Building officials

Building officials of developed countries are generally referred to as administering building control systems that are mostly defined in statute. According to World Organisation of Building Officials, there were two distinct levels of building officials: (1) the professionally-qualified building controls administrators, who are technically and/or professionally competent in examining design documents for compliance with the Building Codes defined in statute; and (2) the technician-level building-work inspectors, who simply administer the various processes.

New Zealand

The government of New Zealand has set up a mediation service to resolve cases of houses that failed watertightness.

United States

In the United States, there were three major nonprofit organizations developing building codes for the governing of building constructions, but they have since been merged into one in 1994, the International Code Council (ICC). ICC publishes the International Building Codes, used by most of the jurisdictions within the United States. The former organizations included Building Officials and Code Administrators International, Inc. (BOCA), International Conference of Building Officials (ICBO), and Southern Building Code Congress International, Inc. (SBCCI).

England & Wales

In England and Wales building control bodies (BCB) may be of two primary forms, either established under Local Authority control or private bodies (Approved Inspectors). Applicants wishing to carry out work controlled under the Building Act have the choice to select either the local Building Control or an Approved Inspector. However, where local legislation is prevalent the Approved Inspector will be charged with liaising with the relevant local authority body for the necessary approvals.

The Secretary of State issues guidance in support of the Building Regulations in the form of Approved Documents which are not mandatory. The Building Regulations are functional and therefore designers are free to offer alternative solutions to satisfying the the functional requirements. The burden of proof is then placed on the designers to demonstrate that the alternative solution proposed offers a level of performance which satisfies the intent of the functional requirement. There is nothing in the Regulations which imposes a duty on the applicant under those circumstances to use the guidance as a benchmark of performance, although this is of course a route often taken as a way of demonstrating that an alternative approach is of an acceptable standard.

Appeals against decisions made by BCBs are to the Secretary of State who will make a determination after considering all of the facts of a particular case.

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org