Bryant Homes / Taylor Woodrow and modifications!

jtotheb

Hi there,

I'm after a bit of advice on a problem we have with the builder of our home. Basically, we bought our home new, off plan from Bryant Homes five years ago. For the record, Bryant are now owned by Taylor Woodrow.

We've since decided that we want to convert one of our double garages to become an extension to our kitchen. In order to do this, we need to knock down a wall - which will involve installing a lintel / steel across the new span.

Our local Building Control office are saying that they want to see what the foundations are like above the points where the lintel will rest. Fair point - so we've approached Bryant and the NHBC for details of as-built structural drawings. We weren't provided with these when we completed on the purchase.

So far, Bryant have said they've thrown away all those drawings and 'anyway, we've moved offices a couple of times since' (nice excuse!). We also asked them for details of a soil test which might indicate the type of foundations required on our plot but he said that he cannot provide us with this.

The NHBC have said that they 'may' have this information but it will cost £60 for them to look through the archives and there is no guarantee that they will have it!

So, we're in a bit of a quandry as we don't really want to have to dig up our existing kitchen for the sake of something that might not necessarily need to be done - and anyway, it's not as if it's an old house - there SHOULD be records somewhere about this!

What I was wondering was whether there were any laws that I could use to force them to provide this information to us (Freedom of Information Act / Data Protection Act) - or that mean they should have kept this information and if they haven't got it, ensure that they are liable for the investigative work that we would need to undertake.

Any help appreciated.

Debt_Free_Chick

You could try your local planning authority to see what plans were submitted to them - especially for Building Control approval.

That said, testing the existing foundations does not mean that you have to demolish anything. A building surveyor would simply dig a small "pit" close to the existing building, so he could see the extent of the current foundations.

What does your builder/surveyor/architect say?

jtotheb

Local Planning weren't involved with this new development - they relinquished it all to the NHBC (strange - I know..)

I agree, testing the existing foundation shouldn't be difficult but it will mean digging up an area of our kitchen (one end of the new span is in the existing kitchen) and the concrete base underneath. If we can avoid doing that (and in a 5 year old house you shouldn't really need to) we'd like to.

Doozergirl

I bet NHBC will have the records. My MIL's house is just outside it's guarantee period now. We contacted them last year and they knew exactly what type of foundations it had.

The Freedom of Information Act only applies to public bodies, so you won't be able to use it against NHBC. You have to work out what is cheaper; digging a trial hole and getting someone to look in it, or paying NHBC.

Debt_Free_Chick

jtotheb wrote:

Local Planning weren't involved with this new development - they relinquished it all to the NHBC (strange - I know..)

That would be strange, yes. I think they meant to tell you that they relinquished Building Control to the NHBC, which is normal. NHBC have their own "Building Control" officers who do the inspections.

Trial pits can be done very well, so that you would never know they had ever been excavated. Can the pits not be dug outside? Sorry, I can't picture the layout here, but it would be normal to dig the trial pit on the outside wall and avoid any disruption to existing internal finishes.

jtotheb

One of the pits can be dug outside (well, in the garage that we're converting actually), but the other end of the new opening will be part of an internal wall so it would have to be dug inside. A real bummer as we didn't want to rip up our kitchen floor if we could avoid it.

Doozergirl - thanks for your encouraging comments. It will definitely be cheaper to contact the NHBC - although considerably longer - they said 4 - 6 weeks!

jtotheb

Just to close this one off, fortunately enough, our next door neighbours have done exactly the same mod that we are going to do and the local building control office have taken the evidence that they presented as sufficient proof that the foundations are OK for ours!

Common sense prevails!

Thanks again to everyone who posted a response.