The short answer
Only when the work needed Building Regulations approval. A like-for-like re-cover that stays inside the Planning Portal thresholds normally needs no application, so there is nothing to certify. Where approval was needed, the building control body inspects and issues the certificate at the end. Ask your roofer, before work starts, which route applies and who will supply the paperwork.
When there is anything to certify
A certificate records that building control accepted finished work as meeting the Building Regulations. If the job never needed an application, no certificate exists and none is owed. The first question is therefore whether your re-roof comes under the Regulations at all, and our answer on building regulations to replace a roof sets out the thresholds in full.
The Planning Portal ties the need for an application to the share of the house touched and to whatever goes on top of the rafters. A modest re-cover of the same kind usually sits on the safe side. A covering that weighs at least 15 per cent more than the one it replaces, or one whose fire performance is significantly different, sits on the other.
Percentages are not set locally. Basingstoke and Deane's building control page lists re-covering a roof, flat or pitched, among jobs that "might also need" Building Regulations approval, and that wording applies to that borough's addresses alone.
So a homeowner who was never told a certificate was coming has often not been shortchanged. The roof simply sat under the line. The useful step is asking, at the quote stage, whether the roofer expects the job to be notified.
How the certificate is issued
Where approval is needed, the application goes to a building control body. That is either local authority building control or a registered building control approver, a private firm on the register that came into force on 6 April 2024. Private building control existed before that date, but registration is newer.
For Andover-area addresses, the safest words are your building control body. Wiltshire Council runs its own service, West Berkshire is served by Building Control Solutions, and Basingstoke and Deane, Winchester, New Forest and East Hampshire each run their own teams. For a Test Valley address, check with Test Valley Borough Council who handles building control.
The body inspects at set stages. When the work is finished and accepted, it issues the certificate. File it with the deeds, because a solicitor may ask for it years from now.
National park authorities decide planning only. Inside the South Downs and the New Forest National Parks, building control still rests with the district or unitary council.
The certificate and a planning decision are separate documents. One does not stand in for the other, and our planning permission to replace a roof answer covers the planning side.
Other routes and other paperwork
Some installers notify building work themselves, using a scheme that lets registered firms self-certify, and the scheme then issues its own document. Whether that route fits your job is something to ask any roofer before the contract is signed, together with who will supply the paper and when. This page cannot say which route suits your house.
Where no certificate is due, gather the other records instead. A written scope with one total price, the covering named in full, pictures of the slopes at the start and at the finish, and the receipts for materials all show what was done. Keep them in one folder.
For a house, Class C permitted development normally covers a replacement covering, though flats do not have it, listed buildings also need listed building consent, and an Article 4 direction can take rights away. Ask the council's planning team if anything about the address is unusual.
If approval was needed and nobody applied, tell the building control body early. It may ask to see the work or evidence of it, and hidden layers cannot be inspected once covered, so an after-the-fact fix is harder than a notification at the start.
Why buyers and solicitors ask
When a house is sold, the buyer's solicitor reviews building work and asks for evidence where approval was needed. A roof replaced years ago in a heavier covering, or altered in a way that needed sign-off, may prompt a query. Without a certificate, a seller may have to explain, to seek retrospective evidence or to accept a delay.
If the re-roof stayed under the thresholds, the position is simpler. There was nothing to certify, and the paperwork is the written scope, the price and the pictures taken on the day.
Do not buy or sell on assumptions. If you are selling, list what documents exist for any roof work and ask the firm that did it for copies. If you are buying, ask the solicitor to raise the question early.
A building control body, and not a roofer, decides what it will certify, so no firm should promise a certificate it cannot issue. What we do is survey the roof, tell you whether the weight and fire triggers look relevant, and give one written price. See our new roof before selling answer and the roof replacement page.
