Illegal house extension demolished

[Mr Justice S Tinks]

4 September, 2003

Illegal house extension demolished

The extension has been described as "hideous"

Workmen have finished demolishing an illegal house extension in Telford after the owner was jailed for refusing to remove it.

Sylvester Nseowo was jailed for three months in August after he refused to pull down the unauthorised extension he built to his house.

He has been pursued through the courts by Telford and Wrekin Council for more than two years since building the addition to his home at Checkley Lane, St Georges, without planning permission.

Terry Brooks, a structural engineer overseeing the demolition, described the quality of work as "atrocious".

"There were no foundations to the columns (of the extension) so they were very unsafe," he told BBC Radio Shropshire.

"We're now taking up the ground floor slabs which in places were about two inches thick. Now normally on a house you have at least four to six inches of concrete, quite often with reinforcements. But there were no reinforcements."

Nseowo had already been given a three-month suspended sentence for contempt of court at Stoke-on-Trent County Court in June, but was allowed a month "to come to his senses".

Telford and Wrekin Council had gained a court injunction ordering that the addition to the home must be pulled down, which led to Nseowo's conviction in June for contempt of court.

He had also previously been fined £20,000 for ignoring orders to demolish the extension, which planners have said was unsafe.

Nseowo's neighbours had expressed concern that the extension was affecting the value of their homes.

Nseowo will be presented with the bill for the demolition work, which took about two weeks to complete, when he is released from prison.

He is to appeal against his sentence on Thursday. ==================================================================

Comment: What a loon, but we are used to loons in uk.legal

I suspect we haven't seen the last of Mr Nseowo

Perhaps somebody should tell him you can't build a house extension in the UK according to the Nigerian Building Regs. Or perhaps he didn't bung the building inspector enough? (8->)

Mr J S Tinks

[Dudley]

On a parallel universe somewhere there is another Mr Nseowo who got away with building his extension and then sold the house to an unsuspecting first time buyer. Because the first time buyer couldn't afford a full survey the surveryors report didn't pick up the faults to the extension. Six months down the line, one of the columns collapses and kills three of the house occupants when a supporting beam collapses under it's own weight and crushes the occupants.

[David Hearn]

Don't you mean "sold the house to a blind, unsuspecting first time buyer"? It was quite obvious to anyone who saw it that it wasn't okay - since when have columns been significantly off the vertical, and roofs been on a serious slant? ;)

D

[Capstick]

I have seen many grass roofs on a slant.

[Matt Beard]

Isn't there a better photo; I can't see the extension in this one because it seems to be obscured by a pile of builders rubbish... oh wait a minute... I see what's happened here!!!

[Simon Avery]

Hello Mr

TWO WEEKS?

From the look of it, Simon and a sledgehammer could sort it out in an hour, tea break included!

[Andrew Gabriel]

Yea, but then it would be difficult to justify another bill for x thousand pounds...

[nss]

't there any better photos/plans/sketches than this?

Despite what is being claimed, this 'structure' might not actually have required any building regs or planning approval.

-- nss

[Brian Delaney]

Why not, do you think?

[Wanderer]

This may or may not be true, but it is irrelevant in the particular case reported. The local planning authority had pursued this through the courts.

[Harvey Van Sickle]

On Sun, 07 Sep 2003 13:08:46 GMT, nss wrote

There's a better one on the Shropshire Star paper's website for pictures to buy -- I don't know if this will link, but if not you can reach it by searching on "Nseowo" on

[nss]

Well, for example,do you need such 'approval' or 'inspection' if you have a pile of building-materials in your garden, or a 'work of art'? Do you?

-- nss

[nss]

snip

Could someone in 'planning' or 'building-control' have made a bit of a f***-up?

-- nss

[nss]

Not subject, possibly, to Appeal now?

-- nss

[Louis Drysdale]

x-no-archive: yes

Course not. What's your point? What we see in the photo is an extension in a state of construction/deconstruction (not sure which), looks like it's attached to the house, etc so it's an extension that is subject to building regulations and to planning consent (subhject to size etc as earlier post). Maybe someone from the Shropshire council can enlighten the group?

[IMM]

Could have, but they can also get it demolished because it is unsafe once it has been brought to their attention.

[nss]

ADDENDUM.

If the 'structure' or 'construction' was in any way 'unsafe' as claimed, the HSE would have undoubtedly been on the case.

Wouldn't they?

-- nss

[Louis Drysdale]

OK - get off the line, there's a train coming.

[nss]

Oh Goody,,,,let's hope it's a 'gravy-train' eh?

-- nss

[geoff]

In message , Louis Drysdale writes

Well Shropshire PA are a bit of a law unto themselves

I used to know someone who worked for them years ago he was a 100% jobsworth. Someone had built a little log cabin up in the back of beyond in the woods which they pulled down. I remember him telling me "You can't have people building houses all over the place, it's just not on"

I remember where we lived, there were two similar extensions on similar houses near where we lived (in Shrewsbury). One was built by someone who worked for the council, the other by someone who didn't.

Take a guess which one stayed up and which one the council came round and demolished