local authority or a private sector approved inspector).

The purpose of and procedures for determinations, and for appeals against a local authority's refusal to relax or dispense with a requirement, are distinctly different, and it is important if you are contemplating using them to have a clear understanding of each.

Before proceeding with an application for a determination, or an application to relax or dispense with a requirement, it is important that you should try to reach agreement by discussing with Denbighshire County Council's Building Control Manager the issues which are causing the difficulty over achieving compliance. If appropriate, and if you have not already done so, you may wish to seek independent professional advice to assist these discussions. Only if agreement cannot be reached should you then consider whether the correct course of action is to proceed with an application to the National Assembly for Wales for a determination, or to apply to the Council for a relaxation/dispensation (with the option of appealing to the National Assembly for Wales in the event of a refusal).

What are Determinations?

Determinations are decisions made by the National Assembly for Wales (for cases arising in Denbighshire, or elsewhere in Wales), or the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (for cases arising in England)  to help resolve matters when a local authority or approved inspector says that your plans do not comply with one or more of the requirements of the Building Regulations but you believe that they do.

What are relaxations/dispensations and appeals?

If Denbighshire County Council, or another local authority, believes that your building work contravenes the Building Regulations, they may serve you with an enforcement notice requiring you to alter or remove work which contravenes the regulations.

If you believe that your work cannot be expected to comply with one or more of the requirements in the Building Regulations because they are too onerous or inapplicable, you have the right to apply to your local authority for a relaxation or dispensation of the requirement(s) in question in order for your completed building work to be considered to achieve compliance.

Your application must be made within 28 days of receiving the enforcement notice from your authority. If they refuse your application you have a right of appeal  to the Welsh Assembly Government (or to the Department for Communities and Local Government, in England) against that refusal, providing you do so within one month of that decision.