Privatization of Building Control Proceedings

The Dealing with Licenses indicator of Doing Business measures the administrative hurdles associated with building a new warehouse in the main economic center of 181 countries. Every year the Doing Business report records reforms in countries around the world that make it easier for builders to get their new constructions approved faster.

Over the last decade, building control systems in Europe have undergone significant changes. In the past, public building offices were the only ones allowed to establish building standards and issue building permits, perform inspections, and issue completion certificate if new constructions were in compliance with these standards. Fiscal constraints of municipalities and dissatisfaction with lengthy processes initiated a trend towards liberalization of aspects of building control proceedings.

Private control elements can now be found in nearly all 21 European countries surveyed by the Consortium of European Building Control in 2006. In most of the 21 countries, only parts of the building proceedings have been privatized with the overall control still in the hands of public building authorities. The main results of the survey can be summarized as follows:

Planning and zoning is still performed by public authorities (the building authorities or special planning departments) and not by independent private persons. Economic, political and social decisions remain the responsibility of the local or regional authorities.

In the approval of the general plans and issuing of building permits, the authorities are still involved with the exception of two countries. In the UK this may be done by private building institutions, and in France only private controllers intervene (and only for public buildings is this compulsory). In some countries the actual checking of the plans and their technical details is partly transferred to independent private experts (Austria, Croatia, Germany, Iceland, Norway, Slovenia and now the Czech Republic).

Control activities during the construction phase are partly delegated to private persons or even to the builder or his contractor in ten countries (Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Iceland, Germany, Norway, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden). In Denmark there are approved independent inspectors, and in the UK inspections may alternatively be performed by private or public building control institutions. In France only private controllers intervene. In Belgium site inspections are legally to be performed by the architect, but in practice this is not always the case.

In most European countries, public building offices still issue completion certificates attesting to the end of the construction process. In eight countries a simple notification sent to the building office or the city council by the owner, builder or architect is sufficient at least for certain types of buildings (Austria, Croatia, Germany, Latvia, Poland and Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and now the Czech Republic). In France a completion certificate is issued by the private controller, which is compulsory for public buildings.