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(myaccount and some online forms) will be unavailable from 5pm Sunday 31 March to Tuesday 2 April due to essential maintenance.

Building warrants, forms and regulations

You need a building warrant before you can carry out most types of building or demolition work. You need them to: 

  • construct a new building
  • alter and extend an existing building
  • demolish
  • change the use of a building (from a house to a hotel for example)

A building warrant is a legal procedure that must be followed. This is to make sure that any proposed building work meets current building regulations. It's also to make sure that when the work is finished it meets these standards. Watch our video on Conversions and extensions for more information.

For further information, please refer to the Making a Quality Building Warrant Application publication from the Scottish Government.

How to apply

We encourage you to submit your building standards related application online using eBuildingStandards Scotland - this lets you pay online too.
The advantages of submitting an application via eBuildingStandards Scotland are:

  • you will save time, money and paper
  • there is step-by-step guidance and information on how to submit your application
  • you can save your work and break away at any time. When you return to the application your previous entries will be waiting for you
  • you can upload one set of electronic drawings and supporting documents - there is no need to provide multiple paper copies to us
  • no printing or postage involved
  • you can buy a location plan online
  • you can use the 'Fee calculator' to work out the fee for your application
  • you can pay online or if you are submitting the application on behalf of someone else, you can ‘share’ the application with them and allow them to pay the fee online
  • as the application comes directly to us, we receive it faster and begin to check it earlier
  • applications are quicker and easier to validate because it ensures that all the information needed for the application is complete, is in the correct format and meets our application requirements
  • it reduces your carbon footprint

Forms you can submit online via eBuildingStandards Scotland are:

  • Application for a building warrant
  • Application for amendment of building warrant
  • Notice of intention to use an approved certifier of construction
  • Completion certificate
  • Application for temporary occupation or use
  • Application to extend period of validity of building warrant
  • Completion certificate where no building warrant obtained submission

Other building standards forms NOT available via eBuildingStandards Scotland:

You must download, complete and send these forms to Planning and Building Standards office.

Along with your application you must submit:

How much will it cost?

Legal information

Building warrants and planning permission are entirely separate legal requirements. They apply to different aspects of building development work. It's important that you check to see if you need either or both of them.

Getting back to you

For more information on how quickly we process applications, see our Building standards customer charter. It has details of all our service standards.

Weekly lists of applications and decisions

See the current building warrant applications and decisions.

Building Standards system in Scotland

For details of the Building Standards system in Scotland including guidance for home owners and professionals see the building standards section of the Scottish Government's website.

Related content

  1. Building warrants, forms and regulations
  2. Certificates of completion
  3. Letter of comfort
  4. Building regulations
  5. Performance