Legal and Statutory Responsibilities in Construction

This report discusses the legal and statutory responsibilities in construction, including planning decisions, building control process, laws of trespass and nuisance, occupiers and vicarious liability, land law, and landlord and tenant law.

Legal and Statutory
responsibilities in
construction

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
TASK ..............................................................................................................................................3
P1,2,4 Explain how planning decisions are made and processes available to appeal and
monitor them...............................................................................................................................3
P3 - Explain the key legislation and agencies in the building control process...........................5
P5 - Explain how the law of trespass and nuisance relate to the construction industry..............6
P6 - Discuss how the laws of occupiers liability and vicarious liability apply to the
construction industry...................................................................................................................6
P7- Explain how land law has evolved to shape modern land ownership and the role of
contract law in buying and selling property................................................................................7
P8 - Discuss how landlord and tenant law is used to manage property......................................7
CONCLUSION ..............................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Planning Permission is defines as the legal requirements that determines whether the
proposed construction project should be allowed. Local authorities are responsible for making
plans under the purview of planning department. Construction planning is quite challenging
process that involves various factors in order to execute the constructions projects. It demands
effective mechanism and resources, budgets to critically managed all the work. Permission for
effective planning is a written documents that is issued by the Council after monitoring and
consulting with the local community and statutory bodies. The Construction (Design and
Management )Regulation , 2015 defines the statutory requirements for constructing the sites
(Ashworth and Perera, 2018). The UK common law plays significant role in dealing with
commercial challenges of the construction industry. It provides effective legislation and policies
to regulate and govern the activities of construction sites and various land related projects. This
report will analyse the process and method of obtaining planning permission for construction of
building, related legislation that ensure safe building, how to appeal and monitor them. Further, it
will cover the law related to nuisance and trespass, occupier's and vicarious liability in relation to
construction industry. Also, it includes land related laws that are helpful for managing the
property between the tenants and landlord.
TASK
P1,2,4 Explain how planning decisions are made and processes available to appeal and monitor
them.
Planning decisions is important to permit the applicants for constructing and building a
construction project. It is an approval given by the Council in order to construct, expand and
altering a building. The project manager of the land is required to take permission from the
relevant authorities to begin a construction of any site. The decision for planning is defined under
the Act of Town and Country Planning, 1948, only after considering all the factor that are
important for the authorities. It is quite complex process which can be decide only after
evaluating and inspecting a land. If any authority refuses to give permission within a specified
period of time which is generally 8 or 13 , varied according to the type of application) or impose
any condition, then applicant can file an appeal before the Secretary of state. An authority is
obliged to give reasonable ground for refusal of planning decisions (Hili2021). An applicant can

make an appeal against the refusal of application, allows permission but with certain limitation,
for general idea , refuses for approve something, or serves enforcement notice to an applicant etc.
An evaluation and monitoring of construction projects helps to implement the project in
most effective manner. The resources used for construction such as material, human and
financial factor are critically analyse to avoid its wastage and maintain accountability of all the
project records.
The local planning authority takes essential decisions on planning applications, provided
that, a person can move an appeal over a planning decision when there is a disagreement further,
if a decision is not made within eight weeks and no major development has been initiated for
instance, more than ten dwellings or a building constructed over a more than 1000 square meters.
Where a person is looking for filing an appeal there is no legal fee for it, provided that an appeal
can be moved in the name of a person who had made the application and anybody can make
comment or give suggestion. If there is a appal made on some other land then, it is the duty ho
moved an appeal to bring into the notice about the appeal to the respective authority and the
owner of the property as well before filing an appeal. The procedure to move an application for
appeal is online and it must be made sure that al the relevant documents are well arranged
because the appeal will be made in one go because there is no option to save it or proceed later.
At the very beginning an appeal statement is to be created, it presents the the reasoning of
moving an appeal. A copy of application form is required to submit, a letter pertains to decision
from the local planning authority, scale plans and drawings and related documents of the
property, site plan and a certificate of ownership. All these documents is to be uploaded
jpg,pdf,doc,tif format. After following primary stage and the submission of appeal , the planning
inspector will initiate examinations on issues which led to appeal. If there is any disagreement
with the decision of an appeal then, such decision can be made challenged in the High Court.
In a building construction, it is very important to make reasonable decisions in order to
determine the building decisions about its structure. It is always beneficial to make important
decision at the very initial stage to avoid any future disputes. An effective and smart decision
always reduced the construction cost and saves time. Therefore, it is always beneficial to take
major decisions at early stage of the construction (Khalef and et.al., 2021).
A simple way to avoid unfavourable decisions is by acknowledging and assimilating the
set of project gateways wherein, the information is collected about the project. There are several

