A building control question

specialhat

I'm buying a 1900-ish mid-terrace house. A portion of the wall between the living room and dining room has been knocked through without building regs. The owners say it was done at some point by the previous owners who lived there for about 30 years until 2005.

They're taking out indemnity insurance to satisfy my solicitor.

When I move in, I intend to knock down another internal wall between the kitchen and dining room, obviously with building regs, and refurbish the entire ground floor.

I'm guessing having more work done may alert the council to the lack of building regs on the other wall and invalidate the indemnity insurance?

Would I be able to get my structural engineer to draw up plans for both removed walls to ensure they are both safe/within the rules, and get building regulation certificates for the whole lot this way?

Is there anything I haven't thought of?

Thank you!

davidmcn

specialhat wrote: »

I'm guessing having more work done may alert the council to the lack of building regs on the other wall and invalidate the indemnity insurance?

Would I be able to get my structural engineer to draw up plans for both removed walls to ensure they are both safe/within the rules, and get building regulation certificates for the whole lot this way?

Yes, you could do that. Bear in mind that the chances of the council caring about the past works is absolutely minuscule (unless there's actually a risk of the thing falling down and causing the neighbours a problem).

specialhat

davidmcn wrote: »

Yes, you could do that. Bear in mind that the chances of the council caring about the past works is absolutely minuscule (unless there's actually a risk of the thing falling down and causing the neighbours a problem).

Thanks. I also want things to be as above-board as possible when I come to sell it.

Do you think the missing regs would even crop up when they came to inspect the new kitchen wall work?

eddddy

specialhat wrote: »

Would I be able to get my structural engineer to draw up plans for both removed walls to ensure they are both safe/within the rules, and get building regulation certificates for the whole lot this way?

Probably - but you might find that the joist(s) put in 30 or 40 years ago fall short of current building regs. So it might be a lot of work and expense to make the existing opening compliant with current regs.

As a starting point, the structural engineer would need somebody to remove plaster, plaster board etc, to expose the joist(s) and the bearings and padstones.




(For balance, bear in mind that many other aspects of a 1900s house wouldn't comply with current building regs, so maybe decide how much you want to worry about this specific aspect.)

eddddy

specialhat wrote: »

Do you think the missing regs would even crop up when they came to inspect the new kitchen wall work?

No. Similarly, none of the other aspects of the house that don't meet current building regs would crop up either.


Here's some info about enforcement:

Prosecution and enforcement notices

First, if a person carrying out building work contravenes the Building Regulations, the local authority may prosecute them in the Magistrates' Court where an unlimited fine may be imposed (sections 35 and 35A of the Building Act 1984). Prosecution is possible up to two years after the completion of the offending work. This action will usually be taken against the person carrying out the work (builder, installer or main contractor).

Alternatively, or in addition, the local authority may serve an enforcement notice on the building owner requiring alteration or removal of work which contravenes the regulations (section 36 of the 1984 Act). If the owner does not comply with the notice the local authority has the power to undertake the work itself and recover the costs of doing so from the owner.

A section 36 enforcement notice cannot be served on you after the expiration of 12 months from the date of completion of the building work.

Link: https://www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200128/building_control/38/building_regulations/3

The work was done more than 2 years ago, so nobody can be prosecuted for doing it.

The work was done more than 12 months ago, so no enforcement notice can be served.

(The exception would be if the building was dangerous. But I guess you would want to deal with that anyway, rather than live in a dangerous building.)

specialhat

Thank you! Very useful.