Can someone recommend a good private building control service?

tallac

I need to get a building control inspector for my renovation work and as I understand I can go via a council appointed inspector or private. I've decided to go the private route. The builder I'm intending on using has obtained a quote from one private building control company and my architect has done the same for another company. There's a slight difference in price but more importantly, both companies do not have the best track record in terms of public reviews. It's not completely clear cut as I'm looking at reviews from TrustPilot, Facebook, Google. The cheaper company isn't on TrustPilot but their reviews on Facebook and Google have a quite high percentage of negative reviews. The slightly more expensive company has about 30 reviews on TrustPilot, and it has an even larger percentage of negative reviews.

I then decided to do some searching for another company which has good reviews but I really struggled to find any company that even had any reviews at all. Can anyone recommend a good private building control service? Or how do I go about finding one which has a good track record?

fenwick458

have to ask, whats wrong with your local council?
how much do these private ones charge? I had an extension built a few years ago from my LABC charged £650 inc VAT

tallac

fenwick458 said:

have to ask, whats wrong with your local council?
how much do these private ones charge? I had an extension built a few years ago from my LABC charged £650 inc VAT

General feedback I've received is that the council will send whoever is available for each visit and thus you get a different inspector for each inspection. This doesn't give good consistency. Going private will give you a single inspector that's used throughout the project, you'll get much more consistency. Also, with the private company, I've heard that the inspectors are more likely to work with the builders as a team to find solutions to any issues found, rather than going on a power trip to reject things (just because they can).

DevilDamo

Hmmm... disagree with the comments/views about LABC.

You mention that Council’s will send whoever is available. BCO’s are normally assigned on areas so you should have the same throughout, unless of course they’re off/away or have left. What happens if your AI is off/away or leaves their company... the same as LABC is it not?

You have pro’s and con’s with both and experiences are so different up and down the country, so try not to tarnish all with the same brush... that’s for both LABC and AI’s.

ComicGeek

I think the feedback you have had is out of date - may have been the case years ago, but these days LABC are just as helpful. They know that they are in competition and work hard. The problems I've had in the last few years have all been with AIs.

theonlywayisup

I don't know where you are but we use Stroma and LABC equally depending on what the client prefers.   Have never found a problem with LABC, in fact I would go as far as saying they are the most helpful people employed by the local authority. 

NeverTooLate

tallac said:

General feedback I've received is that the council will send whoever is available for each visit and thus you get a different inspector for each inspection. This doesn't give good consistency. Going private will give you a single inspector that's used throughout the project, you'll get much more consistency. Also, with the private company, I've heard that the inspectors are more likely to work with the builders as a team to find solutions to any issues found, rather than going on a power trip to reject things (just because they can).

We're doing a renovation at the moment and we're using the LABC inspector. We've had the same person throughout and he has been extremely helpful. If you contact him in the morning, he is on site that day if needed.