Building Control sign-off

randompenitent

I'm in the process of buying a relatively new house (completed 2019). It's an individual house, not on an estate, and not built by a major builder.

There's a "Completion Certificate" from the Building Control Department of the local county council which states that "Building Regulations have been satisfied".  It lacks any detail on what specific checks were made in order to achieve this sign-off.  And it seems that the application for the approval is also very general with no specific requests.

My solicitor says that "usually there are additional certificates from individual installers for specialist items (e.g. winds, electrics, solar panels, oil tanks etc), but there's no evidence of these nor are they mentioned in the completion certificate.  All we have is the assurance from the seller (via their solicitor) that all these were signed off as part of the completion certificate. 

Apparently the council won't provide any additional information on what was checked.

Do we have a problem here, or is the completion certificate sufficient evidence of compliance with building regulations?

Browntoa

I'd say yes 

I had a completion certificate on a previous property I owned. I'd had the regular planning visits at the appropriate times during the works and satisfied any raised issues to their satisfaction.

They never asked for specifics on kitchen fittings etc 

user1977

What sort of "additional certificates" does your solicitor think might exist? There might be manufacturers' warranties, manuals etc which get handed over, but I don't think there needs to be any more paperwork for building control purposes.

randompenitent

@user1977 It seems the solicitor is looking for either a more detailed breakdown of what was included in the inspection for the Local Authority's completion certificate or building regs sign-off for specific items from the relevant installers, e.g. a certificate from an OFTEC registered person for the (oil) central heating installation, a certificate from a FENSA-certified installer for the double-glazing and so on. Is it reasonable to expect to get all of these? I suspect the solicitor is nit-picking but it's a long time since I last did a property transaction and the volume of paperwork seems to have increased exponentially. 

user1977

No, solicitor is probably mistaken. We've seen similar queries before, but (as far as I know) you don't get e.g. separate FENSA certificates for windows if they're part of the overall build of the house.

Doozergirl

randompenitent said:

@user1977 It seems the solicitor is looking for either a more detailed breakdown of what was included in the inspection for the Local Authority's completion certificate or building regs sign-off for specific items from the relevant installers, e.g. a certificate from an OFTEC registered person for the (oil) central heating installation, a certificate from a FENSA-certified installer for the double-glazing and so on. Is it reasonable to expect to get all of these? I suspect the solicitor is nit-picking but it's a long time since I last did a property transaction and the volume of paperwork seems to have increased exponentially. 

Your solicitor is mistaken. 

This is a new build.  They may have some additional certificates for gas and electric but they would have been provided to building control for the certificate you have to exist.  

Given that you aren't buying this house from the developer then it is unreasonable to expect the current vendor to have anything.  

You do not get given a list of the inspections carried out by building control at all.  You never do, regardless of the work.  

randompenitent

Good responses, thanks all.