stages where projects can be made stop for making alterations in control procedure and such
alterations will determine the decision. Constant review and different aspects of the project will
help in determining the decision.
The real purpose behind development is the client and they are considered to be the real
decision makers because they are well known to the development sites. There are various other
faculties too which are indulged in construction site and such faculties are equipped with the
knowledge about the construction. There are some stakeholder also in the construction sector
including, customer, investors, neighbours etc. participate in decision making. Building
construction includes various activities which are challenging and requires serious decision
making with the view to avoid disturbance or any sort of interference at the construction site. A
constant supervision at construction site will help in making effective decisions which will
directly help in avoiding wast, money, time and energy. A model called as building information
model which contains information in a well arranged manner which enables a construction to be
more efficiently.
P3 - Explain the key legislation and agencies in the building control process.
In United Kingdom, the construction industries and their operations are regulated by
strict legislation framework. The subjects includes in such legislation are, planning permission,
design, construction, environment, tax, property, working condition, ownership, conservation
and many more. There are essentially three laws which regulates the process of constructing a
building within the territories of United Kingdom namely, Building Act of 1984, Building
Regulation 2010 and the building inspector regulation 2010 (Klee2018). The main Act which
for regulating building construction process is Building Act 1884 which entrust local authorities
with the power to enforce building regulation in their jurisdiction. It also includes the right to
entry into buildings. There is a power to prosecute to the dangerous activity at building site such
as explosion substance at construction site, erection of risky structures etc. There are some other
legislation which which are made applicable on construction industry such as, Health and Safety
Regulations 1992, Management of health and safety regulations 1999, Workplace Regulations
1992, Manuel handling operations regulations 1992, Gas Safety Regulation 1998 ans Electricity
at Work Regulations 1989. Further there is separate legislation which supervise Hazardous
Health Regulation 2002.

P5 - Explain how the law of trespass and nuisance relate to the construction industry
In absolute legal sense, trespass is a wrongful entry in some one else property or land. It
is an unlawful act or interference in order to breach the security of other property. Similarly,
trespass at construction site pertains to unauthorised entrance made on the land in possession of
other person. Such invasion is unlawful if made without the permission of the authorised person.
Whereas , a person leaving or placing something at the someone else property which results into
nuisance. Trespass includes wrongful entry with intention to infringe someone else right over
the land or a property or damaging a property. An act of trespass is a civil wrong which falls
under the category of tort which is actionable and a person can be made liable for trespassing in
someone else property. A person can move to court to impose injunction with the view to restrict
a person from trespassing over the land or a property and damages can be sought for the loss. A
criminal liability is imposed over a person who finds guilty of trespassing. There is an Act called
The Party Wall Act, wherein the parties are allowed to carry out work despite consulting from
the owner of the adjoining property. A fourteen day notice needs to be served for that
(Layton2021).
Nuisance is a physical act which cause injury or loss or annoyance to the rights of the person's
property. It can be created at public place or land which disturb person from enjoying the rights
over his/her property. Similarly, the construction site also falls under the ambit of nuisance
because construction site involves various activities which cause disturbance or annoyance to the
nearby dwellers. There are various instances , wherein an illegal construction of building being
halted or a demolition take place, such actions requires certain precautions because risks
involved in such actions. The authorities are required to ensure safety of the neighbours while
initiating such actions in order to prevent any harm which might happen during the course of
demolition.
P6 - Discuss how the laws of occupiers liability and vicarious liability apply to the
construction industry
The construction work usually carried out by the hired contractor who is responsible to maintain
safety. There are instances where people get injured due to negligence at construction site and
the contractor is responsible for such negligence. Such negligence are covered under Occupier's
Liability Act 1957. According to this, an occupier will not made liable for the negligence instead
an independent contractor is fully liable. There is another provision of the OLA 1975 , in which

