Maria

Who submits it to the council? The building control?

Apologies for the late response and many thanks for your input. Are there any other authorities which need to sign off the building apart from the building control? At what stage do I get the council tax? Do I contact them to say it's complete? I also intend to get a mortgage on it? I am waiting for the structural warranty certificate. Is there anything else I may need? Many thanks

Hello all I have finally got a final certificate from the Building Control and wonder if I need to do anything else? Apologies for being daft. Do I take it to the planning authority? Anyone else? Or this is it? How long do I have to submit a VAT claim? The build is finished, and decorated, just needs a good clean and can be moved in. I have attached the certificate which the Building Control issued. Is this egat you'd expect? I have informed the structural warranty insurers and they came for the final inspection a couple of days ago.final certificate.pdffinal certificate.pdf

Mains gas, combi boiler and thermostat rads

I think it's for the building regs submitted after 1st June 2022.

And what number should I try to achieve? Or is this what I should ask the SAP assessor? Is air change target the same as air pressure test results? Do you mean advice about the PV? To be honest, that's one modification I am quite accepting of. At the end of the day, it will only help to make the place more energy efficient and is least evasive.

No air pressure test done yet. Will crack on with taping then, and then hopefully, will get a good result

I, obviously, don't know much about insulation, but what's been installed didn't seem too bad. I double checked with the builder, and he provided the following; 1.Walls - 6” timber frame inner leaf with 140 mm timber frame cavity bats insulation, 4” blockwork external leaf with 2 coat sand and cement render, internally vapour barrier and skimmed plasterboard finish. 2. Floor – block and beam flooring covered with 1200 gauge radon barrier, topped with 100mm celotex and 22mm moisture resistant flooring. 3. Roof - 200mm deep factory made Truss system topped with breathable felt, batten and slate, internally 150mm celotex insulation between the rafters allowing for 50mm airflow between the insulation and the felt, 50mm insulation backed plasterboard to the underside of the rafters with skim finish. Would you expect to see a lot more than this?

I haven't seen the report yet. We just discussed it over the phone. I just emailed him to say not to produce the report yet, just in case I go down the route of trying to get someone else doing the report. Apologies, what is GIA? I have a feeling that I mostly failed due to double glazing.

An online SAP assessor? Would i still need to provide the specs info that meet the requirements? What about the air pressure test? Would this need to be taken into account? Or is this something separate? Is it possible that a "bad" air pressure test result will be a giveaway of the incorrectly provided specs info? Hope it makes sense.

Hello all, I have completed my self build, and paid the builders 100% for the works. The building control wouldn't issue the completion certificate without SAP and air pressure test. I got a call yesterday from the SAP assessor saying the the building failed to achieve the required min. He said I was ~16% under with the insulation and ~3% under carbon emissions. He hasn't issued yet the official report. He asked me if I wanted him to issue a report. Now thinking about it - do reports get logged in the official register somewhere? Does it make any difference if I have a report or not at this stage? Then he assessor said that my options are either to replace double glazing with triple and put 3kwh PV or put extra insulation in the dormer and 1kwh PV. The house is completely decorated painted and the flooring put in. I have no money left at all, and ended up borrowing more just to get to this stage. I didn't have SAP as designed. Nobody asked about it, and I didn't know. So I am annoyed that the builders proceeded to build without ever questioning anything, and the BC never flagged it up. I am not a professional developer, so feel that people who get paid to build and inspect have failed me. I probably wouldn't get anywhere by trying to hold the builders and building control responsible. But would you say I should try to? Any ideas how to get a pass on a budget? Any tips and assistance would be really appreciated. Many thanks

Thanks for your help!!

Because out of us 2, he is the one, unfortunately, who knows the rules. And to be honest, I think I can't win this one. If he doesn't agree, I'd have to involve solicitors and surveyors - possibly more than one. Or if I can manage to provide as much detail as I can, we can potentially resolve this with a help of one surveyor and split the costs as he suggested

I am using a small contractor. He's got all the licenses and insurances but I do have doubts whether he'd have done method statements before. Anyway, I've asked him to draw one, and he should produce something. I'll just have to see what he comes up with. That's why I wanted to see what others usually do, and if there are a lot of acceptable variants...

