Collect your building completion certificates

Once your fit-out or building work is finished, the building control body that approved the work signs it off. In England this is a completion certificate from building control; in Scotland you need a completion certificate accepted against your building warrant before the space can lawfully be occupied.

Opening without this sign-off means the work was never formally closed out — insurers, your landlord, and any future buyer of the business can all ask for it, and in Scotland occupying a building without an accepted completion certificate is against the law.

Watch out for

• Opening the doors before the final inspection is booked. If the certificate is outstanding when you open, you are trading in a building that has not been formally signed off.
• Losing track of who the building control body actually is. If you used an approved inspector rather than the council, the certificate comes from them, not the local authority.
• Assuming a landlord's or contractor's sign-off is the same thing. Only the building control body's completion certificate satisfies the legal requirement — a contractor's handover certificate is not a substitute.

Sources

• GOV.UK — Building regulations approval checked 2026-09-02
• mygov.scot — Getting a building warrant checked 2026-09-02

See also

• Accessible entrance, WC and menu check
• Food-safe surfaces, wash-hand basins and WC ratios