Completion cert for our extension..council want money!

ferry

Hi all
Received a letter from our local council requesting £260 for an 'inspection fee'.
We had finished building our single storey extension about 2 years ago,all done legitimately,plans agreed and paid for, inspectors visiting at each stage of the building work etc..
Just not sure why we're being asked for this extra money.Would it possibly be for some sort of certificate or document to confirm that the building was completed satisfactory and to standard?
Just seems like a lot of money for them to say 'Yep,it finished' especially after 2 years!
Also,what are the likely implications of not having this document?

Cheers for any help before I get to call them tomorrow...

T

silvercar

If you want to sell your property your buyer's solicitor will require you to have the certificate then. The problem comes if regulations have changed between finishing the work and getting the certificate. They can't be granted retrospectively, so if you get sign off now it will be Ok but if you wait 10 years you will have to meet the then current regulations. Better to do it now, especially as the staff will remember inspecting the work in progress, the last thing you want is to be told to dig inspection holes in the ground.

economiser

I think you only have to comply with the regulations that were in force when building consent was given. The council should keep records as to what they have inspected to date but from personal experience I would suggest you don't rely on it. As silvercar suggests, if they can't find records you may end up being asked to dig holes etc. so that they can check. You will need the certificate eventually so I would suggest you cough up and get it signed off asap.

baldelectrician

I am not totally up on the building regs in England and Wales (as I live in Scotland) but if you check the odpm website, very carefully, I think the local authorities have to pay all inspection costs - all you pay is the fee. (not the case in Scotland where the customer pays for certification)

Ask the council to confirm in writing that you are liable for these costs not them.

nelly_2

Just make one on your pc

Neil_Taylor

When you lodge a building regulations application you pay a "plan fee" based on the value of the work.
When the work commences, your builder, or you, have to inform Building Control, so that they know to make inspections. These are done at specific stages in the construction.
If you don't inform them they have the power to make you expose work which they haven't been given the opportunity to inspect
As soon as the first inspection has been made, Building Control can issue the invoice for the inspection fee, which is normally three times the plan fee.

robowen

On the face of it, it looks like you haven't paid for the inspections at the time of the building. The monies we paid the architect included the money to submit the plans and not the inspections. Maybe yours was the same
We then paid for the inspector to visit at certain times of the build. The money we paid allowed for 6 inspections, we called him occasionally, and he said call me back when this and that has been done. We only saw him about 4 times. They called at the end to sign it off and issue the certificate.

rob

woodbutcher_2

Sounds iffy to me.When i built my extension,'cos i'm in the trade i did it on a building notice and they came along at the various stages to check and i paid at each visit.They then sent me a completion certificate.I've built a lot of extensions but never heard of this before.Mind you,i've not done owt for a while that needed regs,so things may have changed.

Neil_Taylor

When you submit using a building notice, the fee (only one) is based on the sum of the plan fee and the inspection fee.

For instance, for a domestic extension between 10 and 40 sqm
Plan charge £130
Inspection charge £252
Building notice charge £382

This can vary in different LAs