Landlard Consent - After Having Planning and Building Regs

[^woody^]

Do you happen to know if it would be a council surveyor or a externally apointed surveyor?

Normally it's one of their own housing 'maintenance' surveyors. It won't make a difference who it is, as all they will be looking at are the changes to the structure, and the extent of the extension work, in order to report back to the leaseholder team for the admin function.

They just report back on what has been done. They can't comment on much else - partly because it's not their job to, partly because it's not their remit to determine the lease conditions, and partly because they are maintenance surveyors and not building surveyors.

 

[hmeah]

I have managed to pay for retrospective consent now and have arranged a date for the council surveyors to come and inspect the works, hopefully, all goes well.

I wanted to ask about the Building Control guys, they came last week to sign off the extension roof, which is fine, they also started going upstairs and also into my existing kitchen, which is not in the new extension but at the front of the house where its always been, they are now saying

- I need to have fire doors in the kitchen
- the extractor needs to air outside
- the banister needs to be 900mm minimum in height on the landing
- I need to have a heat detector in the kitchen which is wired to the mains

I never got the rewiring done in the house, all I did was get the bulbs fitting and switches changed to LED and new switch plates to match the new white walls.

Are they correct in me asking to get a mains fed heat detector? cant I have a battery operated one which I planned to use across the house?

Do i need to install fire doors? i have glass panels over the doors which are installed when the building was made, its to let light into the hallway, these need to be covered up now, is this correct?

Its strange that the building regs person came in to sign off the new extention but decided to inspect my whole home which i am getting refurbished with new floor and paint, i got some 800x800 small banister made for a very small landing which cost me over 500 and she says its not high enough, even the gaps between them she says 100mm is too much.

IS she right, do i have to get all this done or she just being a nightmare and picking on me!?

Help please and thank you all again for your support

 

[Nakajo]

Mains fed heat detector? Yes. Do this. It may save your life.

Do i need to install fire doors? Yes. It's ill-advised, but your choice, if you later choose to remove them.

IS she she just being a nightmare and picking on me!? No.

 

[^woody^]

Were the plans passed without requiring the alarm upgrade?

It seems to me that the officer is deeming the extension a material alteration to the overall escape routes and fire safety of the house. She is therefore requesting that the fire detection be upgraded to an enhanced system. Without all the specific details its hard to say if she is correct or not, but it's certainly not unknown for this to be required. For the kitchen fire door, that would normally have been fitted when built, and it should remain. So the officer can request that it is put back in the context of fire safety for the house.

The officer can only inspect the extension works and not the rest of the house (other than for fire safety issues). She can't insist on a kitchen fan, nor any bannister alterations as they are not part of your application for the extension works.

She should (and can) only inspect the extension and deal with issues related to that work. If the extension work conforms, then she must issue a completion certificate for that - as that is what your application was for.

But. It may be that the housing surveyor as asked the building control surveyor to look at those other things. If so, that is wrong.

Ask the building control surveyor for reasons why she wants the other work doing before she can issue a completion certificate for the extension. Ask for it in writing.

Strictly, the building control officer is trespassing if they go mooching around the house looking for things not related to the application. They are only 'invited' onto your land to look at work that is part of the application.

 

[hmeah]

thanks for your insight and advice, the plans were submitted and passed initially without any upgrade or mention of fire alarm, i was planning on putting 3 battery operated ones (kitchen/lower hallway/upper hallway), the building is pre 1950 and i planned to put back the original door, there is a glass panel above the kitchen and also the living room doors, these allow light into the hallway, she wants these covered up.

On her previous visit she started to wonder upstairs, saying where is my fire escape and that i needed all the doors to be fire doors and again the glass panels above the bedroom doors to be covered, the only daylight i get into the upper hallway is via the glass panels above the bedroom and bathroom window.

on her last visit, she came in aggressive, saying the rain water needs to go into the main sewers, i explained that there are no sewers in the back and that they are located at the of the building, it would be very difficult if not impossible to dig all the way under the building, i have neighbours adjoining on both sides, its only when i put my foot down a little did she mention a soakaway, until then she was adamant i take a pipe beneath the house into the main sewers.

I am installing a soakaway 5m from the pipe and calling her back in, i will put fire doors on and cover the panels above the doors, the balustade on the landing i cant do anything and i dont wish to install a main fed heat detector as i would need to have exposed trucking on the ceiling now.

 

[noseall]

and i dont wish to install a main fed heat detector as i would need to have exposed trucking on the ceiling now.

I can't think of a single job, in the last ten years , where we haven't upgraded smoke/heat detectors to mains wired. Whether you wish it or not, I think you are going to have to. Only one needs to be hard wired and the rest can be remote.

 

[^woody^]

i dont wish to install a main fed heat detector as i would need to have exposed trucking on the ceiling now

Have a look at the wireless range from Aico