Subsidence work notifiable under building regs?

[Anita Palley]

Hi,

We're house hunting. One place which we particularly like is a bay- fronted victorian terrace. We're a little bit suspicious that there may be subsidence problems with the bay, although the agent says there's not. Some similar houses nearby have had this. The solution usually is just to tie the bay back to the main structure with some kind of metal bars in the brickwork - no underpinning.

Before we spend any money on surveys/searches I'd like to do a bit of detective work. Is work like that notifiable to the council, either for planning purposes or building regs? I've a feeling that underpinning is, but I'm not so sure about the relatively minor "cosmetic" fixing-up of cracks.

Anita

[PeteM]

Anita Palley posted

No, in general it wouldn't. And even if it did, plenty of people would just do it and not notify the council's BR department.

[Lobster]

It's still well worth going to have a shufti at the building control office records first though: it's free and open for inspection. If I'd done that simple step myself once upon a time, it would have saved me a load of cash I ended up wasted on mortgage fees, surveys and the like, spent on a blighted property.

David