New house Building control?

tellme_why

Hello Forum,

I am buying a new house from a small building company and I want to find out who did the building control. Rung the local council and they said they don't, rung NHBC and they said they only provide warranty but no building control..

Anyone may knows how this works?

Thanks!

thegreenone

Mr thegreenone is a structural engineer and he says your local council should be inspecting the build works on a regular basis. If the house builder has not registered for and passed building control, don't buy it. ie if your local council are saying they have no record of planning/building regulation approval, back away. They must have though as it's a new house. Keep pushing or try your local councillor, any party, for help, one usually sits on the planning committee as we have found!


Edited: the planning application will say who applied and the planning department SHOULD tell you. Usually an architect.


We have just had our roof replaced plus other works and the building inspector visited three times in one month.

Hoploz

I understand sometimes a private company specialising in building control may be used. Not sure what happens re the council in these cases but im thinking perhaps they only notify the council obce it is signed off? Can you perhaps ask them who they are using?
Has a completion certificate been issued ... Could you see it?

anselld

The Council do not have a monopoly on building control.
NHBC can do it.
Private building Control Specialists can do it.
The Council can do it.
Either way the end result is a Completion Certificate so just ask the Builder to show you the Completion Certificate and all will be revealed.

tellme_why

Hoploz wrote: »

I understand sometimes a private company specialising in building control may be used. Not sure what happens re the council in these cases but im thinking perhaps they only notify the council obce it is signed off? Can you perhaps ask them who they are using?
Has a completion certificate been issued ... Could you see it?

Hi I think this is the case; there are planning permission on the council website but the council is not doing the building survey. I guess the only chance is an external company did.
If so, I was wondering what type of registration / qualification this surveyor should have?
There are no certificates (what type of certificate by the way?) since the house is not completed.

I find quite strange that NHBC provides warranty of the newbuild even if there is no building control from council or building control from NHBC.. ??

thegreenone

anselld wrote: »

The Council do not have a monopoly on building control.



Either way the end result is a Completion Certificate so just ask the Builder to show you the Completion Certificate and all will be revealed.

Considering the hoops we had to jump through to get the work done on our house, that is very scary.



If the builder won't tell you, the Building regs. Dept. at the Council should.

Hoploz

It's not about jumping through hoops, it's about ensuring your home meets current safety standards. The building inspector works in favour of all the people who are going to be living in the building for the next 100 years or whatever.

anselld

thegreenone wrote: »

Considering the hoops we had to jump through to get the work done on our house, that is very scary.

You are equally entitled to appoint your own Building Control provider, but the hoops are the same either way, i.e. you have to meet the Building Regs.
http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/buildingregulations/howtogetapproval/wheretogetapproval/

thegreenone

We did have to jump through every single hoop the building regs. Dept. told us to. It was far more work than we had intended to do but as Hoploz said, it is about making the building safe for many years to come. We accept that. But it was still a pain in the bottom and a lot of money spent on BRegs and extras we didn't want. Our loft is now almost habitable, which is not what we wanted. We just wanted dry storage.


Shove over Sarah Brightman, I don't have to go in to space, I have enough NASA designed insulation in my loft that I can just go and sit there and spot the stars through the velux window.

phoebe1989seb

Hoploz wrote: »

I understand sometimes a private company specialising in building control may be used. Not sure what happens re the council in these cases but im thinking perhaps they only notify the council obce it is signed off? Can you perhaps ask them who they are using?
Has a completion certificate been issued ... Could you see it?

At the recommendation of our architect we used an independent building inspector for the first time on our last project that included building a large extension and making various internal alterations - adding bathrooms, removing walls etc). The initial building notice was lodged with the council (in the same way I guess as if we'd been using them to inspect) but then the independent guy made the visits, checked all was being done to building regs and finally issued the completion certificate. We found it a much less nit-picking - whilst still thorough of course - process than previously when we'd used council building control......