Building Control Approval - Loft Conversion

iamcornholio

keithgillyon wrote: »

oh how stupid of me & there was me thinking this was MSE, where certain things could be checked for free...

Check with planning & building control for.................guess what, for FREE.

iamcornholio wrote: »

.... and check at the council for an application

iamcornholio wrote: »

He is not experienced to check the level of non-compliance if any. So the first step if to determine if the work was subject to any required approvals

Pity your advice and reading skills are not as good as your sarcasm :T

southcoastrgi

keithgillyon wrote: »

& go to the building control office & tell them you are interested in buying the house & has it gone through building control for a loft conversion,

my post no 17 or do you only read your own posts ??

baldelectrician

In Scotland you can look up the council planning and building website

You can then search on any property and go back to the 90's

maybe_tomorrow_2

Now now children....behave.

I have checked with building control and hey presto....there is no record of approval/completion cert.

I will therefore be paying for a building survey to be carried out but as one of you rightly pointed out, the vendor isnt going to let me rip up his walls and floor to check insultation and structural integrity where there is a chance i might not buy the house, this leavign him with a mess in his loft!

Has anyone else been in this situation? Does a vendor have to agree to intrisuve survey works before i commission a building survey?

Thanks again, you have no idea how helpful this has all been!

Jaynne

He doesn't have to agree to anything but you can tell them your offer is much lower due to not being able to survey properly and not having any proof of proper construction.

maybe_tomorrow_2

I have already made an offer. So are you saying I should reduce my offer if he refused to allow me to survey?

Thanks

Jaynne

You've made your offer subject to survey presumably? If so you can come back and say that your surveyor has not been able to survey properly and there is no building regs so you will be reducing your offer unless they can prove it is suitably constructed.

Of course the price of the property may already be lower than that of a legally converted similar place. I don't want to tell you to do anything however you can reduce or withdraw offers up until contracts are signed. The process is slightly different in Scotland but at this point you still can do that.

maybe_tomorrow_2

Yes, offer is subject to survey etc. I will discuss with the vendor before I arrange any surveys.

southcoastrgi

The problem is that you could if you buy it be opening up a world of heartache for yourself, forget the floor joist size & insulation levels for a min, what happens if (& I have seen it done by a "chippy" in his own house) the roof support timbers have been removed & the roof has not been strengthened ? You could then be in the situation of having to do a "proper" loft conversion or having more timbers put in & poss a rsj along the ridge which could cost you thousands, even if the local council make you change it back into a "storage" area & make you remove the stairs the roof may not be structully sound.

cyclonebri1

iamcornholio wrote: »

Of course it is.


He is not experienced to check the level of non-compliance if any. So the first step if to determine if the work was subject to any required approvals, and then have the property checked for compliance or other issues

Ok I accept that the need for an escape hatch has been relaxed, not sure why but it has been 10 years since my last.
but the bold bit, of course the work was subject to required approval otherwise why building control?


The problem I have with this topic as follows, why?, if you can simply apply, and get works retrospectively approved for accreditation without the structure being thoroughly examined, does anyone bother with building regs approval where they want every stage opened for inspection.

Hope the grammar holds up there.;)