Copy of floorplans from a builder ?

luke0380

Hi All.

I wanted a 3rd opinion on a request I made to Persimmon Homes who were the house builders.

In a nutshell , the house was built 5 years ago and IO wanted a copy of the floor-plans. Now i have some but they have writings and markings all over them.

I emailed them asking if they would be so kind to send me a copy but they replied saying:

Hello,

Thank you for your email. Unfortunately, we are not able to give out copies of drawings or plans so we are unable to help you further with regards to your query.

I am sorry that I am unable to help you further.

Kind regards

To which I replied back: Thankyou for your response. Can i ask why you this is please ?

They replied saying:

It is due to many reasons but one of which is copyright.

Kind regards

I've replied. How come I was allowed one before? I am also the owner of the property .

When you sell a house, you have floor plans on the brochures so I am really failing to understand why a simple request like this cannot be accommodated, it's very disappointing.

Now some please reality check this for me , one am i being unreasonable. Fair enough if they cannot be bothered to do it for me, then just say so. But down to copyright , seriously? What happens when a house is sold , are there no floorplans available ?

jennifernil

We have had a similar experience, though the circumstances are different.

We designed our own house and had it built. The company who built it had the plans drawn up by their in-house architect. When the plans received Planning Permission and Building Regulations approval, the stamped plans were returned to us.

A few years later, on the suggestion of our solicitor, for safekeeping, these plans were placed with the other documents held by our lender.

When we later re-mortgaged, all the paperwork went missing between solicitors/lenders. Despite chasing this for years the papers never surfaced.

It was suggested we should ask our local authority for copies of the approval paperwork, the solicitors to pay any fee required.

However the council refused to supply on the grounds of copyright on the design, even though it was our own design!! The builders no longer exist, so quite who they are protecting is a bit of a mystery!

Fire_Fox

jennifernil wrote: »

We have had a similar experience, though the circumstances are different.

We designed our own house and had it built. The company who built it had the plans dawn up by their in-house architect. When the plans received Planning Permission and Building Regulations approval, the stamped plans were returned to us.

A few years later, on the suggestion of our solicitor, for safekeeping, these plans were placed with the other documents held by our lender.

When we later re-mortgaged, all the paperwork went missing between solicitors/lenders. Despite chasing this for years the papers never surfaced.

It was suggested we should ask our local authority for copies of the paperwork, the solicitors to pay any fee required.

However the council refused to supply on the grounds of copyright on the design, even though it was our own design!! The builders no longer exist, so quite who they are protecting is a bit of a mystery!

Not sure it would apply here .... but have you considered a Freedom of Information request covering the planning application?

jennifernil

To make "new" plans, could you not scan those you have, clean them up on the computer and re-print them?

jennifernil

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Not sure it would apply here .... but have you considered a Freedom of Information request covering the planning application?

I have no idea whether that would be appropriate, worth considering possibly! If a problem should arise if/when we come to sell, the council have said they would have no problem confirming the existence of the correct approvals, so we have left it at that.

We do have several sets of the plans in our possession, so plans are not a problem. Just the "stamped plans" , the PP and the Building Warrant.

propertyman

Sadly the copyright overrides the FOI request. You can make an inspection of the planning file by appointment. Sometimes there are more than one copy in the file and sometimes they fall into bags. Terrible really.

Even if they are scribbled on, so what?

Anyhow, the local searches will satisfy the purchaser and the lender.

Fuzzyness

if you can find the original planning application that they made for the development at your local council they will have copies of the plans there that you can pay to copy. alternatively and depending on what your local authority is like you may be able find them online on your council's planning pages. search for the on line planning register or search for an application option.

hanwellmike

If and when you do get your hands on a decent copy of the plans then I recommend that you get the plans scanned electronically (say into pdf format) so that you can always retain an electronic copy safely. If the plans are more than A3 size then you will probably need to get this done professionally but it would be worth it. PDF copies would allow you to print further paper copies if required.