Comparison of tasks and responsibilities in the building control systems of European Union countries

Abstract

Building regulations set minimum requirements for safe, healthy, energy-efficient and accessible buildings. To guarantee that these requirements are applied, a building control system is indispensable. The trend towards a common market for construction products and services justifies gaining better insight into the building control systems in the European Union. This paper presents a comparison of the tasks and responsibilities of public and private parties in the building control systems of the 27 European Union countries. To gather the necessary information, a questionnaire on building regulatory systems was distributed to national experts in each country, and the major legal documents were reviewed. The information was organized in thematic tables that contain all the countries. The themes are as follows: regulatory framework, application, plan approval, site inspection, completion and supervision. The main conclusion is that the building control systems of EU countries have many similarities. Public parties set the regulatory framework, check planning demands, issue building permits, conduct final inspections, grant completion certificates and supervise the system. The main difference concerns the involvement of private parties in checking technical requirements and in site inspections. Three basic types of building control systems were identified: public building control, mixed building control and dual building control. The majority of the countries have mixed systems. Although several variations were found among the mixed systems, the most common situation is for public parties to check the technical requirements and private parties to be involved in site inspections. Additional uniformity among building control systems would help to support a single market for services in the construction industry, in which architects, developers and builders are no longer limited to working within national markets.