fiestaturbo.com

[lucasdemoley]

Hope someone can offer some guidance, (Jump to bottom if you cant be arsed to read it all!)

I just bought a house (1930's) which had a double height extension on the back of it. The guy built it himself and it was abit rought around the edges, but we loved the property so went for it. Anyway, to cut a long story short it was confirmed that the property had building regs (The extension was done in 2005, but regs given this year, after our offer was accepted, but HIP said it had it already) so we thought we might have to spend abit to get it right, but the atleast the building was built properly.

Now we have the property, we are starting to find real horrors. I've so far spent a grand doing urgent safty fixes on the wiring which was 'the worst' the electrician had ever seen, with sockets wired back to front, no earths, several live cables loose under floorboards etc. I have already had to remove carpets, skirting and floorboards and just keep finding things. Joists are fixed using the wrong size hangers so they move a scary amount, the plumbing is just weird and seriously wrong, non fire rated downlights in the kitchen (fire rated needed for building regs) have been seriously notched into the joists and again the electrics is just short of a total re-wire. Infact the electrican is urging me to report the guy who signed off the building it is that bad.

The scaryest thing though is the roof. Effectivly, the roof is two triangles it a T shape, with the extension roof butting up against the existing roof. The design of the roof is that there are no cross braces as it was designed to offer an attick conversion (dorma installed), but what you have instead is an approximetly 8inch by 3inch support beam running the length of the roof on both sides about halfway down. Sounds ok, its built into the wall on one side, but on the other.... its resting on a batten of the original roof.... 1" by 2"! Its not even nailed or screwed into place! I'm not exageration either, told some guys from work, they were like 'yeh right', they came round and were seriously shocked and couldnt believe it! (I'll try and take some pictures today). I am now starting to worry about what lintels he has put in places as to 'fix' the roof we need to support it off the original external wall, but on one side this is directly above a 2.5m oppening he has created in the room below.

So in short what I am wondering is can building regulations be revoked after they have been given, as I do not want to report the guy who signed it off only then have it taken off me (which would cause morgage issues and issues selling the house on). In addition, and many people will hate this, do I have any chance in getting some of the costs back from the council for their failure to check the work properly. I don't like this route, however, if the house did not have building regs I would not have touched it even if it was £50k cheaper. I have two kids (2yr old and 8month old) so its really improtant for me to be sure that the house is safe before they move in (they are staying at my partners mums house untill everything is sorted, and thats a 2hr drive away). Will I get anywhere if I do kick up a fuss?

Any advice would be greatly appriciated.

[Ollie]

This should all have been picked up on the survey before you bought the house and should have been reported back to you by the solicitors. Assuming you had one done. I'd contact a reputable builder and get them to inspect it and give you a quote for getting it fixed, then ask the solicitor if they have any advice.

I doubt you'll get anywhere with the council and like you say, if you do report it to them they'll probably condemn the extension and make you pay to have it re-certified after it's been fixed.

I take it the extension doesn't have a guarantee?

[lucasdemoley]

Nah guy built it himself, and this is why I'm having the issues. I only officialy had a valuation survey done, but I did have a building surveyour from work come round to take a look, however the estate agesnts only gave us 30 mins to look around and the places that I am having issues with were covered over when we walked around.

Looks like I'll just have to take it up the arse on this one then!

[andymac]

Surveys are typically worthless anyway, unless you pay for a full, invasive survey you'll find out little more than you would be inspecting yourself.

I reckon the only joy you might get is via whoever signed off the works as there's a clear argument that if the works hadn't been signed off you'd not have bought the property. I would definately consult a solicitor on the score, if the person who signed off was a council employee then the council have failed in their duty of care and that's fairly easy to prove. They may well revoke the certificate for the building works, but that's just proving your point then as it's obvious they failed to inspect adequately the first time around.

Other than that I reckon you've got a whole lot of work ahead of you. Realistically you'll have difficulty selling the place as it stands and it sounds like you like it anyway. I'd start by doing your own survey, check every last detail and make a list, prioritise the list then get quotes from builders to undertake the work. Obviously structural stuff has to be done first followed rapidly by the electrical works. As a stop-gap on the electrics you can stick JB's on any bare or live cabling, that'll make them safer but obviously the more cabling there is floating around the greater the fire risk.

Definately consult a solicitor though.

[black2]

The application which was submitted to the local authority to gain building reg constent - was this "full plans" or done on a "building notice"?

If it was full plans then detailed and acurate drawings should have been submitted, and if the job entailed any structural adaptioons over and above off the shelf lintels etc then calculations and details would have been provided by a structural engineer. If this was the route then all the above information is checked at plan stage by the building control officer, of which if there were any discrepencies full approval would not have been granted, however conditional approval may be given but any out standing items would need to be checked and removed prior to construction.

In the case of a building notice, no plans are submitted but the council should still have carried out inspections. Have you actually seen the signed off certificate from the council? If so you need to contact the council and discuss exactly what has happened and if they have after their last inspection (usually just a walk around to check things like hand rails on staircases suitable head height in areas etc) signed the job of start asking some serious questions as to why.

Gareth.