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10 minutes ago, joe90 said:

I guess it depends on how over stretched BCO,s are after Covid etc.

The problem I had first time round 

was Private BC insisted on at least a couple of days notice Which is fine for most of the build But not workable with foundation

We where on difficult ground and had a morning and afternoon visit for the first three days 

Probably the best money spent on the whole build 

 

 

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5 hours ago, Dave Jones said:

they dont do the warranty inspections though so you pay twice.

 

on the plus side they really dont care and will pass anything.

 

Thats is surely the point of a private BCO. To get a certificate regardless. Money talks.

 

Mind you, our council BCO does the same. Stevie wonders brother it seems.

 

Whole system is pointless and broken.

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15 hours ago, Dave Jones said:

on the plus side they really dont care and will pass anything.

That’s a bit of a blanket statement and I would disagree with you for the areas I have dealt with over the years (Bristol and Devon).

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At the start of our build BCO (only council up here) would come out at short notice e.g. for foundations, and were easy to contact by telephone.  By the end of the build they were hard to contact, and took weeks to get an appointment.  Now that may just be that a completion inspection is not urgent, and they may still go at short notice for foundations, but my general impression was the service was poorer than at the start.

 

They also irked me with a stupid procedural thing.  There were 2 very minor points at the completion inspection.  Instead of just saying "fix those and we will issue your certificate" they issued a formal "refusal to issue completion certificate" meaning not only did I have to fix the 2 minor items, I than had to apply again for a completion certificate and wait the long delay for another inspection.  If they are deliberately making the system clumsy like that, it is no wonder the service has got worse the amount of extra time it wastes for all.

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I think we paid £490 inc VAT last year for local authority building control site inspection fees. Been out three times so far. No issues at all. They asked some relevant questions and I had to send the amended joist layout to them. 200 sq m build. 

Edited by Happy Valley
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I went private (local office of national chain) as dealing with the useless council's planning office put me off using its building control.  £800 plus VAT.  So far they're keen to do remote inspections (i.e. photos or videos) as much as possible, short staffed due to covid absences & all wfh.

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