The penalty for contravening Building Regs doesn't always apply. Significance?

[Dreadnaught]

A tweet today:
 

Quote

* Mark Siddall - @MarkSiddallRIBA: Little known secret.
    * The penalty for contravening Building Regs (Section 35) doesn't apply to: 
        * 17. Completion certs
        * 27. CO2 emission rate calcs
        * 29. Energy performance certs
        * 41. Sound insulation tests
        * 42. Mech vent air flow rate tests
        * 43. Pressure tests
    * http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2010/2214/regulation/47/made 

 

What significance does this have for us self builders, if any?

Edited May 20, 2018 by Dreadnaught

[ragg987]

I suspect people on this forum build to a better standard as we are not willing to put up with the quality most new builds have, so I would say of little, or no relevance. My target was to exceed most of the above.

[newhome]

What does it mean in relation to a completion certificate though? That they can’t impose any penalty if you live in the house before the completion certificate is issued, or something else? 

 

Presumably they will withhold a completion certificate if you don’t meet the standards in the rest of the list?

 

 

[TerryE]

The problems will start with insurance -- you might find that your house insurance is invalid if BControl refuses to sign it off -- and trying to sell your house in the future.

[nod]

20 hours ago, Dreadnaught said:

A tweet today:
 

 

What significance does this have for us self builders, if any?

 

I don’t think this will even affect mainstream house builders 

You will have private company’s desperate for their business 

That won’t want to rock the boat 

[newhome]

33 minutes ago, TerryE said:

The problems will start with insurance -- you might find that your house insurance is invalid if BControl refuses to sign it off -- and trying to sell your house in the future.

 

Yes, we lived in our house as soon as it was habitable but still far from complete and had to get a special ‘building work in progress’ insurance policy after the self build policy ran out.

 

Interestingly though my neighbours bought their ‘completed’ new house from the builder who I bought my plot from and they were totally unaware that their house hadn’t been signed off. So they’ve been living in it for 10 years, have a mortgage on it and a standard insurance policy that has probably been invalid all this time. The council never once wrote to them asking what their plans were to achieve sign off that leads me to believe that they actually don’t care whether a house is signed off or not. So they are now taking legal action against their solicitor as the completion certificate was one of the key requirements of the sale. In order to get the completion certificate that they received earlier this month they’ve had to carry out remedial work to address some of the things that the council weren’t happy with, and rip out a shower that they had installed as it didn’t conform to building regs for some reason. Plus I imagine they may have trouble selling the house as they have no warranty and the 10 years starts from this month, not 10 years ago when they moved in.