No building Regulations

browneyedbazzi

Is there anyway to find out if work has had building regs approval without alerting the council to the work having been done? ie a public register like for planning?

Also, is there any good, conclusive guidance out there about what works require building regs approval? We're in the process of buying a house and the current owners have removed an internal wall - they claim that the work is exempt from building regulations. How do I find out if that's correct or not?

casperlarue

browneyedbazzi wrote: »

Is there anyway to find out if work has had building regs approval without alerting the council to the work having been done? ie a public register like for planning? Have a look at your Local Authorities website, under Building Control.

Also, is there any good, conclusive guidance out there about what works require building regs approval? We're in the process of buying a house and the current owners have removed an internal wall - they claim that the work is exempt from building regulations. How do I find out if that's correct or not?

Depends if the wall was loadbearing, if so then a beam should have been put in its place to carry the loads, would need structural calcs and therefore Building Regs approval. If it was a non-loadbearing wall, ie timber stud partition then there shouldn't be any problem.

browneyedbazzi

casperlarue wrote: »

Depends if the wall was loadbearing, if so then a beam should have been put in its place to carry the loads, would need structural calcs and therefore Building Regs approval. If it was a non-loadbearing wall, ie timber stud partition then there shouldn't be any problem.

Thank you casperlarue - it's a 1930s end of terrace property and the wall that has been removed is the wall between the lounge and dining room to make a through lounge. I would have thought that would be a load bearing wall - and they say they did put in an rsj, which surely you would only do if the wall was load bearing?

Sadly I can't see anywhere on the local authority's website that lets you search for building regs approval. My solicitor has sent an enquiry to the vendors asking for a copy of the completion certificate - I'm really hoping there's been some sort of confusion and they do have the required approval, otherwise I don't know what we'll do

Richard_Webster

You can either:

1. get your solicitor to see if an insurer will provide a policy even though Council have this note on their records;or

2. see if the Council will write a letter saying that even though they cannot say that the work complies they do not intend to take any enforcement action - sometimes they will do this.