d87francis

I've watched the first part so far and it is spot on. Reply today from LABC "Thank you kindly for your email to building control. I have taken this off of our administration team so that I can explain a bit more detail. You are correct from your email that the works are normally enforced from a local authority building regulations. For example, if an extension had no application. This would be down to us to enforce as the LABC. We would not be able to govern another building control body, such as xxxx xxxx. If you feel there has been a discrepancy or you wish to further your concerns from your complaint, the CICAIR are the governing body of all approved inspectors within England. Therefore, this would be the port of call to obtain further concern. We would not be in a position to involve ourselves between yourselves and xxxx xxxx for example. I hope this helps xx, and apologies we can not be of more help. Kind Regards" We will refer this onto CICAIR but don't hold any hope of a resolution through those channels. --------------------------------- The developer and their main contractor came to visit on Thursday for an appointment specifically to look at the missing insulation. They turned up thinking it was for something else, and end of defect period (EOD) inspection for their main contractor, not our warranty defect period as that runs until July 2024. They have used these EOD inspections for their main contractor to convince most other owners that their defect period is now over, closing the portal with which to report defects and many other residents footing the bill for their own repairs whilst still inside their 24 month defect period. The developer initally lied to us verbally when I questioned them during an earlier defect inspection on how long our defect period is. This is having also phoned us up and aggressively told us we were reporting too many defects through the portal and that they would come visit us and explain what a defect is. Needless to say everything I showed them during the visit they agreed was a defect. I also asked them in writing how long the defect period is which they ignored, but I did get written confirmation from our warranty provider that it is 24 months as opposed to the 12 months our developer was claiming. When they arrived for Thursdays visit they had also lost the list of defects that in March we had previously agreed with them that they were going to rectify. We hadn't taken enough time off work nor organised the house to conduct a broader whole house inspection, so we asked them to rebook but insisted the use our ladder and torch to inspect the insulation in the loft. They took a few photos and said they would look up what should have been there. They wouldn't even go entirely into the loft they just leaned through the hatch for a while. From the March list of 30 odd defects they have so far fixed 1, despite giving us a 28 day timeframe and repeadted emails chasing them. Needless to say we think they are an incompetant and lying bunch of cowboys. I will name and shame once this is all resolved. We've put to the developer we would like them to hire a chartered surveyor, of our choice out of a selection of 3 with no business relationship to them, to draw up a schedule of remediation works for all the main issues with the house (insulation, bowed walls, unlevel screed on ground floor, and significantly creaky floors on 1st and 2nd floor), for the surveyor to also inspect and sign off the remediation works once completed. If they offer anything less we will escalate through their complaints procedure, then the warranty provider and then the financial ombudsman if neccessary. Using the independantant surveyor is one of the resolution models the ombudsman service use, which we have told the developer in the hope they will actually get on with it. However, their main tactics so far seem to be delay and ignore in the hope that owners give up, so we are expecting to have to spend several months escalating this to get any progress. They are frankly a bunch of crooks that thanks to little regulation narrowly stay on the right side of the law. The whole industry needs a shake up.

Reply received today from LABC in responce to my report of a building regs breach: "Morning With regards to your attached enforcement received, an application for 105 new build residential units with 6900SQFT of commercial and associated parking/landscaping at Former xxxxx,xxxxxx was dealt with by Approved inspectors, xxxx xxxxx Building Control Ltd not xxxxx City Council. Please contact them direct with your concerns. Many Thanks" My response: "Hi xxxxx, Thank you for your email. We have already spoken to xxxx xxxx who have said they only inspected a sample of the buildings and had they inspected ours they would have requested the insulation to have been rectified to meet building regulations. Please see our email from xxxx xxxxx attached as a pdf. Our understanding is that as an approved inspector xxxx xxxx are not able to take enforcement action and that is down to the Local Authority Building Control. Residing in the building we are able to see (along with photos we attached with the initial report) clear breaches of part L of building regulations. As the LABC we are kindly requesting that you investigate in order to move towards enforcement action. Kind regards," So it seems even the LABC are uninterested in clear breaches by our crappy developer

Yes this is what im curious about too. Feels like something they've just made up themselves. A bit like our developer tried to tell everyone that there was only a 1 year defect period where they were responsible to remedy, when it's written clear as day in the warranty certificate that it's 2 years. Sadly didn't stop most ownders believing them! I'll be asking the LABC when they get in touch. Might have a wait mind as they warn of a big backlogue on the landing page for reporting breaches.

Wow that's nuts, next you'll tell me they let the homebuilder pick which houses get inspected! I've just made a building regulation breach complaint to the local authority building control so let's see where that goes.

Reply today from approved third party building control inspector " Thank you for contacting us. I`m sorry to see that insulation is missing to your loft space which is causing the house to be cold. The contractor is obliged to insulate the house in accordance with the architect’s design and in accordance with the building regulations. We carry out inspections to satisfy ourselves that the works meet compliance and these are carried out on a sample basis as we’re unable to see all areas. If we had seen that insulation was missing, we would have requested this to be rectified. In a situation such as this I advise you maintain communication with the developer so they can provide and fit the insulation and if required contact you warranty provider. Kind Regards" So pretty useless. I knew sample basis testing was used for air permiability etc but didn't realise they were allowed to use it for final building control sign off?

