loft conversions, contracts and regulations

Whilst browsing for cheap holidays, google threw up a random search return that caught my eye.   It was a standard forum site where members can ask questions and generally have a good moan to let off steam.

This poor fellow had paid a builder to undertake a loft conversion. Towards the end, the builder had made the excuse that he was losing money on the job, so had walked away.   There wasn’t much left to do, so the chap finished it himself.      There had been the usual periodic building control visits during the course of the work, but the final certificate was needed.

Problem: a structural support beam across the stairway was too low to meet building regs requirements.  Therefore, no certificate.  No valid house insurance.  Waste of money.

The tearful chap reckoned it would cost pretty much the same as the entire job to move the beam at that late stage, including having to re-do most of the conversion work.

What went wrong?

1. He failed to get the work properly designed by a designer fully conversant with the latest building regulations and possessing valid professional indemnity insurance in case the design was inadequate.
2. He probably didn’t have any drawings checked by Build Control before the work started (I doubt there were any), but opted instead for the cheap and quick option of applying for Building Notice.   You give 48hrs notice of work commencing and allow the inspector to check compliance as the work proceeds, but without any protection in case he misses something, but spots it at a later visit.
3. He took on a builder without a contract.  Walking away from a contract is a breach of contract and entitles the aggrieved party to use the right of set-off to use money still owed to be used to complete/ rectify works already done.  Without a formal contract though, the statute law of offer and acceptance without details is pretty tricky to challenge if one party fails to deliver their part in full.
4. The builder allegedly gave a “fixed price”.   This is quite appealing to the customer.  Specialist loft conversion expert gives a guaranteed fixed price for the entire job.  No architect required as this guy is an “expert”.  Done loads. It is indeed a good way of fixing your costs, providing you have absolute certainty of exactly what you’ll be getting for the money, including compliance of any design work to meet ALL relevant and applicable regulations.

The builder may have realised the problem as soon as he’d installed the new stair and plotted a way out or he may simply have expended money to the point where there wasn’t much left in profit and decided a quick exit was a good idea.   Either way, there wasn’t much protection for the client.

If you’re considering any building work, try to appreciate the extent of what you don’t know.  Don’t learn the hard way.

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