Building Control Service

Property Certificates

Photograph of a row of apartments

Property certificates form part of the legal searches that solicitors have to undertake on behalf of their clients who are buying or selling property.

A standard application form, adopted province wide, is sent to the local authority where the property is located and the Council answers 24 standard questions, agreed between the Law Society, The Council of Mortgage Lenders and the Northern Ireland Local Government Association.

The questions cover such areas as Building Regulations, Licensing, Environmental Health, Postal Numbering as well as other issues which might have a bearing on the sale of the property.

The standard Northern Ireland fee for a property certificate is £90 which covers a search period of ten years back from the date of the application, the relevant time period as recommended by the Law Society, but for a supplemental fee a longer search period can be carried out.

The number of property certificates dealt with each year depends on amount of activity in the property market.

Property Certificates are administered by Council's Building Control service.

The Building Control department answers the questions relating to Building Control issues and distributes the certificate electronically around other departments to answer questions specific to them.

Once all replies have been received the answers are merged into a single official property certificate reply and returned to the requesting solicitors.

Property Certificate Application Form           Property Certificate Fees

Property Searches

There may be other occasions where specific queries arise regarding historic applications. 

We can help facilitate these requests through property searches.

We hold application data dating back to 1973.