Thanks, it's my go nuclear option, given how much it could upset the other neighbours. I've emailed the third party building control. This week will also email their regulator CICAIR plus the Local Authority Building Control. We will likely be pursuing a complaint through Build-Zone (the warramty provider) and then the Financial Ombudsman Service due to other issues like bowed walls and wavy floor screed on the ground floor, which the developer is ignoring and the roof insulation may well be added into that. We are also getting other firms to quote to do the work, as the homebuilder may not do a decent job on rectifying this. Given access to the loft is through a narrow hatch how would one go about doing this remedial work, would it be remove plasterboard in vaulted ceiling or would it be remove the roof tiles? Does anyone know what the minimum thickness PIR board should be in a pitched warm roof for a new build? It's pre 2022 part L update as notice was first given in 2018. The developer and builder are visiting this week, we plan to ask them for: - A written report on what they think is wrong with it. - An intended plan of works with timescales. - Their plan to mitigate any disruption to us - alternative accommodation / workspace. - A commitment to compensate us for increased heating bills. Anything else I should add? Thanks so much.

It was a third party approved inspector. Gonna drop them an email now and see what they say. Thanks for other replies so far. I'm similarly minded that it needs ripping out and starting again. It's a tight loft space with a lot of truss work, plus a narrow loft hatch so I don't know how you would even fit new boards in without removing either plasterboard or roof tiles? As @ProDavesays to do it properly is gonna take some care. Other sections have huge cracks and 200mm screws boshed in all over the place forming cold bridges. I will of course update as it goes. Thanks again!

Thanks so much, that makes sense and what I was erring towards. Have made another post about the insulation here:

Hi all, firstly apologies if I've posted on the wrong board, this seemed most appropriate. We purchased a new build in England in Feb 2023, immediately noticed it was quite cold, thermal survey showed issues with seals around windows and the loft. Upon inspection immediately apparent that insulation is patchy and missing in a lot of places. It is a cold roof space with then a vaulted ceiling section above the stairwell which protudes into half the roof space which should be a warm roof construction. The flat ceilings are obviously missing a fair bit of insulation roll, some areas with none, and those that have it rarely meet 270mm. They are also all laid between joists with no second layer perpendiculor to cover the joists and the gaps. However, the real issue is that the vaulted ceiling area does not have sufficient PIR boards around it to form a continuous envelope. The walls of the ceiling area have huge gaps and missing sections opening the back of the plasterboard directly to the cold roof space. There are some 150mm boards pictured but well away from the plasterboard so providing no use. Then above the pitched celing of the vaulted ceiling area there are 90mm boards between the rafters, many of them pushed too high to block ventilation, and 75mm boards under the rafters before the plasterboard. Unfortunately neither of these form a continuous envelope with the wall sections so just open up to cold roof space at the ends where they meet the walls. There is a gap between the 90mm between the rafters and the 75mm below the rafters in most runs also allowing cold air through. After 6 months of pestering we have a the developer coming to have a look at it this week, along with getting some local firms to quote to do the work to bring this up to building regs. We're still in the 2 year defect period and potentially forsee having to go all the way through to the financial ombudsman on other issues anyway as the developers are crap and very aggressive/avoidant. I'm struggling to find/interpret what the minimum PIR board thickness on pitched warm roofs for new builds is? As whilst some say 140/150mm for conversions and extensions, I've found others saying that for new builds it could be 270mm even for PIR boards? I'd really appreciate any input and thoughts anyone could give, thanks so much!

Hi all, apologies for the confusion, hoping someone can help clarify. We purchased a new build in February 2023, that was practically completed in July 2022. We have Part Final Cetificate issued by a third party approved inspector dated 22 July 2022. Part of the crtificate reads "XXXX XXXX Building Control Ltd is an approved inspector and the work described above was part of the work described in an initial notice given by XXXX XXXX Building Control Ltd and dated: 21 November 2018" We are missing a lot of loft insulation, including PIR boards to vaulted ceiling area (seprarate post). I'm trying to establish if the 15th June 2022 updates to Part L of Building Regs would apply to us, is it based on the date the final certificate is issued or the date of the initial notice? Thanks so much for your help.

This is all very helpful, glad to have my suspisions confirmed. Yes, it's a probate needing a lot of work. This is another one to add to our list for our renegoiation, along with unsupported chimney stack and rotten floor joists. Thanks all.

We're in the process of buying a house with what we think is lead mains water pipe. Unfortunately access to the pipe and stop cock is behind a cupboard where you can just fit your hand, so it's hard to see the pipe. I've managed to get my phone back there to take a few photos. I also tried a scratch test but can't get a picture of where I'm able to scratch it. To me this looks like a lead pipe, but confusingly where it tapers towards the top it looks more like copper. Apologies for the poor photos, it's all i could manage without dismantling the kitchen cupboards. Would appreciate opinions! Thanks.

Thanks nod. I'm now messaging a few builders through trustatrader and offering to pay for the quote. Plus mentioning we'd like to do an extension next year. Hopefully this gets me a result.

We're in the process of buying a house in the Bristol area and the survey has just come back with a poorly supported chimney stack on the party wall from previous chimney breat removal. With a bucket to boot from leaks around the stack. I'm trying to get some quotes together to negotiate this cost off our purchase price but am struggling to get any interest in quoting. I've emailed a range of local roofing firms that also do chimney removals and repairs, but as of yet have not heard back from anyone. The other option is I get a structural engineer to inspect and produce a report, but that could cost betwen £300-800. I understand that as it's a party wall gallows brackets cannot be used and it likely needs a steel. Plus it may require a party wall notice. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!