illegal en suite

[happybilly]

Hi guys,
I would appreciate if you could let me have your views re this. I had an en suite installed in my house and I just found out it needed building regs. I commissioned this work 2 weeks before giving birth and it didn't occur to me that the building regs may be needed. The builder dragged the work forever and only completed it in November. I was blisfully unaware until now that this is illegal. Any ideas how I can sort this mess out?

Contact building regs dept at your council. They can come and 'sign off' the work (as long as it complies with the building regs that may apply). There may be a fee for them to come out. This is standard - your builder should have taken care of this.
However it is not like planning consent, which you need to apply for and gain before you start work (unless it is planning consent you mean?).

No issues when you live in the house - may make it difficult to sell, so worth contacting the council unless you intend to live there forever

It's worth getting BRegs signoff. It's your responsibility to make sure it gets done BUT any builder worth his salt would tell you this needed doing. The fact that he hasn't makes me think his work may not be up to standard and would ring alarm bells with me.
Ultimately BRegs are there to ensure work is complete to a minimum level for safety, public health & energy efficiency - if your installation can't do this then you may get problems down the line. BRegs don't ensure all work is up to standard just those bits covered by the regs (see above) but if your builder has skimped on these key areas then it's not a good sign for the whole thing.
He may have completed the work fine and been too lazy to do the BRegs but unless you have something that can tell you otherwise I would contact your LA to come and do a BR inspection to confirm that he's done everything correctly.
The pain in the bum bit about doing it now rather than when the work was being done is that they may (depending on exactly what has been done) need to open up hidden work to see what's been done & how... This may cause damage which needs rectifying. BRegs signoff will attract a fee but as a householder it is relatively minor.

Thank you for your feedback. Ever snce discovering this I have been in a tizzy as to what to do. I commissioned this work 2 weeks before giving work and I didn't have a clue it needed building regs. I knew about knocking/moving walls and changing the look of the house externally, but had no idea about en suite. I trusted the guy as I have known him for over a year. He has done some work both for me and my partner before we moved in together. His work was of a high standard in the past as he has rectified leaking showers etc where others couldn't fix it. I know for a fact that the height of the switch doesn't meet regulation as he has asked me where to put it and I didn't know at the time taht there was a specific height required, which I subsequently found out.

I have sought legal advice onlline and he seems to be in breach of the law on several counts. More specifically, the 'Supply of goods and services act for failing to carry out the task within reasonable care and within a reasonable period of time. It took him 3 months to complete the en suite. I didn't have much choice as I paid him upfront, but finding out it's illegal was the last straw.

The solicitors says there is no point taking him to court if he has no assets. He lives with his mum, but I know that he is in the process of selling 650k house if he hasn't already done so and he has got a builder's van and valuable tools. Do you think I should so the bastard?

I keep kicking myself for being so naive, but I honestly didn't know this required building regs.

I don't intend to sell the house any time soon, but one never knows. And to add insult to injury I thought adding the en suite will enhance value rather than reduce it. God!

Do you think the council can ask me to take it down altogether?

'giving birth' not work.... lost the plot obviously :(

'sue' the b......

Stop panicking. If you have a look on your council website under building regulations they may have some info available about regs for bathrooms / en suites. The main things are likely to be electrical work signed off and ventilation.

Thanks. Easier said than done. The online solicitor meanwhile advised that I have got an excellent case against the guy as he is in breach of the Supply of goods and services act and in breach of contract to do the job properly. Posting this just in case it's useful to anybody else as info. I paid for the legal advice.

Still feeling 'c...'

