You’re planning to remove a non-load bearing wall in your flat, and someone has mentioned the Building Safety Regulator — now you’re not sure whether you need formal approval before you pick up a sledgehammer. If your building is over seven storeys tall, the answer is almost certainly yes, and this article explains exactly why.
Key Takeaways
- The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) introduced a new higher-risk building regime under the Building Safety Act 2022, which applies to residential buildings over 18 metres or seven storeys tall.
- Even removing a non-load bearing wall in a higher-risk building can trigger a mandatory approval process before work starts.
- You’ll need to submit a Building Control application through the BSR — not your local authority — for any qualifying works in these buildings.
- Confirming a wall is truly non-load bearing requires a structural engineer’s assessment, not a visual guess.
- Proceeding without the correct approvals in a higher-risk building carries serious legal and financial consequences.
What the Building Safety Act 2022 Changed
Before 2022, Building Regulations approval for internal alterations in flats followed a relatively straightforward path. You’d notify your local Building Control body, they’d inspect the work, and you’d receive a completion certificate. For genuinely minor works — like removing a non-structural partition wall in a standard house — many homeowners didn’t even need to notify anyone at all.
The Building Safety Act 2022 changed that picture significantly for people living in taller residential buildings. The Act created a new category called Higher-Risk Buildings (HRBs), and it established the Building Safety Regulator — a body sitting within the Health and Safety Executive — as the sole Building Control authority for those buildings. This wasn’t a tweak to the existing system. It was a wholesale replacement of how Building Control works for buildings that meet the height threshold.
The legislation was a direct response to the Grenfell Tower disaster and the subsequent Hackitt Review, which found that the existing regulatory framework was inadequate for complex, multi-occupied residential buildings. The core principle is that residents in tall buildings deserve a higher level of scrutiny over any work that could affect the structure, fire safety, or overall safety case of their building.
If your building is over 18 metres in height or has more than seven storeys, it almost certainly falls within this regime. That threshold applies to the building as a whole — not just the floor you live on.
Does Removing a Non-Load Bearing Wall Count as Notifiable Work?
This is the question most homeowners ask first, and the honest answer is: it depends on the building, the wall, and how the work is classified under the Building Regulations.
Under the standard Building Regulations framework, removing a non-load bearing internal partition in a dwelling is often classed as exempt from Building Regulations notification. That exemption exists because, in theory, a non-structural wall doesn’t affect the structural integrity of the building. In a standard two-storey house, that logic is broadly sound.
In a higher-risk building, the situation is more complex. The BSR regime requires the Principal Accountable Person (PAP) — usually the building owner or management company — to maintain a safety case for the entire building. Any work that could affect that safety case, including changes that touch fire compartmentation, structural elements, or building services, must go through the BSR’s Building Control process.
Here’s the critical point: many internal walls in flats are not just partition walls. They may form part of the fire compartmentation strategy — the system of fire-resistant barriers that contains a fire within one flat and prevents it spreading to the rest of the building. A wall can be entirely non-load bearing from a structural standpoint and still be a fire compartment wall. Removing or altering it without approval could compromise the building’s fire strategy, which is a serious safety issue and a notifiable change under the HRB regime.
So even if your engineer confirms the wall carries no structural load, you cannot assume the work is automatically exempt in a higher-risk building.
How the BSR Approval Process Works
For higher-risk buildings, Building Control applications do not go to your local council. They go directly to the Building Safety Regulator. The BSR has its own team of registered Building Inspectors, and the process follows a gateway model that’s more detailed than traditional Building Control.
For works to an existing higher-risk building — which is what we’re talking about here — you’ll generally be working within what the BSR calls the occupation phase regime. The building’s Principal Accountable Person has ongoing duties to manage and update the safety case, and any changes to the building must be assessed against that safety case before they’re made.
In practical terms, this means:
- You’ll need to notify the PAP (your building owner or management company) before starting any work.
- The PAP must assess whether the proposed change affects the building’s safety case.
- If a Building Regulations application is required, it must be submitted to the BSR — not the local authority.
- The BSR must approve the application before work begins. This is a key difference from some traditional Building Control routes, where you could start work and notify simultaneously.
The timeframes involved are longer than standard Building Control. You should build significant lead time into your project programme if you’re in a higher-risk building.
How to Confirm Whether Your Wall Is Load Bearing
Before you can even begin the BSR process, you need to establish what type of wall you’re dealing with. This matters for two reasons: it affects what approvals you need, and it affects how the work is specified and carried out.
A common misconception is that you can tell whether a wall is load bearing by looking at it. You can’t — not reliably. The direction of floor joists, the position of the wall relative to the structure above, and the building’s original construction method all influence whether a wall is structural. In a high-rise flat, the construction is often reinforced concrete frame, which means the walls between flats and rooms may be entirely non-structural infill panels — but you need an engineer to confirm that, not a guess based on wall thickness.
A structural engineer will review the building’s structural drawings (if available), inspect the wall and the construction around it, and give you a written opinion on whether the wall is load bearing. That written opinion is something you’ll want to have on record when you approach your building management company and, if necessary, the BSR.
It’s also worth noting that in a concrete frame building, what looks like a simple partition removal may involve cutting through screed, relocating services, or working near structural columns and beams. None of that is straightforward, and all of it needs proper assessment.
Your Lease and the Building Management Company
Even if you’ve confirmed the wall is non-load bearing and you’ve worked out what Building Regulations approvals are needed, there’s another layer to consider: your lease.
Most residential leases in purpose-built flats contain clauses that restrict alterations to the property. Removing an internal wall — even a non-structural one — almost always requires written consent from your freeholder or management company before work starts. This is a separate requirement from Building Regulations and from the BSR. Failing to get it can put you in breach of your lease, which creates problems when you come to sell.
In a higher-risk building, the management company is likely to be the Principal Accountable Person, so they’ll be involved in the process regardless. But approach them early, provide them with your structural engineer’s assessment, and get their consent in writing before any work begins.
If your building has a residents’ management company or a managing agent, they should have a clear process for handling alteration requests. Ask for it in writing and keep records of everything.
When to Call a Structural Engineer
If your flat is in a building over seven storeys tall and you’re considering any internal alterations — even something that appears minor, like removing a partition wall — you should get a structural engineer involved before you do anything else. I’d say this even before you approach your management company, because having a professional assessment in hand makes every subsequent conversation more straightforward. An engineer can confirm whether the wall is structural, identify any fire compartmentation implications, advise on what approvals are likely to be needed, and produce the documentation that Building Control and your freeholder will expect to see. Trying to shortcut this process in a higher-risk building isn’t just risky — under the Building Safety Act 2022, it can carry real legal consequences for you as the leaseholder.
Need expert advice on this?
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