Building work certification

Oh. A case of "Nobody Knows", per QI?

Well AFAIK, no you shouldn't need anything else

You are probably OK we had a similar situation when we bought our present b ungalow which had a conservatory type extension added by the previous owner s, which included wall building, glazing, electrics and plumbing. This had a single building regs. compliance certificate and our solicitor was satisf ied with that.

Richard

As long as you've got a copy of the Planning Approval document and the building regs Completion Certificate, I don't think that there *is* much else. Presumably the electrics were done by someone who could self-certify for Part-P, and they supplied evidence of a compliant installation to the Local Authority before they issued the Completion Certificate? It may be useful if you've also got a copy of the electrical certificate - but it shouldn't really be necessary as long as it's referred to in the Completion Certificate.

I don't think there's a clean answer since it's very common to say you don't have the certificates a solicitor asks for, and no one cares.

Providing planning permission was granted the building regs application covered structural, electrical, heating, insulation, waste/sewage plumbing, and windows, I can't think what else you need.

The important ones are planning permission and building regs approval for structure, without which selling could be hard, although a friend bought a place where the councils had lost all that when boundaries moved, and it didn't actually matter. The only bit of paperwork which could be found was Thames Water signing off their approval of building over a shared sewer.

Thanks for your and the others' responses. It sounds like we've enough to get us by.

I'm still chasing the builder to provide the electrical certificate, just in case. Electrical work isn't explicitly mentioned in the Final Certificate - but nor is it excluded. An approved inspection company issued the Final Certificate, not the Local Authority. The LA planning dept. isn't interested. The inspection company says the electrician is responsible. The electrician says he gave it to the builder. The builder has 'promised' to send it to me at least 5 times now but I am now wondering why I bother.

I seems to me that the whole process is full of holes. There's no consistency in the definition of what is required, no process to ensure requirements are met, no reliable record of outcomes. Site inspections in our case were laughable[1].

What's the point of having Building Regulations that aren't enforced?

BTW: The building firm, electrical contractor and inspector companies are all very plausible, established businesses, registered with trade organisations etc.

these days (round here anyway) these things are stored digitally by the council so presumably you can get more copies even if you lose your originals. I would send the electrical certificate to the council tor they can copy it into their system.

Here (Cheshire East), they store records of the LA planning dept activities, but if an approved inspection company is involved they're not interested.

Similar question I would like to know: How recent does the work have to be to require certification? Presumably old work of undetermined age is just subject to survey like the rest of the property.

Tim W

Keep paper copies of *everything*

Not even enough for a half-decent suit nowadays.

After the EMP they may have no records at all.