Dodgy Conversion Up in Smoke

Canucklehead

Good evening: I know some MSErs watch 'Homes Under the Hammer'...we record the episodes that feature properties down here in East Kent for a laugh and to guess which Building/Planning Regs will be contravened. A recently featured property conversion in Margate( soon to be the 'suspicious fire' capital of the southeast) was being investigated by the council prior to the latest blaze ...doubt it will be the last HUH property to go 'under the hose'

Canucklehead

PasturesNew

I would be petrified to buy a house that had been done up by a speculator and his mate for thruppence.

I've often wondered if any of them ever bother to get building regs when they knock things about.

Building regs are so tight (compared to what speculator bloke and his old mate will have a CLUE about). I bet most of them just think you can hack away at things and do what you fancy, like it used to be not all that long ago. My parents bought their house with a bit of a lean to coming off the kitchen 12 years ago, then about 4 years later they decided to match that with another bit of a lean to off the living room, making the wall flush in the garden. Just got some local builder type bloke round to do it. Bang up 2 walls; one with a window, one with some patio doors. Spot of polycarbonate roofing. plaster it. Job's done. I suspect a lot of these recent cowboys have done similar on a larger scale.

My parents' next door neighbour did up his house. It hadn't been touched for about 30 years, he was in his 80s. Took him ages... including building a dining room and fitting central heating with a gas boiler. You could SMELL the gas from outside. Luckily the bloke who bought it was a British Gas engineer. He told me his house was non-stop un-bodging things... and he thought he'd bought into a "refurbished house", but it was a dodgy old DIY cowboy trying to save a bob or two (even though the old fella was a genuine tight multi-millionaire owning some of the hottest land in the region).

poppysarah

Someone told me building control wasn't bothered about seeing corgi paperwork. "You'd be stupid not to" was the comment he made.

Doesn't mean people don't.