Private Building Inspectors

cm233lh

I'm having several quotes for some building work which requires building reg inspection. Some builders seem to use the local council and others use a private inspector who is able to issue the same certificate. One of them told us that the private inspector has more flexibility because he's only covered by national regs, whereas a council inspector has to take local and national regs into account. Specifically he said that a council inspector would insist on one type of insulation, but a private firm could accept a different type of insulation which is better. It sounds a bit odd to me and rings alarm bells, but on the other hand I can believe anything about local bureaurocracy.
So does anyone know, are there different standards for private and council building inspectors?

woodbutcher_2

I have never used anything other than council BCO's so i don't really know if private ones are more "flexible" as i have nothing to compare but i would doubt if private inspectors work to different standards than council ones.

All inspectors need to be flexible anyway because very few jobs go according to plan.You always come up against unexpected problems and things get changed on site.

Lu_T

My friend is a commercial architect and she recommended we get a quote from a firm of building inspectors they use called Integral.

I'm waiting for a call back from them, so don't know about prices. My friend seemed to think that there would be a bit more flexibility from someone you were paying 'privately' rather than the local authority guy, even though they would have to adhere to the same overall standards.

I'm waiting to see what the prices are before we make a decision but don't think she would recommend doing something which would give us a worse job.

HTH?