No building control cert for utility room

inacrisis

We bought a house in 2017, the old garage had been converted to a utility room, sink with dryer washer dishwasher etc. We recently looked into changing the roof which had started leaking and found out you need to get building control involved. I looked a little further and apparently when the garage was changed to a utility room there should have been building control involved and a cert issued. I also read that if you go back to them in retrospect if anything is wrong then they can make you rip out the whole thing and start from scratch! The old garage door is still on but has been plasterboarded out from the inside! so it's a 'sealed' room but I would imagine it isn't the most efficient in terms of heating. There is a radiator in there but we normally keep it off as it's not used as a room we use other than sticking on the washing.

Instead of replacing the roof we just repaired where it was leaking which after confirming with building control required no input from them. We now want to take out the garage door and brick it up (My dads a bricklayer so an easy and cheap job for us)

Can anyone advise exactly what position we are in regarding contacting building control? I have read that if the room has been used as a utility room for more than a year building control won't chase after you and on sale there should be an indemnity policy taken out? When we bought the house we got one for windows but not for the garage conversion. As far as I know the policy covers if building control do turn up and make you take it down!

If we brick up the garage door do we need to inform building control in which case they'll want to come along and potentially make us redo the whole room? Could they even make us rebuild the whole garage? My dad has looked over it and says it's structurally sound, foundations brickwork etc.

Many thanks

Typhoon2000

It doesn’t sound like a habitable room. Is this just a garage with a dishwasher and washing machine? Bit of plasterboard on the inside of the door does not signify any sort of conversion.

FreeBear

Typhoon2000 wrote: »

It doesn’t sound like a habitable room. Is this just a garage with a dishwasher and washing machine? Bit of plasterboard on the inside of the door does not signify any sort of conversion.

If it wasn't for the radiator, I would agree. A repair to the roof wouldn't be subject to building regs anyway. If the boards are still in good condition, simply refelting it would be the easiest option - Even if some of the boards do need replacing, as long as it is less than 25% of the entire roof, Building Control do not need to be contacted.

Davesnave

Never mind building control, if your garage is on the main elevation facing the road and you replace the door with a wall, you ought to obtain planning permission, because you'll be altering the facade. It could also reduce your house's kerb appeal if just turned from a door into a blank wall.


However, apart from losing space, there would be nothing stopping you from building a wall behind the door so the appearance stays the same. I did this with a garage conversion where a wide stable door was retained and a small window added to maintain the balance of appearance, but mine was with PP and building regs.

inacrisis

Davesnave wrote: »

Never mind building control, if your garage is on the main elevation facing the road and you replace the door with a wall, you ought to obtain planning permission, because you'll be altering the facade. It could also reduce your house's kerb appeal if just turned from a door into a blank wall.


However, apart from losing space, there would be nothing stopping you from building a wall behind the door so the appearance stays the same. I did this with a garage conversion where a wide stable door was retained and a small window added to maintain the balance of appearance, but mine was with PP and building regs.

The plan is to put a window in. About 50% of houses on our street have done this already so don't think it would be an issue

The previous occupier has already made some kind of studded wall behind the garage door. We plan to take this down... Build up the wall replacing the door with a window in.

Thanks

inacrisis

FreeBear wrote: »

If it wasn't for the radiator, I would agree. A repair to the roof wouldn't be subject to building regs anyway. If the boards are still in good condition, simply refelting it would be the easiest option - Even if some of the boards do need replacing, as long as it is less than 25% of the entire roof, Building Control do not need to be contacted.

It had a radiator and we use it as a study /gym but tbh in the winter it's too cold to use and we don't like using the radiator as the room is not very energy efficient!

We are going to repair the roof. Already confirmed this with building control that we don't need to have them involved.

Thanks

em74

I know this is old, but isn't the radiator allowed providing it has it's own controller?

DevilDamo

“if your garage is on the main elevation facing the road and you replace the door with a wall, you ought to obtain planning permission, because you'll be altering the facade”

Eh!?! PP would only ‘normally’ be required if you’re extending the garage space, not when you’re looking to replace a garage door with a wall (or window).

Davesnave

DevilDamo said:

“if your garage is on the main elevation facing the road and you replace the door with a wall, you ought to obtain planning permission, because you'll be altering the facade”

Eh!?! PP would only ‘normally’ be required if you’re extending the garage space, not when you’re looking to replace a garage door with a wall (or window).

OK I'm quoting from Build It's article on projects that don't require PP.

"Planning permission is not normally required to re purpose a garage for residential use, providing that the work is exclusively internal......"

Altering the front access door to something else is not an internal change.