CHAPTER 65:02

BUILDING CONTROL
ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS
SECTION

1. Short title
2. Interpretation
3. Establishment of Building Regulations Board
4. Building regulations
5. Passing or rejection of plans
6. Appeal to the Building Regulations Board
7. Deposit may be declared to be of no effect after three years
8. Power to require removal or alteration of work not in conformity with building
regulations
9. Relaxation of building regulations in special cases

Law 7, 1962,
L.N. 84, 1966,
S.I. 12, 1977.
An Act to authorize the making of building regulations and to provide for matters
incidental thereto.
[Date of Commencement: 29th May, 1962]
1. Short title
This Act may be cited as the Building Control Act.
2. Interpretation
(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires-
"building regulations" means regulations made under section 4;
"commercial building" means a shop, warehouse, factory or hotel;
"plans" includes sections, elevations and specifications;
"the construction of buildings" means-
(a) the erection of new buildings; and
(b) the re-erection, adding to, altering and conversion of buildings, and the covering of
open spaces between walls and buildings.
(2) All or any of the powers and duties conferred or imposed on a local authority under
this Act or regulations made thereunder may, subject to the local authority's control, be
exercised and performed by the officers, servants and agents thereof (including any officers of
the public service of Botswana acting as officers or agents thereof), and all references in this
Act and the regulations to a local authority shall be construed accordingly.
3. Establishment of Building Regulations Board
(1) The Minister shall, by order published in the Gazette, establish a Board to be known
as the Building Regulations Board which shall consist of a Chairman and such other persons
not exceeding six in number as the Minister may from time to time appoint; and he shall appoint
a member of the public service to be Secretary to the Board.
(2) No member of the Board shall adjudicate upon any matter in which he is directly or
indirectly financially interested.
(3) The Chairman and any two other members of the Board shall form a quorum at
meetings of the Board.
(4) Decisions of the Board shall be determined by voting, each member other than the
Chairman having one vote and the Chairman having a deliberative and a casting vote.
4. Building regulations

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 (1) The Minister may, by statutory instrument, make regulations for regulating all or any
of the following matters-
(a) the construction of buildings, and the materials to be used in the construction of
buildings;
(b) the lighting and ventilation of buildings, and the dimensions of rooms intended for
human habitation;
(c) the height of buildings; the height of chimneys, not being separate buildings, above the
roof of the buildings of which they form part;
(d) sanitary conveniences in connection with buildings; the drainage of buildings, including
the means for conveying refuse water and water from roofs and from yards
appurtenant to buildings; cesspools and other means for the reception or disposal of
foul matter in connection with buildings;
(e) ashpits in connection with buildings;
(f) wells, tanks and cisterns for the supply of water for human consumption in connection
with buildings;
(g) stoves and other fittings in buildings (not being electric stoves or fittings), in so far as
regulations with respect to such matters are required for the prevention of fire; and
(h) private sewers; communications between drains and sewers and between sewers.
(2) Regulations made under this section may-
(a) include provisions as to the giving of notices and the deposit of plans;
(b) include provisions as to the inspection of work; the testing of drains and sewers, and
the taking by the local authority of samples of materials to be used in the construction
of buildings, or in the execution of other works; and
(c) prescribe anything which under this Act requires to be prescribed.
(3) Any provision contained in building regulations may be made so as to apply in any
township, any part of a township or any area outside a township specified in the regulations, and
the regulations may make different provisions in respect of different townships, parts of a
township or areas:
Provided that no building regulations shall be made to apply to any area outside a
township except in respect of commercial buildings having or to have a floor area exceeding
232 square metres or having or to have more than one storey.
(4) The building regulations may provide that any person who contravenes any provision
thereof or who fails to comply with any order, requirement or condition lawfully issued to or
imposed on him by virtue of any regulation and with which it is his duty to comply shall be guilty
of an offence.
(5) The regulations shall specify what penalty may be imposed for each offence thereby
created and may also provide different penalties in the case of successive or continuous
offences but no such penalty shall exceed a fine of P200 and imprisonment for six months.
5. Passing or rejection of plans
(1) Where plans of any proposed work are, in accordance with the building regulations,
deposited with a local authority, the local authority shall pass the plans unless they are either
defective, or show that the proposed work would contravene any of the building regulations or
any other written law, and, if the plans are defective or show that the proposed work would
contravene any of the building regulations or any other written law, the local authority shall
reject the plans.
(2) When plans are passed or rejected in terms of this section, the local authority shall
give notice thereof to the person by whom or on whose behalf the plans were deposited, and if
the plans have been rejected the notice shall specify the defects on account of which, or the
regulation or section of any other written law the contravention of which, the plans have been
rejected.
6. Appeal to the Building Regulations Board

