Home improvements advice (breaking building regs?)

windra

We recently had a new kitchen & bathroom fitted which included a new fuse box and electrical cirtcuit, soil stack moved and some small building work (internal walls) costing almost 20k.


We were estimated 4-5weeks (verbally) and the work commenced on the 30th Apil. We went away for the first 2 weeks so they could gut the kitchen & bathroom and had a relative keep an eye on the project. The builders had been in for aprox 4hrs a day for the 10 working days and when we got back the kitchen was gutted (empty) and the bathroom had a working toilet but we had no access to running water as there were no taps in the house. This was quite inconvenient as we had just arrived back from scotland on a saturday night expecting to have water (is this breaking building regs?).
We insisted on them fitting a new sink the next working day and they eventually agreed.

During the build we pointed out quite a few issues, such as a wall fan was to be fitted but the wall was boarded before it had been fitted which meant they then had to move it to the ceiling which we were not happy about. They also boarded the whole bathroom in aqua board, except around the shower which was normal base board(i think they ran out) when i asked they brushed it off saying it would be fine.
The new circuit,lighting, appliances were fitted mid May and we have been using them since (but do not have an electrical certificate yet) and they finally announced they had finished on Jun 13th.
The workmanship was no where near finished, they had left rubble under the bath and covered it up, cracks and defects in the tiling etc I took 70 photos of the issues and requested they complete the job. After lots of delays most of these had been fixed and when the building manager came to inspect on the 22nd June He made my boyfriend sign a document which states we would not withhold payment for the few things left and promised he'd drop the electrical certificate off the next day. We paid on the 23rd June the final amount but later that day were told that someone needed to come out and perform half a day of inspections for the certificate, and that they would come out the following week.

Three weeks later we do not have any electrical certificate and some minor issues like pointing of the soil stack still are not done. Our emails are now being ignored. It has been 28days since final payment and I read that building regulations insist the certificate is given within 30days. Can anyone advise if this is true? I am going to visit the company tomorrow and would like some ammunition.

Some of the fixings in the kitchen such as hinges have stopped working correctly so we are now really worrying about how good the workmanship is.

Any advice is appreciated.

MX5huggy

Your barking up the wrong tree with buildings regulations. You as the home owner are responsible for complying with them.

You need to get a quote for rectifying the work then give your builder the chance to sort it, if they refuse you have to go to out to get the money back.

fluffpot

The electrical testing and inspection should have been done BEFORE the new fuse board was energised (ie switched on) not after. It sounds to me like it wasn't done by an electrician and your builder is now trying to organise a proper electrician to come and do the testing and paperwork.

You could check here https://www.competentperson.co.uk to see if your builder is registered - he needs to be in order to do fuse board changes and electrical work in a kitchen. If he is registered, then you could try making a complaint to the registration body.

It's true that registered spakrs are supposed to notify building control within 28 days - but this only so as to avoid a late notice fee being imposed on them