misleading advertising?

dollythedog

chrisw wrote: »

I'm not entirely sure what you want the end use to be - a habitable living space or a workshop/storage type area.

If it's the latter, I suspect what some people may do is have the radiator taken out and the pipes capped off ahead of the inspection.

Once the work has been inspected, they might put the radiator back on again, assuming they were happy in the knowledge that the insulation may not be up to scratch.

They would probably then take the radiator out again should they ever consider selling the house.

I never meant this thread to discuss the building aspect but thank you for your thoughts!

this is my house: semi with semi-integral garage:


I wanted the latter, utility/storage, which is what the garage was used for by prev owners and by me, my washer, freezer & utility sink are in there and it's very cold & dark

the radiator is one trigger for BC approval requirement but not the only one

I asked for the space to be divided, it seemed if a partition wall was put up halfway down the garage, the 'indoors' bit could be heated to take the chill off, white the 'outdoors' bit stayed as unheated storage, keeping the existing garage door

builder persuaded me to have the partition further towards the front to make the 'indoors' bit bigger, which means part of the 'indoors' bit has an external single brick wall, so that and the bit of the external flat roof over the 'indoors' bit had some insulation put in, the dividing partition is placed so that the tiny window you can see in the photo is at the far end of the 'indoors' part, the other side of the window up to the garage door is storage

planners say the partition wall is 'conversion into a room', so that has to come out as well as the radiator

the window will be sorted by today's visit (I hope) - if the inspector finds any problem with the work then I'm further in the brown stuff, my builder will refuse to make it good unless I pay for it because he says I decided on the work

I'm also told the insulation isn't up to scratch, it's a stud timber frame fixed to the brick outer wall/floor, inner plasterboard and space between packed with Knauf cavity slabs

seems there should be a vapour barrier between the timber & brick/floor to prevent internal condensation, the wall is sealed all over up to the flat roof and same where insulation's been put in between the boarded flat roof & inner plasterboard ceiling so even if the space stays as 'garage' I'm told the timber stud will rot and I'll get mould on the plasterboard

Shaun_of_the_Dead

Were you 100% clear in what you wanted when speaking to the builder? By the sounds of it you've done a maje it work conversion that may people do and never inform building control. You've gained a non habitual room which you intend to use for living space.

dollythedog

Shaun_of_the_Dead wrote: »

Were you 100% clear in what you wanted when speaking to the builder? By the sounds of it you've done a maje it work conversion that may people do and never inform building control. You've gained a non habitual room which you intend to use for living space.

yes I've always been clear it was for the utility stuff that's always been in there, washing machine, freezer, utility sink

I did think about a downstairs WC but the utility space was more important so that was scrapped before work started, I thought living space means it's for cooking/eating/sleeping things that people do on a day to day basis, it isn't for any of those and that's why I didn't plan to spend megabucks on it, there's just me and my dog here and we have plenty of space for everything else, I just don;t like mixing dirty dog towels/garden stuff with my clean kitchen

my builder designed the interior fitting with the kitchen units supplier for the above, I never meant to bypass BC and the reason I found out is that knowing I'd need confirmation of exemption when I sell the house, I wrote to BC telling them my builder said it's exempt and asking them to confirm

the rest is history!

dollythedog

what I can't get through my thick head, people, is why my builder didn't know the project needed BC approval when he's got all that stuff on his website about 'working closely' with them?

and why did he change what he's written there? he must think it makes some difference?

I really do think he made a genuine mistake in telling me no approval needed, but he won't do anything to put it right unless I pay him again

Davesnave

Your problem is that it's accessed from inside the house.


I did a similar thing to create a workshop behind our garage, but closed off the entrance from the house, as the corridor to it was more useful as bedroom space.


We stuck the boiler in there and called it a boiler room, but it's way larger than needed for that. It could easily be a full utility, but of course there's the inconvenience of going outdoors to access and we already have one.

BCO hasn't really looked at ours because it's an 'outbuilding' and the electricians have covered the hard wiring for fire etc. I think you've been unlucky, but you might well have had some problems with damp.

We also converted the garage, but that was all done 'properly' and the BCO did look at that carefully.

GDB2222

I have a bit of sympathy with the builder. You are already using the garage as a room, for washing etc. You just asked him to make it a bit cosier. You should never have involved BC in the project unless you were prepared to do it properly, and pay to do it properly. What made you get in contact with them?

Anyway, am I right that you now want him to rip out all the work he’s done and refund you? A proper garage conversion would be well into five figures. Can I ask how much you have paid?

Mistral001

Not getting Building Control Approval for a garage conversion could affect the value of your property. The estate agent cannot advertise it as a reception room or bedroom and he cannot advertise it as a garage, so in fact the value of the house without all the necessary statuary approval could go down as you lose a garage.

Apart from spending money to devalue your house, which seems like a crazy thing to do, the mortgage provider might not be too pleased if a house they gave a mortgage on is possibly worth less now than when it was bought.

dollythedog

Mistral001 wrote: »

Not getting Building Control Approval for a garage conversion could affect the value of your property. The estate agent cannot advertise it as a reception room or bedroom and he cannot advertise it as a garage, so in fact the value of the house without all the necessary statuary approval could go down as you lose a garage.

Apart from spending money to devalue your house, which seems like a crazy thing to do, the mortgage provider might not be too pleased if a house they gave a mortgage on is possibly worth less now than when it was bought.

once again absolutely right, which answers the question above about why I contacted BC

when I bought my previous house it had full PP for a replacement conservatory

I had the conservatory replaced, the builders said it was exempt from BC approval, it was, but 7 years later when I sold the house the buyers' solicitor asked for written council confirmation, I got that without any difficulty and the sale went through fine

so this time, as my trusted builder was so absolutely sure about exemption, I asked for a letter confirming and was refused on the grounds that his advice about non-habitable accommodation was irrelevant, the project he designed was classed as conversion and needed approval but required lots more extra work to get it

I think I already said the additional plans/applications/works needed to comply were very expensive? the original project was priced at over £10k inc VAT without the additional insulation/damp/fireproofing, my budget won't accommodate all those additions the builder didn't consider necessary so I don't really have any option apart from restoring the space to 'garage' for the reasons you've given above

there's another local tweak that while the project would 'usually' be exempt from PP, our local authority has a precept that converting a garage requires creation of a replacement parking space, so I'd have to pay for trashing the front garden and resurfacing with block paving or gravel

as I live on my own with one car (that's half a metre too long to go in the 70's garage anyway) a second parking space isn't top of my list!

this morning the building inspector has been and passed the window no problem, she is writing to confirm the radiator, plasterboard partition and insulation have to be removed

I can't see any other way if I want to be able to sell the house easily in the future

dollythedog

GDB2222 wrote: »

I have a bit of sympathy with the builder. You are already using the garage as a room, for washing etc. You just asked him to make it a bit cosier. You should never have involved BC in the project unless you were prepared to do it properly, and pay to do it properly. What made you get in contact with them?

Anyway, am I right that you now want him to rip out all the work he’s done and refund you? A proper garage conversion would be well into five figures. Can I ask how much you have paid?

Utility space is exempt from BC approval, I can do as much washing in there as I want, it's the addition of a partition and heating that takes it into BC approval

my builder did not know that, neither did I, and as detailed above I do now know that I should have found out in advance and not taken his word

hindsight is a wonderful thing, and I'm doing everything I can do put this right but I think a professional builder advertising all that stuff about design & building control should not have given me bad advice, and if in any way uncertain should have either checked for me or told me to do it myself which, of course, I would have done