Professional Consultants Certificate

fbrander

Hi,
We were looking to buy a house built in 2010. It was built by the current owner who did most of the work himself. It has a home report in which all categories are listed as "1" meaning no issues were found by the surveyor.
However, it has no NHBC certificate or completion certificate but instead has a professional consultants certificate awarded retrospectively.
We don't need a mortgage to finance the purchase but are still a wee bit nervous mainly because the owner did all the work himself. Am I being daft?

davidmcn

When you say "completion certificate", do you mean the local authority's confirmation that it complied with building regulations?

lush_walrus

There may not be an nhbc certificate as they may not have asked for them to insure it, most self builders don't so there is nothing odd there.

With regards to final certificate is this from the architect? To certify that the work is compete?

Building control will also have signed the project off and that it has been built compliant with the building regulations.

fbrander

davidmcn wrote: »

When you say "completion certificate", do you mean the local authority's confirmation that it complied with building regulations?

Sorry my mistake. Has a completion certificate but no NHBC.

marksoton

fbrander wrote: »

Sorry my mistake. Has a completion certificate but no NHBC.

CC from whom?

Lack of NHBC is no surprise.

rosyw

Not daft, but just a bit over cautious You have a completion certificate and no issues found by the surveyor, what's the problem?

I bought my place 6 years ago, very similar situation, I just had the building regs sign off - no more, but did have a chat with the architect who was supposed to have issued a certificate to find out why he hadn't done this, reasons were very minor so I went ahead. I'm very glad I did, it's a far better build than the average modern box and a "one off". I know I would have regretted it if I had let the lack of NHBC warranty put me off.

AnotherJoe

fbrander wrote: »

Hi,
We were looking to buy a house built in 2010. It was built by the current owner who did most of the work himself. It has a home report in which all categories are listed as "1" meaning no issues were found by the surveyor.
However, it has no NHBC certificate or completion certificate but instead has a professional consultants certificate awarded retrospectively.
We don't need a mortgage to finance the purchase but are still a wee bit nervous mainly because the owner did all the work himself. Am I being daft?

Put it this way, you could either;
-buy a house where a person you don't know but has had all his work marked "1" built it for himsel knowing he'd be living in it, or you could;
-buy a mass market house built by many people you don't know all on piecework rushing to complete as many jobs as possible to get a decent wage, building houses they won't be living In.

System

A lot of self builds i've seen over the years have been better built than developer houses purely because the people are building their own homes and want to make a decent job, not just the quickest job! not always the way but sounds like everything is in place with this one - nhbc is absolutely no guarantee of quality and/or any use if there are defects found so wouldn't worry about that not being there on any build tbh

fbrander

Thanks everyone. My sister has lived in a Barratt box since new and has had massive issues so I totally get your point. Just needed reassurance-its a big decision and as we are retiring, out budget for any problems afterwards is not huge!

davidmcn

The only thing I would be wary of is the retrospective nature of the certificate - has it been qualified in any way because of this? (e.g. "I didn't see the foundations being poured, I didn't see the drains being laid" etc).