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Building Control - LABC vs Alternative...


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Anyone got any pearls of wisdom on who to use for Building Control? In our area (Norfolk), the Local Authority entity is 'CNC', they've quote around the £900 mark. A third-party company (Vantage) that came highly recommended has quoted £1550. Did you use a third-party company? Are they worth the extra cost?

 

We don't have our Technical plans yet, so aren't really ready to move forward with Building Control, but we need to get the drainage up to the build area in order to be able to connect the caravan, I'm guessing this will need to be inspected?

 

 

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No brainier 

LA 

We used LA on our last and next Cheaper 

No limit to visits Better availability 

38 minutes ago, Thorfun said:

I think it depends on other factors rather as well. for us it was cheaper to use the same private building control company for both BR and our warranty rather than using LABC for BR and a private for the warranty. 

We used Protect for our warrantee

Absolutely brilliant 

Inspected the foundations from his car Roof from the ground 

Final inspection from the comfort of our kitchen 

We had done such a good job He didn’t need to go upstairs or walk around the outside of the house 

Spent less than 30 minutes on our build Spread out over three visits 

Highly recommended 

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I opted for private building control which was @PeterW 's advice at the time. Happy with my choice and suspect my guy's long experience and intuitive assessment has saved my loads compared to a younger box ticker. With either choice it comes down to the personal characteristics of the BCO assigned to you.

 

I would suggest looking at possible overrun extension fees if you think your build will be slower than average.

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1 hour ago, Dave Jones said:

it boils down to, do you need warranty  or not. if not local authority as they are the least interested in hassling you.

We had local Authority for BC 

and a separate guy for warrantee He new that it’s a worthless scrap of paper 

I think that’s why he showed little interest in the build 

Just take pictures 

 

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5 minutes ago, nod said:

We had local Authority for BC 

and a separate guy for warrantee He new that it’s a worthless scrap of paper 

I think that’s why he showed little interest in the build 

Just take pictures 

 

I think this comes down to what do you need your warranty provider for , is it because your lender said you have to have one, or you think they will add value to the build. 

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1 minute ago, Buzz said:

I think this comes down to what do you need your warranty provider for , is it because your lender said you have to have one, or you think they will add value to the build. 

We didn’t have a lender but I suspect some may insist 

 

Retroactive is probably the best option 

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everyone seems to have their own experience and opinion. our LABC officer was more expensive than the Protek private one and they're doing both BR and warranty. for us it was a no-brainer. like I said, it will depend on your own circumstances and, as with everything it seems, one size does not fit all.

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2 minutes ago, Thorfun said:

everyone seems to have their own experience and opinion. our LABC officer was more expensive than the Protek private one and they're doing both BR and warranty. for us it was a no-brainer. like I said, it will depend on your own circumstances and, as with everything it seems, one size does not fit all.

Totally agree with this , so much of what we have done seems to be at odds with other members experiences and I think location has a much bigger impact than anything else. 

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We went private.

 

We needed a warranty in case we needed to sell it within 10 years of buying it, and it was quite a bit more expensive to get building regs and warranty handled separately, so we did them as a combined deal.

 

The guy who did the inspections was really good. He was pretty relaxed, and the couple of things he pulled us up on were fair enough.

 

I suspect it's as much about who you're lucky/unlucky enough to get as which company you engage.

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I have always gone down the Approved Inspector route - wraps up the warranty visits and BC at the same time and is away from potential Local Authority political pressure. In 2016 a Bromley Councillor tried to get their building control department to 'shut us down' after some NIMBY moaning - I imagine he was fairly disappointed when they told him they weren't instructed....

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