Article 4 Powers of entry
England and Wales
An authorised person may at any reasonable time enter a construction area (except any premises in the construction area used wholly or mainly as a private dwelling house) to determine if—
there has been a breach of the requirement for approval, or
a temporary stop notice, stop notice or enforcement notice has been complied with.
Paragraph (1) is subject to paragraph (4).
The authorised person must on request produce evidence of authorisation.
In an emergency, powers of entry may be exercised at any time.
An authorised person may not exercise powers of entry to determine if there has been a breach of the requirement for approval if a drainage system for the construction work has been adopted.
A justice of the peace may, by signed warrant, permit an authorised person to enter any premises in a construction area, if necessary by reasonable force, if the justice on sworn information in writing is satisfied—
that there are reasonable grounds to enter the premises for the purposes of paragraph (1) of this article, and
that any of the conditions in paragraph (7) are met.
The conditions are—
entry to the premises has been, or is likely to be, refused, and notice of the intention to apply for a warrant has been given to the occupier;
asking for admission to the premises, or giving such a notice, would defeat the object of the entry;
entry is required urgently;
the premises are unoccupied or the occupier is temporarily absent.
A warrant is valid for 3 months.
An authorised person entering premises which are unoccupied or from which the occupier is temporarily absent must leave the premises as effectively secured against unauthorised entry as they were before entry.