Roof replacement not signed off

marywooyeah

Hi I really hope someone can help me.  Basically last year I had my guttering replaced and some ridge tiles replaced.  The roofers told me I needed a whole new roof retiling so I had four companies quote.   Two refused the job as I had foam insulation in the upper part of the roof which was there when I bought the house six years ago.  One quoted me 11k, the other 6.5k.   I went with the latter and at first all was fine.  The salesman was nice and the roofer seemed nice when he came to look round.  I specifically asked if I needed planning permission or anything and was told no.  Long story short, they put the wrong tiles on the roof so had to then order the right ones, leading to a delay of a couple of weeks and a leak on my bathroom ceiling which they said was from lats? 
They got the foam insulation all over my front yard, back garden (which had just been landscaped), left a brown stain on the bathroom ceiling which they painted over but was still visible, and messed me around by not turning up a few times and then leaving after a few hours when they did come.  My new guttering broke under the weight of water and full of foam which they fixed.  At the start I asked whether my loft needed to be emptied but they said no, everything can just be covered up.  At the end it turned out they hadn't put the dust sheets down I had handed to them and thousands of pounds worth of things are damaged/ruined in the loft and there is dirt, debris and foam all over the loft.  My wedding dress is black with dirt and things the kids made at nursery etc and all their baby clothes were up there so irreplaceable sentimental and expensive items are filthy and a lot will have to be thrown away.
They caused a lot of issues with my neighbours too due to the scaffold and noise and the whole job took over 6 weeks when they told me it would be a few days.
In the end I negotiated not paying some of the money due to the issues but then got a call from the owner of the company a few weeks later being quite aggressive saying I owed them.  He said he would come and look at the mess in the loft but never did.  I called again after not hearing for a few months and he said he would send a surveyor out but nothing so far and this was a few weeks ago.
I googled how to have a roof signed off and am now finding stuff saying that I needed building regulations permission and that someone from the council needed to be coming round to check during the work and sign off.  I had no idea and this was never mentioned and I specifically asked if I needed planning permission or anything.
I am now very afraid and do not know what to do.  The loft is still filthy and all the insulation needs coming out and replacing.  The beams have remnants of foam still attached to them and the loft is very cold when I go inside.  I am scared to phone the council but don't know what to do either as surely I need someone to say whether the work is correct or not?
I have looked on companies house and the company has now been dissolved.  I really need help and would be grateful for advice.  Thank you for reading

TELLIT01

Very easy to be wise after the event but when there is a massive difference between quotes you need to wonder why.  It's possible the higher quote didn't want the work, but equally possible that the lower quote was desperate for the work.  It would seem to have been the latter in this case.  As the company has been dissolved you aren't likely to get anywhere by chasing them unless you can sue the owner rather than the company.  You would need to get legal advice on that.

Contact the council about obtaining building regs certification.  It's not advisible to ignore it and hope it will go away as it may cause problems if you want to sell the house. 

The cleanup of the attic is going to fall to you to do now I'm afraid.

The attic will be colder now because the foam insulation, although many people hate it, is an effective insulator.

FreeBear

The main thing the council (Building Control) will be looking at is the level of insulation in the loft - As part of the sign off, they may ask for the level of loft insulation to be 300mm. If you don't have that much, it is not a huge job to put a bit more in. It is something you could do yourself if you're active & mobile.

Although the foam was a fairly good insulator, it can promote rot in the roof timbers, and affect the resale value of the property - There are reports of some mortgage companies refusing to lend on properties with the stuff. On balance, you are as well to see the back of it. I wouldn't worry too much about getting loose lumps out of the loft. Just put another layer of fibreglass/rockwool over the top and it will add to the existing insulation.

marywooyeah

Hi - thank you so much for your responses.   I have read awful things about that spray insulation stuff so think it is better it has been removed.  It was in our survey (that we should have paid much more attention to) that it was detrimental and needed removing.  What I am worried about is that all the roof tiles have been replaced and I am reading online that you need to have the council involved at the start, during and at the end of the work or there can be fines if it doesn't meet the regs but I didn't know anything about this and the roofers should have told me.  
The insultation that is in there is big piles of rubbishy wool and I've been told by an installation company that it all needs coming out and replacing.  The loft is full of debris and foam from the roofers so its a big job and I feel annoyed I have been left to deal with it myself.
I suppose what it is I am worrying about is whether it is possible to get a building regs certificate after the  roof has already been retiled, worried about what will happen if the retiling doesn't meet regs, and am I worried about getting trouble - if you could advise this would be gratefully appreciated.

Doozergirl

Like Freebear said, unless you have the wooden roof structure replaced as well,  building control are interested in the level of insulation and will probably want to see the type of breathable membrane, but it's hard to get that wrong.    It should have the brand written on it. 

You should be able to get it signed off once you have the right level of rockwool up there.  

The loft should be cold, by the way.  Rockwool goes over the ceiling joists, not under the rafters like the spray stuff.  

Having recently having had to clean out the loft when we moved, there wasn't an awful lot to retain.  I asked the kids to choose what they wanted to keep from their old school stuff and it's not a lot, they fit on a shelf in a cupboard, each in a £3 cardboard box from Ikea.  It might just be an excuse for a proper clear out.   The vast majority of contents of ours I threw down a ladder and then out of an upstairs window to the skip.   It looked like I was evicting the husband 😂

Ectophile

The alternative is to say nothing to the local Building Control for the next two years.  When you come to sell the house, offer to buy indemnity insurance to cover the unlikely event that the council will try to do anything about it.  The insurance policy will probably cost less than the building control fees.

ChasingtheWelshdream

Just popping on to say thank you to the technical people as you've answered some questions we were pondering with our own roof regarding insulation. 

OP - From starting a programme of 'spot repairs' last year, as the weeks went on it was more economical to simply re-roof  the back of the house. We have now replaced around 25% of the total roof, with at another 25% to be done in the summer, so are now into building regs territory.  Our building control has been fine that we had not submitted a building notice, as (a), we had not intended to re-roof when we started and (b), the works will be easy to inspect once we upgrade the insulation. 

We will simply submit a notice and the building control will come along for the next batch and inspect then. 

Our neighbour had their roof replaced over 2 years - building regs was signed-off retrospectively, so they can inspect and sign-off fairly easily.