The short answer
Sometimes. A roof completion certificate is issued by a building control body, and only when the work needed a building regulations application in the first place. A like-for-like re-cover on a small part of a roof normally does not, so there is no certificate to receive. A full replacement that triggers the thresholds does, and you should be handed it at the end. Either way, you should receive a written guarantee, an invoice and a record of what was fitted.
What the certificate actually is
The paper people call a roof certificate is a completion certificate under the Building Regulations. It is issued by a building control body once an inspector is satisfied that notifiable work complies. That body is either the council's building control team or a private registered building control approver, which is the title for private inspectors since April 2024. It is not a quality mark for the roofer. It records that the work was inspected against the rules at the time and found to meet them.
It matters later. When you sell, a buyer's solicitor often asks for the completion certificate for any significant work, and a missing one can slow the sale or lead to a request for an indemnity policy. That is the practical reason people ask about it, long before they ask about the roof.
When a certificate is issued, and when it is not
The Planning Portal's test is that a building control application is generally unnecessary for repairs or re-covering that touch under 25% of the building envelope and under 50% of the roof. Stay inside those limits and nothing is notified, so nothing is issued afterwards. Above them, approval is needed, and Approved Document L may require the loft insulation to be brought up to standard right across the roof, because a roof counts as a thermal element. A covering that is much heavier than the old one can also trigger approval, with a check on the structure under Approved Document A.
So a whole new roof on a typical house usually does come under building control, and you should expect an application, an inspection or two and a certificate at the end. Roof windows are notifiable in their own right. Our page on building regulations for roof replacement gives the full picture, and the Planning Portal sets out the rules at its re-roofing guidance.
Who applies, and what you should see
Where the work is notifiable, the application is made before work starts, and we handle that side. The building control body inspects at key stages: typically the structure and insulation before they are covered, and a final look when the job is done. If the inspector is happy, the certificate follows by post or email, sometimes a few weeks after the last day on site. It is made out in the homeowner's name for the property, so chase it if it does not arrive.
Be wary of a roofer who says a certificate is not needed on a whole-roof job without explaining why, or who offers to self-certify a notifiable job. If you are unsure, your building control body can tell you whether a particular job needed an application.
The other paperwork that matters
Whether or not a certificate applies, a roof job should leave you with documents. The first is a written guarantee that says what is covered, for how long and what you must do to keep it valid. Ours is for workmanship, and it is a promise from us, not an insurance-backed policy. The second is the itemised invoice showing what was fitted. The third is any manufacturer paperwork for the tiles, membrane or roof window, which sometimes carries its own product guarantee.
Keep all of it together in a folder, and put a copy with your property deeds. If you later sell, the guarantee and the receipts matter to a buyer. Our page on whether a roof guarantee is transferable explains what happens to it when the house changes hands.
Why the date on the certificate matters
A certificate records the standard that applied on the day of the inspection. A roof finished in 2024 was judged against the insulation values of that time, and a later change to the rules does not make the certificate invalid. Keep the original, and scan a copy, as councils sometimes take a while to find old records and a lost certificate means a fee and a search.
Photos are paperwork too
On our jobs we photograph the roof at the survey and again during the work, so there is a before and after record of the underlay, the battens, the fixings and the flashing. Those images can be the best evidence of what is under the tiles years later, long after the scaffold is gone. They help in an insurance claim and in a sale.
If you are planning a re-roof, ask at the quote stage whether the job is notifiable and who will make the application. We tell you in the survey report. The quote is fixed, the paperwork is listed in it, and the whole service is on our roof replacement page.
Every roof is different. A free survey with photos settles it for yours.
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