RC28

Hi All, I am having some issues with private building control as posted in another post a few months back threatening to revert us to LABC, thanks for your replies. Moving on from that, we've now received a formal letter that the initial notice will be cancelled and will be reverted to LABC in about 6 weeks time, the reason being that we have part occupied our self build (i have moved out of the site caravan and created a self contained living space on the ground floor) Am i right in saying that, if using an approved inspector/private building control any occupation before receipt of a completion certificate will trigger regulation 17 of the Building (Approved Inspectors etc. ) Regulations 2010? I hadn't appreciated this when choosing to use private building control, this is another major consideration for some self builders when choosing to use building control options. An extract from the regs is below..... Building (Approved Inspectors etc. ) Regulations 2010, 1st October 2010 Regulation 17 17(3) The initial notice shall cease to be in force in relation to the building, extension or part of a building which is occupied— (a)if the building is a relevant building as defined by regulation 12(6)(a), except where it contains only flats and common parts for those flats, on the expiry of a period of four weeks beginning with the date of occupation; and (b)in any other case, on the expiry of a period of eight weeks beginning with the date of occupation. Reading through the posts, many of us are occupying our builds, but i can't see anyone else has gone through this, has anyone heard of this?

The 3 monthly interval visits weren't needed for me, i can't see anything on the quote paperwork to say 3 month inspections would be given. They were either needed due to legislation or for the BC's internal processes, i didn't request them.

Thanks, yes it wasn't supposed to take this long! will definitely consider local authority building control in the future.

ToughButterCup, Its definitely a legitimate email. The only clause in the contract that is relatable is: 6.12. In the event that the Project becomes unduly protracted, BC reserves the right to seek additional costs for its Services. In this respect BC will contact the Client to agree in writing such payments. I will be pushing back as the extra inspections weren't wanted or requested

Thanks for the advice. They have been pushing me for the last 6 months or so. Wanting a programme of works, tying me down to completion dates and threatening to pass over to LABC if the build isn't completed in line with the programme. They were completing the inspections alongside my buildzone warranty inspections until around April this year, at that point they said they could no longer offer the buildzone warranty inspection so that element has been passed over to another warranty provider. Its got very messy, the threats of passing over to LABC aren't helping.

Our newbuild has been going for 3.5 years, we only need the regular stage inspections, despite this our private inspector visits on the way past every 3 months as they say this is required due to the legislation. We only need 8 inspection to see the build through, they've visited 11 times so far. I was shocked to see an email this morning wanting to invoice me an extra £2,160 for these extra site visits. what are your guys opinions? I've posted a new thread related to this

Hi, I'm part way through a new build which started in early 2021, the house is taking much longer than expected (finances, building material increases and redundancy have got in the way) we're aiming for BC completion at the end of this year. Our private BC has completed the stage inspections along the way as requested, in addition has visited periodically every 3 months (not at my request, this is due to legislation they say). Today BC have contacted me wanting to invoice for these periodic visits. Has anyone been in this situation or heard of these periodic 3 monthly visits? Just asking as the extra £2k in fees will not be good. FYI as some background, the BC quote was based on 8 site visits, the quote says "Any additional site visits over the agreed number of 8 may be subject to additional charges". There has been no mention that these unrequested visits would be chargeable up until this point. Thanks for the help.

Hi, Can anyone point me in the right direction please. We are part way through our self build (watertight, now getting on with 1st fix). The approved plans are for a 2 storey dwelling but we have created space in the loft for it's future conversion. We are thinking of converting the loft along with the main build if the VAT can be saved. The question is....(provided planning is granted) can we reclaim on new/amended planning permission including the loft conversion even though we've already started the build, will HMRC take the new plans into account or will they lock us into the original plans? I'm thinking that we can also add detailed landscaping to the amended plans to maximise the VAT reclaim. Thanks

Hi Ben, We are in the same situation, demo and rebuild with larger footprint, existing property surface water was into the foul, failed soakaway due to clay etc etc. I had wanted to run the new surface water into the existing foul but BC says we need confirmation from to Severn Trent. I've been told that we have a separate foul and surface water drains on the street, but would rather do some kind of attenuation/storage. Did anything come of yours? have you got it sorted now? Thanks

The variable rates are not determined by the BoE base rate, they can also depend on swap rates, and the lenders discretion. We're with the Hanley, i think the current rate is around 5.94 and started out at 3.69. Their increases have loosely followed the BoE increase, last increase for example was +.75 on the BoE but .55 on from the Hanley. The ecology website says their current rate is 5.49%, 4.74% could have been before the last increase? We're on interest only and in a few months expect we'll be paying over double the original rate.