• Building Regs

    By Guest on 10th Nov 2015

    Dear Sir/Madam I saw your feed back on a forum that I stumbled across and wanted to contact you about an issue that I am currently encountering. My husband sadly passed away recently and as I have 2 young children I decided to create some office space to enable me to work from home so that I can be here for them as much as possible. I had a large Utility room that I decided to split into two rooms by sub dividing with a stud wall and creating access to the new Office by an entrance doorway from the hallway. I asked several builders as to if I needed permission and as I couldn't get a definitive answer I decided to approach my local building control department for advice. I spoke to several different inspectors each time I called and one of them highlighted to me that the existing Utility room may not have had approval to have been converted from a Garage and that permission should have been sought to convert to habitat use. I explained that I bought the house in 1997 and that I wasn't aware that it had been converted from a garage. He explained that I may have problems when I came to sell it and suggested that I submit a "regulisation application" form and that they would look to approve both the new works and the old works on the same application form, The building inspector that came round was very unhelpful and has informed me that I must provide a full spec of how the building was constructed to cover the A-Z regulations for 1992. I am confused by this as I have read on various forms that building regs can not be enforced if the works were carried out over 10 years ago. I have also read that lenders generally only requires solicitors to investigate possible breaches of building regulations going back 10 years, He is also now telling me that I shouldn't have submitted a regulisation form, but a building notice for the new works and that the 2 should have been dealt with separately., He has also stated that I can now not apply for indeminity insurance as I have submitted a regulisation request , to which I reminded him I only did this on the advice of one of his colleagues. I have asked if I can withdraw the application or change it to a building notice application and he has informed me that I can not do this. I am completely distraught as I tried to do the right thing and I am now left wondering what to do next and if this will result in hundreds of pounds to put right. Please can you help me. Thanks Kim Andrews

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