If you are hiring scaffolding for your home, the law is simpler than it looks: the scaffolder, not you, carries the legal duty to put it up safely. Your job is smaller and clearer. Check they are trained and properly insured, make sure they hold a licence if any of it stands on the pavement, and keep the paperwork they hand you. Get those right and you have met your side of the rules. Here is what actually applies to a homeowner, in plain English, with the source next to every figure.
Who is legally responsible, you or the scaffolder?
This is the question that worries people most, and the answer is reassuring. Building work at your home falls under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015. Under those rules a homeowner is a “domestic client”, and the HSE is explicit that a domestic client’s legal duties pass automatically to the contractor doing the work. For a straightforward scaffold that means the scaffolding company holds the responsibility, not you. You are not expected to design the scaffold, inspect it, or prove it is safe. That sits with the firm you hire, which is exactly why hiring a competent one matters more than any form you could fill in.
Do you need permission or a permit?
On your own land, no. There is no planning permission needed to put a scaffold up in your own garden, drive or against your own walls. The one time paperwork is required is when part of the scaffold stands on the public highway, which includes the pavement. Then it needs a highway licence, and GOV.UK is clear on who does what: the scaffolding company applies for the licence, but “it is your responsibility to check they have this legal document and that it does not run out before the building work is finished.” So the licence is our job to get, and the one job the government leaves with you is a two-minute check that it exists and is still valid. Locally, Suffolk County Council charges £260 for the first four weeks and £130 per extension, and only issues these licences to scaffolding firms with qualified scaffolders. There is more on when a licence applies in our guide to scaffolding hire costs.
How often must scaffolding be inspected?
By law, more often than most people expect. Under the Work at Height Regulations 2005, a scaffold must be inspected before it is first used, then at intervals of no more than every seven days while it stands, and again after anything that could affect its stability, such as high winds or an alteration. Each inspection is written up and the report kept on site. In practice you should be handed a note or certificate confirming the scaffold has passed its first inspection before anyone climbs on it, and a fresh check should happen weekly after that. If a scaffold has been standing at your house for a fortnight, it should have been inspected at least twice. Our crews carry this out as part of the job, and we cover the timings in more detail in our post on how long scaffolding takes to put up.
What is the “3 to 1 rule”?
It comes up in searches a lot, and it is worth clearing up because half the internet gets it wrong. The 3 to 1 rule, roughly three parts height to one part base width, is a stability rule of thumb for mobile access towers, the wheeled aluminium kind a decorator or window cleaner might use. It is a manufacturer and PASMA convention, not a clause the HSE publishes, and the tower’s own instruction manual is what actually governs how high it can safely go. It does not apply to the tied independent scaffold a firm builds around a house. That kind of scaffold is held rigid by ties into the building and braces, not by a base-to-height ratio, and its safety comes from being built to an engineered configuration. So if you have read about the 3 to 1 rule, file it under towers, not house scaffolds.
What insurance should your scaffolder have?
Public liability insurance, and enough of it. Suffolk County Council will not grant a highway licence unless the firm holds public liability cover of no less than £5 million, and £5 million is the standard across the trade. This matters to you directly, because your own home insurance almost certainly will not step in if someone is hurt by the scaffolding or a neighbour’s property is damaged. Home policies exclude trade activity, so the cover has to come from the scaffolder’s policy. If a pole slips and cracks next door’s conservatory roof, it is the scaffolding firm’s public liability insurance that pays, not yours. Ask to see the certificate, and check the figure is at least £5 million and still in date.
NASC, CISRS, PASMA: what the letters mean
Scaffolding is full of initials, and three of them tell you whether a firm is the real thing. The NASC, the National Access and Scaffolding Confederation, is the trade body that writes the industry’s technical rulebook, the guidance known as TG20 and SG4. CISRS, the Construction Industry Scaffolders Record Scheme, is the card that proves an individual scaffolder has been trained and assessed to that standard, and the HSE recognises it as the way scaffolders demonstrate competence. PASMA is the separate training ticket for mobile towers. The short version: NASC writes the rules, a CISRS card shows the scaffolder is trained to them, and PASMA covers towers. Every one of our scaffolders is CISRS-carded and CITB-trained, which you can read more about on our team page.
