Hi all,
We recently bought our first house and decided to do some work on the ground floor to:
- convert the garage into a TV room
- remove the bathroom (which was not used since the ground floor only had a bathroom, utility room, garage and small dining room)
- add a cloakroom in the hallway (it was very wide originally)
We submitted building notice to the council which was accepted after submiting some simple drawings (before and after that I did on floorplanner).
However when the building control officer came to the house (2 weeks after the start of the work) he told us that we would not get approval for the cloakroom as it was not compliant with Part M.
The explanation I got was very surprising: by removing a bathroom (with shower, toilet and sink) and making a cloakroom we made the ground floor less compliant with part M (not that it was ever compliant: house built in the late 1990s, 30cm step to walk in the 3 storey town house). We could not afford to make the cloakroom the size of the previous bathroom (and it would not have fitted in the hallway anyway) we decided to keep on with the work and possibily try to argue our case closer to completion of the job.
The work is now nearly finished and the BCO is due to come for a final visit. Form our previous meetings we know that he intends not to approve the work that has been done but mention in his letter that everything is compliant but the toilets.
I disagree with the argument and it seems that the building regulation is subject to interpretation and I would have thought that some common sense would be apllied by the BCO to realize that the house was not compliant with Part M before and is not less compliant now. According to me the distinction between a family bathroom and a cloakroom should be made.
Many houses in our area are designed with the exact same layout as ours. If I were to find one of my neighbour who had a similar project approved in the past could I use this as an argument?
Is there anything I can do? I would rather ask for help now before getting the final inspection from the BCO.
Thanks for your help
We recently bought our first house and decided to do some work on the ground floor to:
- convert the garage into a TV room
- remove the bathroom (which was not used since the ground floor only had a bathroom, utility room, garage and small dining room)
- add a cloakroom in the hallway (it was very wide originally)
We submitted building notice to the council which was accepted after submiting some simple drawings (before and after that I did on floorplanner).
However when the building control officer came to the house (2 weeks after the start of the work) he told us that we would not get approval for the cloakroom as it was not compliant with Part M.
The explanation I got was very surprising: by removing a bathroom (with shower, toilet and sink) and making a cloakroom we made the ground floor less compliant with part M (not that it was ever compliant: house built in the late 1990s, 30cm step to walk in the 3 storey town house). We could not afford to make the cloakroom the size of the previous bathroom (and it would not have fitted in the hallway anyway) we decided to keep on with the work and possibily try to argue our case closer to completion of the job.
The work is now nearly finished and the BCO is due to come for a final visit. Form our previous meetings we know that he intends not to approve the work that has been done but mention in his letter that everything is compliant but the toilets.
I disagree with the argument and it seems that the building regulation is subject to interpretation and I would have thought that some common sense would be apllied by the BCO to realize that the house was not compliant with Part M before and is not less compliant now. According to me the distinction between a family bathroom and a cloakroom should be made.
Many houses in our area are designed with the exact same layout as ours. If I were to find one of my neighbour who had a similar project approved in the past could I use this as an argument?
Is there anything I can do? I would rather ask for help now before getting the final inspection from the BCO.
Thanks for your help