Obtaining a building regulation control certificate

RoughNeck

Hi there,

I know there's lots of posts around this, but they all seem to be slightly different to what I'm looking for. There two things:

1. This year, we had all our windows replaced in the house by a friend. He is competent and I know would follow building regs, but he's not FENSA registered. Having checked the regs against my installed windows, I believe they meet the criteria.

2. A couple of years ago, we had someone different install a cloakroom for us under the stairs and he also put in a NEW window into the side of the house.

It's only recently I realised I needed to get a building control cert for the windows and am wondering what might happen with this. I didn't think it was required by law, but having recently checked forums on MSE, it seems it is. I think the local council charge just under £200 for an inspection and cert, but if the windows didn't meet the criteria, would I be subject to a fine? It's also a retrospective cert. Separately, because it's a couple of years after the NEW window was installed, does that make things worse? A steel lintel was put in for this window (so I was told), but would I be asked to prove this? It's not overlooking anyone, it's a window into the driveway.

Thank you. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Bigphil1474

Don't confuse planning with building control - planning deal with what you can and can't do, BC look at whether it meets the required standards at the time. Your best bet is to ring your local council BC office and ask them. I think you can apply for retrospective BC sign off (regularisation?) that costs a bit more but it's less than £200 from what I can remember when I last looked into it. You wouldn't normally be fined,  but they may insist on remedial works being done if not up to standard. If you are confident it's all fine, ring BC.

RoughNeck

Thanks Bigphil for your sound advice. Regularisation is what it's noted as on the council website too, so I believe you are right.. Thanks again  

silvercar

Are you intending to move in the next few years? If not, given you are happy with the work, I would do nothing. When you do move the window will have been in place for many years, so no action will be possible by the council. Your future buyers will rely on their survey and if the window has been in place for years, any defects would be expected to show up.

FreeBear

silvercar said:

Are you intending to move in the next few years? If not, given you are happy with the work, I would do nothing. When you do move the window will have been in place for many years, so no action will be possible by the council.

Any work substantially completed after 25th April 2024 is now subject to a 10 year time limit for enforcement action.

RoughNeck

Thanks for the information all. As it happens, I paid £200 for building control for regularisation (try saying that if you've had a few!). They came round today. They were happy with the windows and they didn't take long! I was confident with them anyway, but I was glad to get their seal of approval. The biggest thing they seemed concerned about was the trickle vents, which I had on all windows anyway as the house does suffer with some damp/moisture issues. We'll unlikely move in the next 10 years, but I'd never say never. I'll receive the certificate via e-mail.

However..... we had a cloakroom put in a couple of years ago. They commented that I should have let them know about it and that the drainage is the main concern. Again, as it happens, we are in the throes of trying to sort this as the guy who did it wasn't competent enough really. She pointed out a couple of things for me to look at/sort out, but they wouldn't be pursuing legal action on it (thank god!).