Yes or No , Regularisation needed.

[Darko13]

Hi all,

Here we go.

I have lived in my house since August 1999 and it is now sold.

The question is do I need regularisation or not ??

The buyers surveyor picked up that an upstairs chimney breast / flue had been removed and the flue above ceiling / in the loft although mostly corbelled is resting on two concrete lintels resting on a non -load bearing wall 900 mm from the party wall built on a joist. This was done by the previous owners not myself and not picked up by my surveyor 14 years ago.

I phoned the council and they said I required Regularisation and charged me £252.
They came out for about 10 minutes said they couldn't sign it off, wrongly diagnosed run of the joists, couldn't recommend remedial work, said I needed a Structural Engineer and left no card or gave a report or basically did anything !
I have since spoke to 3 Structural Engineers, had one out, been advised on remedial work.
They all told me they can ' sign off ' the work and my buyer plus their solicitor is happy with this.
I am really unhappy with the Building Regs officer as everyone has told me he is not / never was needed and so I've asked for a refund.
They insist they are needed but everyone says they are not !!
So Regularisation needed, Yes or No ??
Thanks in advance javascript:emoticon('')

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

If you appoint Building Control to regularise the work and then subsequently say they are not required then what did you expect would happen?

You didn't need to get regularisation, you could have bought an indemnity for about £100, your solicitor should have advised this was a course of action. But in getting BC involved that is no longer an option. Or you could have said its been done for 14 years and hasn't fallen down yet so its not likely to, the buyer may or may not have been concerned.

If the SE 'advised on remedial work', how can he 'sign off'' the work?

Generally it is best to have a good idea the work will be passed before you appoint Building Control to regularise the work. They are not an advisory body and have no obligation whatsoever to advise on what remedial works should be undertaken in order to achieve compliance.

 

[Darko13]

Hi,

Thanks for your prompt reply.

I did not appoint Building Control I asked what was needed and was told regularisation. i did not know what was required and have since been advised not regularisation.This i feel is me being mis advised hence my unhappiness.

The SE can ' sign off ' the work once the remedial work has been done and says that BC is not needed.

The remedial work is a 152mm x 89mm universal beam placed under said joist / wall to support a calculated 150 kg load ( this cannot be that accurately calculated due to the corbel, age of house etc) but the SE cannot 100% justify the safety of the work so must recommend remedial work.

So the SE can sign it off, all solicitors + buyer are happy with this so now I have BC involved do I need them ? Or as advised are they still not needed ?

 

[^woody^]

If you phone the council and tell them that you have this type of work and there is no b/regs approval, then they will correctly say that it should be regularised to comply with the Building Act

When a council inspector comes out, he is not there to design or advise you on the work, he is there is see if it complies with the building regulations or not, so again he has correctly told you to instruct a structural engineer

You are not owed a refund

An engineer can not "sign off" this work. It will still be unauthorised unless the council regularise it.

The solicitors are wrong to accept an SE report as evidence of compliance on a house sale, but that's not your concern if the sale goes through