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Comments
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Thanks ElleStar
So did you get building control in before, during or after the work was done, and did they get you to change/pull out things that they felt were not up to their standard?0 -
My builder dealt directly with building control and he used a private company, rather than the council as he said you have to wait around for ages for council guy. My flat is in SW London and my builder just does loft conversions in the area (so all victorian properties) and uses the same building regs guy for all his jobs. My builder also seemed pretty clued up on the building regs side of things.
The biggest issue was the position of the stairs so the building control guy came in to discuss what would be acceptable (although this was after the plans had been drawn). I think he must have come a couple of times because I think he had to see the correct insulation had been used and the flooring joists were right. He then came again at the end of the job to sign it all off.
The only thing I had to change were all the doors of habitable rooms had to be replaced with fire doors and smoke alarms had to linked. The only thing that I wasn't expecting was that I lost quite a bit of head height when the steel joists were put in. I had wrongly assumed that it was just a case of replacing the wooden ones when in fact they were on top. I've still got a decent head height but maybe 20cm less than I had before.
I was also having a new roof and my builder said my 3 chimneys were unstable and needed rebuilding (this wasn't a surprise because it came up in the survey when I bought the flat). However he said building regs wouldn't be signed off unless I got them done. Of course it made sense to have the work done as I had builders there and scaffolding up but I couldn't quite get my head around it needing to be signed off (two of the chimneys were on a part of the roof that wasn't part of the loft conversion). If I had just had a new roof, I would have had no need for buidling control so it wouldn't have been an issue.
If I were to do it again, I would get someone in before starting work so I knew exactly what needed doing and be absolutely clear as to what the knock on effect of doing work to one part of a property would have on other (unconnected) parts which dont meet building regs.0 -
For a loft extension building regs also looked at fire escape0
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thanks everyone for your comments.
As predicted, our solicitor has just today confirmed that there is no completion certificate for the loft conversion (it took over a week to find out and a chasing email)
When I queried a number of your points with our solicitor, namely the reasons behind the building regs, fire escape etc....they said that because the house is over 100yrs old, alterations were carried out to these kind of houses in the E17 London area without Local Authority approvals, including extensions and loft conversions.
He said that if I arrange for a detailed inspection by Building Control, which might involve excavation works i.e. disrupting the decorative finishing to find out what lays beneath, the seller will not be willing to meet the cost of this, and if we do we will have to make good any damage caused.
Is this normal proceedure in buying a house or should we just walk away?0 -
We had to have this done when we were buying a terrace house with the lounge and dining room knocked through to be open plan. There was no paperwork or documentation for the beam that was allegedly holding up upstairs and we had to pay for a structural engineer to visit and hack a bit of the boxing in off and peer inside with a torch. He had already done calculations to determine what size the beam should be and was checking to see it was the same or larger. He also took some plaster off at either end to see that the beam was supported at either end correctly. The decor was bright yellow woodchip so no real loss!
All was well for us and the beam was correct and building control accepted the report and issue a retrospective certificate which was all OK when we sold.
In your case would you want to use a bedroom that could be unsafe? Have this hassle when you sell? If it's come up for you then the same thorny issue will arise with any other buyer so the vendors need to get it sorted out.0 -
I am having similar issues, the house i am supposed to be buying has a loft conversion which we have been informed by my solicitor hasn't got any paperwork, so no building regs.
I have spoken to the surveyor who has done the homebuyers report and he says the only way to find out if it is done properly would be to take chunks out of walls, floors etc, which we are unlikely to be able to do...so its a choice of risk it or walk away.0
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