Structural timbers built into walls and BCO

[Pat-UK]

Good morning all

I have a house that was badly damaged by fire and due to my insuranc Company (No Names but they have a big red phone) being a bunch o pancake flippers :) and only paying out about 25% of the claim I a having to repair it myself.

Going down the whole building notice and doing a full renovation woul cost far more than I can afford due to the modifications required t meet current building regulations including a massive sacrifice o space due to the requirement of encased stairs ways.

The Building regulations do not apply to repairing a building, an doing a like for like replacment needs no involvment of buildin control but i'm worried that when they come out to do their pre wirin inspection that they will start picking holes in what's been done.

The current building has main supports running across the building int the walls and the floor joists were nailed to them, I have just replace the damaged beams with the same or next size up and put on joist hanger as this it safer and better than just nailed.

Should I put the ceilings up before they visit to hide it all so the can get on with their window and wiring inspection and leave the res alone or should I leave it all open and hope they only do what they ar supposed to do ??

I am re-wiring and fitting the windows myself so need to go throug building notice on these bits as the BCO knows they need replacin already.

Any help or advice would be great.

Thanks

Pa

-- Pat-UK

[Jonathan Pearson]

Care to elaborate why they are only paying 25% of the claim, does seem strange! Jon

[Dan delaMare-Lyon]

Well they dont' appear to be any better at House Ins than Pet Ins - where they refused to pay our claim alltogether. Only when I threatened to take the to court for causing suffering to the animal insured as the vet would no longer treat them - and delivered a letter by registered post did they cough up *anything* and then took 6 weeks to do it.

Cheers Dan.

[mcbrien410]

Why do you hide the name(s) of these comapanies? Providing you are telling the truth, surely you have nothing to worry about.

Chris.

[dg]

Building control will/can only be concerned with the relevent works as per your application. If the works are not controlled works, then it is not their concern. They may advise but that is all it will be. But if work is a structural alteration, or repair work is seen to be dangerous, then they may be interested.

dg

[Pat-UK]

I presumed it was forum rules not to flame or abuse anyone, I hav

plenty of proof, letters and transcripts of telephone converstaion obtained be the FOS.

(Why didn't they pay out ???)

It was mainly because it had a flat roof, I was given the option t take them to court but was advised this could take up to 5 years, i which time i'd have to continue to pay rent on alternativ accomodation, and keep up the repayments on the mortgage, in additio to funding legal costs of about £150 per hour for solicitors. whic could run in to 10's of thousands.

a word of warning, if you have a house with a flat felt roof tha covers more that 30% of the entire property (so if you have a huge fla roofed extension) This company can get out of paying out on the claim they say that a felt roof is a "non standard material" (again I hav written evidence to prove this statment) and as such they claimed the were in a position to avoid the policy from day one, and made a toke payment.

I am in the middle of creating a website regarding the whole thin which can be seen at

please note it is i an unfinished state and will be fully finished as soon as I hav finished scanning the letters and writing it all up.

Anyhow any Advice on my original questio

-- Pat-UK

[The Natural Philosopher]

Having said that, if your BCO is halfway decent he will advise pre-reapir oin what he expects to see, and why.

If you disagree, then you can pay a structural engineer a few hundred to tell him enough to cover his arse, and he will be happy

What you DO NOT want to do is have either the house fall about your ears, or have the BCO demand expensive remedial work.

Frankly repairing to modern BC standards is gooid practice ANYWAY...you might decide that beefier joiats with herringbone bracing and a less flexible floor are what you want after all...

as far as using jiost hangars goes..well I prefer to have joists actually stitting on SOMETHING...surely if its ammost a total rebuild you can knock up a load bearing structure somewhere to take the floor weight- if its a timber farme building, this isn't hard, and you can use the extra depth to put more insulation in..

[Steve Walker]

That's a pretty good site, keep working on it. Particularly good to see you identifying positive service experiences, as it makes it much harder to write you off as an awkward customer. Once it's complete and tidy, you need to start building up the traffic - set an e-mail sig for example.

From the correspondence, it seems to me that they suspected you of some kind of dishonesty (or withholding of relevant information), and I'd guess that you were being treated by staff who were aware of that 'tag' upon your file.

[Pat-UK]

Thank you for your post, exactly what I wanted to know, their is n structural alterations as such, the house is going back as it was, th only difference being next size up timbers where the old size is no available as stock, most or the new timber is 195x50 where the old wa

160 to 175 x45 ( bit of a mixture all round with bit's of packing t level it out) don't know who built the thing, but they need shooting.

And the joist hangers instead of nails.

Thanks agai

-- Pat-UK