Retrospective building control for internal wall knock-through

[gspace]

Hey there,

I'm in the process of buying a house that has had an internal load-bearing wall knocked through by the current owners. It was done by a builder but building control was not consulted. I would like to get it regularised when I move in but I'm trying to work out if it is a major job.

The wall was/is between a kitchen-diner and supports the floor joists on the first floor. An RSJ has been installed that spans about 2.5m of the removed wall. The RSJ is cased in plasterboard and I have not removed it to see what load-bearing there is on the brickwork either side of the RSJ. One end of the RSJ appears to rests on a portion of the remaining interior wall and the other seems to rest on the internal (breezeblock) skin. It is plastered over, so I cannot see if a load-spreader is installed between the RSJ and the internal brick skin.

The weight of the roof appears supported by the external skin so I think the only weight this internal RSJ supports is the weight in 2 of the bedrooms upstairs.

My questions are:
1/ How easy is this to get retrospective approval for?
2/ Does it sound like the above would meet building regs IF load-spreaders are found to be present? I.e. would this also need its own pillar or is the internal skin sufficient?
3/ If it does not meet building control, what remedial work might be needed and what might it cost?

Thanks for your advice.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

When was it done? If more than a few years and there's no signs of movement or cracks etc then don't bother.

 

[gspace]

When was it done? If more than a few years and there's no signs of movement or cracks etc then don't bother.

Thanks for the reply. It's about 10 years old. No sign of cracks. I doubt it's structurally unstable. I think I just wanna have the silly certificate for when I come to sell again. I've fell foul of buyers walking away from my current sale (despite the pointless indemnity) because of nonsense like this and I'd like not to have that worry hanging over for the next time.

 

[bernardgreen]

There may be no signs of cracks because either

[1] they have been recently covered up as part of the preparation to sell the property
[2] the rooms above did not have heavy furniture or energetic people in them.

Lack of certification may affect you when you apply for insurance. Not declaring the un-certified alteration to the structure may result in the refusal of a claim for any incident as the failure to declare would mean the application was fraudulent and hence the policy could be declared void.

 

[gspace]

There may be no signs of cracks because either

[1] they have been recently covered up as part of the preparation to sell the property
[2] the rooms above did not have heavy furniture or energetic people in them.

Lack of certification may affect you when you apply for insurance. Not declaring the un-certified alteration to the structure may result in the refusal of a claim for any incident as the failure to declare would mean the application was fraudulent and hence the policy could be declared void.

Thanks for the reply. Yes, the insurance is an issue I guess. I am intending to put it right, i.e. get regularisation after I move in. I'll take the risk on the insurance until I get the building regs certificate. I need some advice on how big a job it might be or how much it might cost.

 

[^woody^]

Not declaring the un-certified alteration to the structure may result in the refusal of a claim for any incident as the failure to declare would mean the application was fraudulent and hence the policy could be declared void.

Sorry, non of that is correct in the context of this post and situation.

Especially the fraudulent bit.

 

[^woody^]

I need some advice on how big a job it might be or how much it might cost.

You will need someone to work out the size of beam required and padstones, and then expose the beam and padstones for the inspector to check what has been installed.

Find the cost of a structural engineer, the council's fees will be on their website, and then you have the cost of exposing the area and making good.

 

[^woody^]

Just a thought, some council's "pre-approve" beams of certain sizes for certain spans, doing away with the need for an engineers calculations.

Check with your council, and they will tell you what they need.