Now I am getting a bit confused about the whole PWA . I've checked the info in the link provided (thank you), and don't see a mention of a PWA as such. I saw this: "If the Adjoining Owner gives written notice within 14 days consenting to the proposed works, the work (as agreed) may go ahead." Is this is what you refer to? Not a fully drawn up document with conditions and clauses? No, I haven't used the correct letter for my notice, and haven't attached any sections or drawings of the proposed trench position. So he just told me the notice wasn't valid. Electricity board has asked for a wayleave from me and the lane owners. Water and gas said they didn't need anything. The plot was split a few years back when we originally bought the property. I need to check the deeds for access and right of way. Thanks for pointing that out. I am not planning to sell it. I was going to move in, but will probably end up renting it for a while.

The plot is in my garden 🙂. I am basically building next to my home. I got right of way. And the existing services in the lane are covering me and the lane owners. Utilities, I understand, have rights to go wherever they need to go -public or private land (I could be wrong). £120 an hour... I assume they wouldn't stay and watch all day every day whilst the works are being done? I suppose I'll call a lawyer tomorrow 😬 Just one more question... and thank you for being so patient... when I served notice initially with just a general description of works - laying ducts and pipes/cables for such and such services, expected dates and duration, he came back saying the notice is invalid without proper drawings. I only submitted a copy of utilities planned routes. Was I supposed to provide more info at that point? Should have I ignored him then? Then if he doesn't agree, are we going to be in dispute? Would it mean that I can't start works anyway?

No PWA in place. And no written agreement from the lane owners, but they know and have no issues with it. They have given a formal wayleave to electricity board to lay the services. Other utilities said they don't need anything. The neighbour wants to use a surveyor. He found one that would be happy to act on our behalf and even said that he can contribute to costs. The surveyor said he needs to see the documents before he confirms the price. Will it be reasonable for a surveyor to expect these documents? Is PWA likely cost me more, considering that I probably end up paying for a surveyor as well? I am just thinking, should I try another surveyor (not through his channels) or shall I go to a lawyer to get him off my back? Or keep it amicable and get the contractor to comply with whatever he is asking?

You are making assumptions whilst all there is to it, I've asked for examples as I thought people here would know. There are hundreds of questions here on technicalities, legalities etc, and if each time a question is answered "let your builder/contractor/lawyer deal with it", then what's the point of this forum?

I never mentioned anywhere that I was going to do it. I wanted examples of MS, so I know what to expect, and ask for more details if necessary.

We plan to excavate within 3 meters from his property. Does he still not have rights to ask for documents? I did serve him notice a few months ago, but he came back saying he needs more information. I already lost one contractor because they're not prepared to deal with this. Took me another few months to get another contractor on board. We cannot block off the access completely, and he only needs to get out to his front garden to see it. Would involving a lawyer be a bad idea at this point? I am dreading that whatever limited budget I had for this will be blown on legal and surveyors fees.

That's exactly the type of answer that I didn't want to hear. If I am asking for some examples, then that's what I am after.

Hello everyone, I apologise to those who keep seeing posts from me about this wretched trench... I considered adding replies to one of my previous posts but thought they weren't quite covering the question of method statement. Anyway, the trench for services is to be excavated in a shared drive with neighbours' garages sitting on both edges of the drive. The drive is roughly 3 meters wide, so the works are a subject to a party wall agreement. There are already existing services in the drive - water, gas, electrics, BT. One of the neighbours is a surveyor, so he insists on covering all eventualities before he OKs the works. We've had a chat yesterday and agreed on a min distance from both properties that they'd be happy with. But he also wants a method statement detailing machinery, depths, widths, compaction methods, materials used and duration of works. Does anyone have any examples of method statements for these types of works? I attach a drawing of the drive with position of utilities. The contractor will do the trial pits as well. Many thanks Utility Detection Survey.pdf

Thanks everyone for the input. I think I'll agree on min acceptable distance from the garages and then tell the contractor that's what we have to work with. And, yes, as Kommando suggested, gently push BT cable away if it gets in the way. Hopefully there is some slack to it

Yes, it's quite shallow and quite visible where they patched up the tarmac. It is on the side closest to the surveyor, but I think they'd be happy with this distance.

They could probably get the council on board. It's not going to be one day job, so suppose they can manage to mess things up for me. He also works in the Parish Council 😬