Section 2(4)(b) applies to construction related works and maintenance. This provision is similar
to vicarious liability, wherein an employer is liable for the misconduct of its employees.
Therefore, in construction matter a contractor is liable for cause of damage or loss.
P7- Explain how land law has evolved to shape modern land ownership and the role of
contract law in buying and selling property
Land law plays a very important role in resolving land or property related disputes. Land law
determines the land right of a person relating to ownership, possession, interest and obligations
over the land. The application of land law is made on immovable property such as , land or
building constructed over land. There are other immovables properties such as, tress or grass
attached to land can be treated as immovable properties.
As per English law, the practise of buying and selling of land or a property is determined by the
making of an agreement between parties. Such agreement must be in writing with clear terms
and conditions. As per section 2 of the law of property, 1989 an agreement to to buy and sell
must be written. After agreement, the parties are bound under contractual obligation towards
each other and on breach of any terms of contract the party obtained loss has remedies to enforce
the contract like, recover damages for loss occurred due to breach of contract or performance of
specific relief, injunction or rescind of contract (Sawacha Naoum and Fong1999).
P8 - Discuss how landlord and tenant law is used to manage property.
The Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 is the legislation for landlords and tenants. A tenant is a
person who take possession of a land or a property on rent or lease for residential purpose or commercial
purpose. An agreement is made for creating legal obligations between tenant and owner, wherein rights
and duties of both the parties are determined. There is a liberty to terminate the contract between tenet
and owner before the completion of period. The tenant is responsible to carry out the repairs and the
owner is responsible to provide all the essential amenities to the tenant. A tenant is responsible to
maintain the property and do not damage the property. Owner can ask for eviction before prior notice on
reasonable grounds. Whereas, any loss caused by the conduct of tenant, the landlord can claim for the loss
occurred from the tenant.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that , building regulations and planning is
essential in order to prevent and ensure people's safety and health dwelling around the
construction site. Such regulations imposed certain restriction on the activities of building

construction to prevent environment and natural ecology and to promote sustainability. In this
report, the facets of building planning and construction is discussed along with moving of appeal
application in case of dissatisfaction with the decision of local authority. Various legislations
such as Building Act 1984 and Building Regulations 2010 are explained to demonstrate their
application on the building matters. Further, a discussion is made on the act of nuisance and
trespass and their criminal liability.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ashworth, A. and Perera, S., 2018. Contractual procedures in the construction industry.
Routledge.
Hili, N., 2021. Determining tortious liability and criminal liability in construction
accidents (Bachelor's thesis, University of Malta).
Khalef, R.,and et.al., 2021. Contract risk management: A comparative study of risk allocation in
exculpatory clauses and their legal treatment. Journal of Legal Affairs and Dispute
Resolution in Engineering and Construction, 13(1), p.04520036.
Klee, L., 2018. International construction contract law. John Wiley & Sons.
Layton, E., 2021. Building by Local Authorities: The Report of an inquiry by the Royal Institute
of Public Administration into the organization of building construction and maintenance
by Local Authorities in England and Wales. Routledge.
Sawacha, E., Naoum, S. and Fong, D., 1999. Factors affecting safety performance on
construction sites. International journal of project management, 17(5), pp.309-315.