Letter from BC regarding unauthorised building works

[ross85]

Hi,

I've had a letter through from building control stating that a neighbour has informed them I'm having work done without prior notice.

I had the roof re-felted and the old tiles were re-used. I'm not a tradesman and the roofer didn't mention anything about building control notice but assuming I should have got notice, what should I do? Do building control have the authority to come in and check the work or can I just claim some minor repairs were done? Even if they got access and I claimed it was done a few years before I bought the house, I don't think they've got any way of proving otherwise, even though the felt it clearly in good condition.

Some people must be so bored in life to report these things, presumably they were annoyed because the scaffolding was up for a few months...

 

[^woody^]

They can get a court order to access to check for unauthorised work, but whether they will go to the time and expense of this is debatable, although not unheard of.

In context, your application would be for the council to ensure that you improve loft insualtion to current standards, and they wont be inspecting the roof felt or tiles.

So, best thing to do, would be lay new or top up loft insualtion to 270mm or 300mm (depending on product), and then invite the inspector to come out to tell you what unauthorised work he thinks was done to the roof (dont mention the insulation). Then while he was there he will see the insulation, this will mean that now he has seen it, there is no need for you to make any application and pay for another site visit to see what he has already seen.

 

[ross85]

Thanks Woody.

I called them and explained that I'd had some minor roof repairs and they just noted it down and never got back to me. I'm having a loft conversion done soon, so they will presumably cast their eyes over the state of the roof then.