Is my scaffold “designed”?
For most houses, yes, but not from scratch each time. The NASC’s TG20 guidance provides standard configurations that have already been designed by structural calculation, so a normal job like a re-roof or a repaint does not need a bespoke design drawn up. The scaffolder produces a one-page TG20 compliance sheet naming the configuration used. Only unusual jobs, a scaffold bridging a wide gap, carrying heavy loads, or wrapped around an awkward shape, fall outside those standard configurations and need a bespoke design from a competent designer. If you want the reassurance, ask to see the TG20 compliance sheet, or the design drawing on a more complex job. The current guidance is TG20:21, in force since 2021, and the underlying law behind it, the Work at Height Regulations 2005 and CDM 2015, has not changed.
What happens if scaffolding goes up without a licence?
If a scaffold stands on the pavement without a highway licence, it is unlawful, and the liability lands on the scaffolding company that put it there, along with the risk of a fine and being told to take it down. Because GOV.UK also puts the check-it-is-valid duty on the homeowner, an unlicensed pavement scaffold is not a corner you want cut on your behalf. A legitimate firm treats the licence as routine and factors the fee and the ten working days’ notice into the quote. If a scaffolder shrugs off the licence question, that tells you what you need to know.
What to check before you hire
You do not need to memorise the regulations. This short list covers everything the law actually asks of you as the person paying, and each point traces straight back to a rule above.
- CISRS cards. The scaffolders should hold in-date CISRS cards, the competence route the HSE recognises.
- £5 million public liability insurance. Ask for the certificate and check the figure and the date.
- A highway licence, if any of it touches the pavement. The firm gets it; you confirm it exists and has not expired.
- Inspection and handover paperwork. A written first-use inspection before anyone climbs on, then weekly checks.
- A TG20 compliance sheet, or a bespoke design on an unusual job. Proof the scaffold is engineered, not guessed.
A firm that can produce all five without hesitation is one you can trust with your home. For anything not covered here, our scaffolding FAQs answer the everyday questions, and our domestic scaffolding page explains how a typical house job runs.
Quick answers
What are the British standards for scaffolding?
The main one is BS EN 12811, which sets the performance and design requirements scaffolds are built to, including the duty classes that define how much load a scaffold can carry, from light-duty for inspection work up to heavy-duty for masonry.
At what height is scaffolding required?
There is no single trigger height in law. The Work at Height Regulations require suitable protection for any work where a fall could cause injury, and the right equipment is chosen by assessing the job. For most work above the first floor, a proper scaffold is the sensible and usual answer.
How long can scaffolding stay up?
There is no fixed statutory time limit on private land, provided the weekly inspections continue and the scaffold stays sound. On the pavement, it is limited to the period of the highway licence. We cover this in the FAQs.
Do I need to tell my neighbours?
It is good manners, and sometimes a legal step. If the work falls under the Party Wall Act, or the scaffold needs to stand on a neighbour’s land, there are notice requirements to follow. A quiet word early almost always sorts it out.
Who is responsible if someone is injured?
The scaffolding contractor holds the legal duty for the scaffold’s safety, and their public liability insurance covers injury to others. That is why competence and insurance are the two things to check hardest.
The bottom line
The rules around scaffolding are written for the people who build it, not the people who hire it, and that is the point: as a homeowner the law asks little of you beyond choosing a firm that meets it. Look for CISRS cards, £5 million of cover, a handled licence and proper inspection paperwork, and the regulations largely take care of themselves. If you are anywhere in Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire or Norfolk and want a scaffold put up properly and legally, call us on 01440 703519 or request a free quote.
