Building standards customer charter

The main job of the Building Standards team is to apply the law to buildings to ensure they are:

• safe and fit for purpose
• energy efficient

The level of service you can expect when dealing with our Building Standards team are:

We will:

• be polite, respectful and helpful
• assist in a fair and equal manner
• provide an efficient and effective service from the first point of contact, through to conclusion
• observe privacy and confidentiality in all matters
• monitor and evaluate our performance
• wear name badges so you can recognise us

We will:

• answer calls promptly and give you our name
• only transfer your call if it is necessary
• transfer calls quickly and correctly. We'll tell you and the other person who they are speaking to and why. We'll return any out of hours messages within 2 working days

We will acknowledge written correspondence within 5 calendar days of receipt, providing a full written response within 28 calendar days. In cases where there is going to be a delay, we will send you an interim reply explaining the position

We will:

• meet with you and provide general information or advice, or you may make an appointment with a specific member of staff
• try to arrange meetings for your convenience where possible
• provide facilities for meetings if necessary and ensure that our accommodation is clean and safe

Building standards will try to provide the following standards of performance at all times. Please note that large or complex projects may take longer. An estimate of the expected response times can be discussed at the time of enquiry or submission.

We will:

• respond to applications for building warrants within 15 working days (where possible)
• issue building warrants within 3 working days of receiving all of the information we have asked for
• respond to the request for a completion certificate within 10 working days
• issue completion certificates within 3 working days of being satisfied that the work complies with the warrant and building regulations

If you are not satisfied with our service, please discuss the matter as soon as possible with the member of staff you have been dealing with or the Senior Manager of Protective Services.

To make a written complaint, please write to the Senior Manager of Protective Services or fill in a listening and learning form (available at reception). You may also complain online.

We will:

• let you know we have received your complaint by writing to you within five calendar days
• reply to your complaint in writing within 28 calendar days
• apologise to you, if appropriate, and take action to solve the problem
• consider your complaint when we review our service and our staff

Building standards aims to provide a helpful, professional and informative service to help our customers to comply with the law. This means it is important that we get your views on the service we provide.

To do this we will:

• carry out customer satisfaction surveys
• listen and learn from any suggestions, comments and complaints made
• ask you to help us by using a reference number in all contact with you
• ask you to make an appointment if you wish to meet with a member of our staff
• eBuilding standards
• Building warrants may be submitted and processed electronically by eDevelopment.