RSJ?

[whoareyou]

Hi,

We are in the process of buying a house. The backroom diner/kitchen has been knocked through, which the owners state was done in 2000 and an rsj was installed and no building regs were required. The owners have no paperwork to confirm this and I was wondering if there was an easy way of checking to see whether this has been done properly or what visible signs to look for, to see if there are any problems. Would any problems likely to be visible after 9 years?

Thank you for any help

 

[^woody^]

If the floor, wall etc is still up with no significant cracking or dipping of the floor, then it's OK

 

[alittlerespect]

Hi!

Its not that Building Reg's were not required, rather someone has gone at risk and not bothered to apply for building regulations, and now the owner finds himself in the not too uncommon situation of being in a bit of a quandary! As he cannot easily prove that the work has been carried out to recognised standards.

One thing to be wary off- you will need a building survey report for your mortgage, and if the building surveyor mentions this item in his report the mortgage company may stipulate that an application be made to the Building Control Office which will then require an intrusive survey to determine the structural integrity of the design (this may simply be a case of taking up floorboards upstairs or it may be necessary to cut away a section of the wall and ceiling plaster to confirm details, before the Building Control will issue a certificate. And then you have the making good!

Check with your mortgage advisor.

Ohh! and of course there is the money side!! Who pay's?

Otherwise it is as stated by 'woody'

Regards

 

[whoareyou]

Hi!

Its not that Building Reg's were not required, rather someone has gone at risk and not bothered to apply for building regulations, and now the owner finds himself in the not too uncommon situation of being in a bit of a quandary! As he cannot easily prove that the work has been carried out to recognised standards.

One thing to be wary off- you will need a building survey report for your mortgage, and if the building surveyor mentions this item in his report the mortgage company may stipulate that an application be made to the Building Control Office which will then require an intrusive survey to determine the structural integrity of the design (this may simply be a case of taking up floorboards upstairs or it may be necessary to cut away a section of the wall and ceiling plaster to confirm details, before the Building Control will issue a certificate. And then you have the making good!

Check with your mortgage advisor.

Ohh! and of course there is the money side!! Who pay's?

Otherwise it is as stated by 'woody'

Regards

Thank you both for your replies.

The building survey report was carried out by a surveyor recommended by the mortgage company.
The surveyor only commented on the fact that a wall had been knocked through, he did not mention a specific problem, only that we should check that the correct building reg had been obtained.
We can take out an indemnity policy relating to the building regs, but our main concern is the safety issue.

Do you know what is the best way and possible costs involved to confirm the safety of the work?

Thanks again

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

As mentioned, say £120 for the building regs regularisation fee, they'll probably want to chip off some plaster in a few locations so a few more £££ to get that patched and repainted.

Who pays and whether the seller won't mind is another thing. Depends who's more desperate probably.

 

[^woody^]

I really would not worry with this.

If a surveyor has looked at it and not seen any issues, then you can take it that the alteration as been done adequately and is as good as the rest of the property.

Pragmatically, building regulations are only here to ensure that work is done to a standard ... to protect [in this case] the unwary homeowner. The applying for permission is the bureaucratic part of all this, whilst the key issue is that the work is done properly. So, it is possible to do work properly and not apply for the appropriate permission. This does not make the work unsafe

In addition there is little chance of there being any action taken about this by the council - its not worth it, and would be a waste of time and money. But mainly, it's been completed far too long now for any action to be taken

Generally in these cases, you can use this "unauthorised work" to negotiate a discount in the selling price, you imply that you are taking a risk, and get a reduction to compensate for this risk.

But in this case, professionally I'd say it was not worth the effort, and if I was the seller, I'd tell you to do one