An opt-out declaration is a statutory statement available in limited circumstances allowing the owner of a one-off house, who is not building for sale, to forgo appointing an assigned certifier under the 2014 amendment regulations and instead take on greater personal responsibility for compliance. It does not remove the requirement to comply with the Building Regulations and comes with significant implications that should be discussed with a competent professional before use.
The Building Control (Amendment) Regulations 2014 introduced a mandatory system of statutory certification for most new buildings, requiring an assigned certifier to be appointed. In recognition of concerns raised particularly by self-builders, an opt-out provision was included allowing the owner of a one-off house, who is building it for their own occupation and not for sale or letting, to declare in a statutory form lodged with the local authority that they do not wish to appoint an assigned certifier, in which case that formal role and its associated inspection and certification regime do not apply in the same way.
Opting out does not remove the fundamental legal requirement for the building to comply with the Building Regulations; it simply changes who takes on the formal role of coordinating certification. An owner who opts out takes on considerably more direct responsibility for ensuring compliance, and may find it more difficult later to demonstrate to a future buyer, mortgage lender, or insurer that the works were properly certified, since the reassurance normally provided by an assigned certifier's inspections and sign-off is absent.
Because of these trade-offs, the opt-out declaration is not automatically the right choice even where an owner is technically eligible, and it should be discussed carefully with an architect, engineer or solicitor, and with the local authority Building Control Section, before deciding whether to use it, particularly given the potential impact on future sale or mortgage of the property.