Although Approved Inspectors, like all building control bodies, have a duty to ensure compliance with the Building Regulations, the primary method by which they achieve this is not by checking that every item of work to which the regulations apply complies, but by trying to ensure those carrying out the work are complying properly.

To do so, building control will adopt a variety of techniques to track compliance over the course of a project - eg. approval of plans and designs, site inspections and the use of communication and informal advice alongside more formal measures (oral and written warnings).

However, in a small number of cases mismanagement or deliberate evasion by a builder may require the Approved Inspector to hand the job back to the local authority to take enforcement action.  As the law stands at the moment, a local authority is the only building control body that may take such legal action against a builder for breaches of Building Regulations.

All Approved Inspectors are required to have a formal complaints procedure which is also scrutinised by the regulatory body, the Construction Industry Council (CIC), as part of the vetting procedure of all AIs.

If that procedure should fail to resolve the issues, any complaint about the work or behaviour of an Approved Inspector should be notified to the CIC.