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 Where plans of any proposed work have, in accordance with building regulations, been
deposited with a local authority and the local authority has rejected these plans, if the person by
whom or on whose behalf the plans were deposited is aggrieved by such rejection he may, on
payment of the prescribed fee, appeal in writing to the Building Regulations Board whose
decision shall be final:
Provided that no such appeal shall be entertained unless it is made before the proposed
work has been substantially commenced.
7. Deposit may be declared to be of no effect after three years
Where plans of any proposed work have, in accordance with building regulations, been
deposited with a local authority, and the plans have been passed by the local authority, but the
work to which the plans relate has not been commenced within three years of the deposit of the
plans, the local authority may, at any time before the work is commenced, by notice to the
person by whom or on whose behalf the plans were deposited and the owner for the time being
of the land to which the plans relate, declare that the deposit of the plans shall be of no effect,
and when such a notice is given, this Act and the building regulations shall as respects the
proposed work have effect as if no plans had been deposited.
8. Power to require removal or alteration of work not in conformity with building
regulations
(1) If any work to which building regulations are applicable contravenes any of those
regulations, the local authority may by notice require the owner either to pull down or remove
the work or, if he so elects, to effect such alterations therein as may be necessary to make it
comply with the regulations.
(2) Any person to whom a notice has been given under subsection (1) who is aggrieved
by such notice may, on payment of the prescribed fee, appeal to the Building Regulations Board
whose decision shall be final.
(3) If a person to whom a notice has been given under subsection (1) fails to comply with
the notice-
(a) within 30 days of the receipt of that notice; or
(b) if within those 30 days that person has appealed to the Building Regulations Board,
within 30 days after that person receives notice of a decision by the Building
Regulations Board upholding the notice,
the local authority may pull down or remove the work in question, or effect such alterations
therein as it deems necessary, and may recover from him the expenses reasonably incurred by
it in so doing.
(4) No such notice as is mentioned in subsection (1) shall be given after the expiration of
12 months from the date of the completion of the work in question, and, in any case where the
plans were deposited, it shall not be open to the local authority to give such a notice on the
ground that the work contravenes any building regulation if the plans were passed by the local
authority and the work has been executed in accordance with the plans.
9. Relaxation of building regulations in special cases
(1) Where the Minister, on an application made in accordance with the provisions of this
section, considers that the operation of any requirement in building regulations would be
unreasonable in relation to the particular case to which the application relates, he may, after
consultation with the local authority and Building Regulations Board, and subject to subsection
(4), give a direction dispensing with or relaxing that requirement.
(2) If building regulations so provide as regards any requirement contained in the
regulations, the power to dispense with or relax that requirement under subsection (1) shall be
exercisable by the local authority (instead of by the Minister after consultation with the local
authority and Building Regulations Board).
(3) An application under this section shall be in such form and shall contain such
particulars as may be prescribed and shall be made to the local authority.

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 (4) The local authority shall give notice of the application in such manner and to such
persons, if any, as the Minister may direct and, except where the power of giving the direction is
exercisable by the local authority, shall transmit the application to the Minister and give notice to
the applicant that it has been so transmitted.
(5) Where, in terms of subsection (4), notice is given of an application made under this
section, the Minister or local authority, as the case may be, shall not exercise the power to
dispense with or relax the requirement to which the application relates before the expiration of
one month from the giving of the notice and shall, before exercising such power, take into
consideration any objection which may have been received thereby.

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