Brought a house and now realise on building regulation.....

[Headred]

Hi,

Jan this year we brought a house which had a joining wall between kitchen and dining room removed. Naively we didn't question it and our surveyor didn't bring it up in the report.

It has only come about as someone has knocked our door to ask who had completed the work as she wants hers done. She has been advised by an architect not to have it done. Visited another neighbour today who has also had hers done and she advised it was just a plaster boarded wall.

I am now concerned as we don't have building regs and can only hope it has been done properly. I have contacted previous owners to question who did the work and they have come back with a fairly vague answer, he is a solicitor himself and is always careful with answers he gives on everything.

Question is what if anything do we need to do now?

Thanks for reading

I'm not sure if you need building regs to remove internal walls.

The architect may be advising from an aesthetic/design point of view, particularly if the other neighbour who had it done says it was plasterboard. Could you check with someone who still has the wall there what it is? Or do you know a trustworthy builder? They often give better advice than surveyors in my experience.

Don't panic. We had a couple of surprises after buying this house but it will hopefully be fine.

Thanks timidviper. I am so angry with myself that it didn't even cross my mind to check. I may ask a neighbour if I can look at their walls, good idea. I presume if its plaster board it won't be weight baring

If you go upstairs and look at your floorboards you should be able to find out which way your joists run. If it is a load bearing wall it will run contrary to the direction of your joists. If its not load bearing then fine. If it is load bearing then you need more info. Check the SPIF and survey. Whatever you do - don't go ringing/contacting building control.

Did your solicitor not check this out when doing the conveyancing?

If it was a structural wall they probably put a beam in. If you are worried you could get a structural survey of that one issue for not too much money.

Did your survey mention it or ask questions about it?

It's probably fine.

It was not brought up by the solicitor. I need to look over the questionnaire that the previous owners filled to see if it is mentioned. Our home buyers survey report states no modifications have been made to this property. Feel like such an idiot. The lady who knocked on the door to ask who had done the building work says her property was phase 2 in the build and she has been told its a supporting wall. Where as the neighbours who have also had it done and said it was just plaster board was phase 1 like our s don't know if that makes a difference

It is probably fine and you could always ring the Buildings Control dept at the council to see if it was required.

Looking on the gov website it doesn't look like building regs were required for the removal of an internal wall my fear is that the side of the house will fall down. Do you think it is worth contacting the surveyor who was a lovely guy to question it with him?

If it is a supporting wall then you need building regs. Have you pulled up the floorboards upstairs to have a look? If it is supporting them the joists will run at 90 degrees, i.e. resting on what would have been the wall.

Hmmmm Will pull carpets up when I get home and will report back. Thanks for all of your advice

how old is the house?
ours is late 1970s. we had wall between kitchen and dining replaced- we thought it would be loadbearing but when work started, the support is through steels that run front to back through the house so not needed.

You could always get a couple of builders around, they could quickly tell you if there is an issue.
Our dining room/kitchen wall was removed, but there is a very obvious huge beam in place (our house is 1920s).

The house is 10 years old. Our neighbours builder was convinced it isn't but put an rsj in anyway but said it was necessary.

Sorry...said it was unnecessary

Ok update. I have lifted the carpet upstairs and the floorboards are huge boards so not easy to get up.

I have looked behind one of the kitchen cupboards that I thought was flush against the wall but there is a small part of the wall pertruding out where the original wall should have been. Hopefully they would have used this to balance a rsj on. If you have one is there always a beam coming out of the ceiling? as our ceiling is flush.

Sorry that there are so many question just want to put my mind a rest a bit until I can speak to someone next week.

Thanks

You can have an rsj and a flush ceiling but would have thought that would be unusual on a job where they've not even pursued building regs as it's much more work (and expense) than just boxing in the beam.

We have a similar thing on the house we are buying. I asked the surveyor as he hadn't noted anything about it in his report. We know in our case that the wall was removed at more than 20 years ago as the current occupant didn't do it. Surveyor said if the wall had been removed that long ago and had been done wrong there would be signs by now. If it was going to fall down it would have started already.

I think if an RSJ has been inserted, it was a load bearing wall, and in that case, you need building regulation approval.

You can get building regulation approval (although they don't have to give it) but I would suggest you get it checked out.

If you've been told that no modifications have been made and you find out they have, you need to take it further with whoever provided the incorrect information.

So is it a case of going back to the surveyor of the home buyers survey and questioning it with him do you think?

Thanks so much for everyone input. Of to have a glass of wine as its driving me crackers

Thank you

Many years ago I bought a semi- detached house, the lounge/dining room had been knocked into one room and the seller produced a 6 page structural engineer report to say that in all probability the rsj support was adequate. I passed it on when I sold the property and i also showed it to the buyers surveyor when he came round.

In order to complete the structural engineers report they drilled a test hole in to the plasterboard to inspect the RSJ.

I think I would call the council and ask the building inspector to pop round, he will probably do so free of charge and advise you.