"tim" wrote in message
...

"BigWallop" wrote in message
...

"Nick" wrote in message
om...
Hi,

I have just had an extenstion completed by a local building firm - and
it now transpires that the builder never notified the Building
Inspector that the works had started - so no inspections were carried
out during the build.

Nick

If you had a proper structural engineer involved and there are plan
drawings
from the builders design team, and the building engineer, then these
will
have to be submitted to the local planning authority for their approval.
If
the builder has failed in this, then you will be asked to take the whole
thing down and start again if plan drawings have not been provided. The
work will classed as a suck it and see sort of job, which is not the
best
way to keep building control peeps happy.

This is completely wrong.

1) planning and building control are two entirely separate things
you seem to have confused them.

2) Whilst retrospective application for planning permission
can be refused on principle, resulting in an order for the building to
be demolished, a retrospective application for a building control
certificate, without the prior submission of plans is a legally allowed
way of doing things. The worst that will happen is that the BI will
ask you to 'open up' parts that he cannot see to check that they are,
in fact, done correctly. The BI will never take the principled view
that the building is bound to be constructed incorrectly and ask for
it to be demolished just in case. I agree that they don't like this
method of approving buildings but the legislation clearly allows
builders to work this way if they wish.

tim


But Nick has said that there are under pinnings, as well as retaining wall
removals, that have been undertaken during these works. The building
inspector will need proof of approval from his/her local authority planning
department on submitted drawings of proposal before he/she allows any
structural changes of this magnatude to take place. Lives are at stake in
these situations, and no local authority I know, would allow this type of
work to be carried out without the proper planning proposals and structural
drawings being submitted by the bulders or their agent.

It is the builders fault, so he'll have to sort it. If he gives his written
testimony that he's carried out the work to the approved methods, and then
something goes badly wrong, then he'll be sued to the highest courts in the
land by the local authority. But that could be to late for the poor family
who are now left without a property or have been badly injured because of a
colapse. Unless he can prove through proper inspections, that his work
has/is been/being carried out to locally approved methods. Which in this
case, he can't.


The drawings are the most important part of the situation just now, as
they
will show how the work should have been done and to what standard. The
builder will be asked to expose the most important key areas, if only to
satisfy the building control people that the drawings were adhered to
and
the rest of the build is all to the same standard.

Good Luck with it.





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