You might be able to pursue him depending on your contract but unless your contract specifically said he had to get building regs signoff for you (which as you didn't know it was needed, probably wasn't in your contract) , you may struggle with. At the end of the day I'm afraid legally ultimate responsibility lies with the building owner. Most people will comply with this by getting their builder/trades/architect/surveyor to get the signoff but it's your responsibility rather than his to make sure it's done. Unfortunately legally ignorance isn't an excuse which is a bit of a trap for a lot of people doing house improvements. But as has been said before as long as the work is up to scratch it's not necessarily a reason to panic. It might be as simple as paying for an inspection & paperwork.
Please learn from this - contracts and finalised or staged payments are very important when building work & serve to protect both parties interests.

Don't panic. This is very easy to put right.

However, as the owner, it is your responsibility to meet the requirements of the building regulations and not the builder's.

Having said that, it is highly unlikely that your local authority would take any action against you. You need to apply to 'regularise' the work which costs fractionally more than it would have done (i.e. 5%).

It really is not worth stressing about.

Ditto to everything said by Wonkylegs.

But don't panic it probably isn't too much of a problem and not urgent unless you want to sell.

As Wonkylegs said it is householders responsibility to make such building regs are done.
But
the trader has a legal responsibility to make sure the work is up to standard, so you could take some legal action against them if it isn't.

But as he dodgy so I wouldn't hope for anything good -
the clue being that he dragged out the work.
Depending what was involved it could only be a 2-4 week job.

May I have a rant:
My husband recently went to see a toilet that wasn't working in a new extension. He told the home owner that who ever had done the plumbing had a good go but was in no way a qualified plumber and bits of the installation did not comply with plumbing standards.
We always feel cross that people employ general unqualified "builders" to install bathrooms and wetrooms etc. as these problems are common.

If our company had quoted for that work we would have told you that building regs were required and that we would have arranged it. As would any reputable company with experience in that sort of thing.

Did you get alternative quotes?

no< i knew this guy for a year and he has done work for me and my partner previously, so I trusted him. We didn't have any contract. He just gave me the invoice for the job, which we negtated down a bit and that was that.

I never in a million years thought that he would deliberately deceive me. And I was 36/37 weeks pregnant when I hired him. Building regs were the last thing on my mind.
I worry that the building control will ask me to take the whole thing down and I paid 5 grand.

Am on maternity leave now and still finishing off other builidng work that got delayed becasue I had to hire different people having sacked this guy.

Do you guys think it's worth it to sue? The solicitor said that he would have to recompense me for any work that needs improving.

I am having an electrician coming to check the electrics.

for the last poster - Have you ever done any regularisation before?

I think you need to find out what needs to be rectified, get a couple of quotes and then present these to your original builder and ask him to reimburse you the cost. You'll then have appropriate evidence for the Court too, should you decide to go down that route.

What would you be suing for? You haven't even established there is a problem with the work. Surely the first step is to contact the building regs people at the council and get someone out to inspect the work? Then if there is a problem you should probably offer the builder the chance to put it right or pay to have someone else do the work.

Eh? We've had an en suite put in main bedroom and not even considered building regulations
Fixed shower cubicle, runs off mains, little sink and toilet with macerator flush
It's basically inside the wardrobe sliding glass doors dh fitted across the room

Eh? We've had an en suite put in main bedroom and not even considered building regulations
Fixed shower cubicle, runs off mains, little sink and toilet with macerator flush
It's basically inside the wardrobe sliding glass doors dh fitted across the room

You should be hanged for installing a poo-mincer.

What would you sue for OP??? You might get the building inspector out and he tells you it's perfect and signs it off.

QOD - if you add a bath/showerroom where there wasn't one before whatever size and even if you do it yourself it must comply & be signed off by building regulations. see here for quick overview

There is a quick guide here of common projects that may require BRegs or Planning permission.
Failure to comply can result in enforcement action by your LA (unlikely for a sneaky ensuite) but more likely will impact on any sale of a house.
Building regulations are not just there to be a pain in the arse, they are there to ensure work meets basic standards for your safety, public health and energy efficiency.

As said don't panic.
You might only consider legal action against builder IF there is something wrong AND IF he doesn't put it right.
In the first instant contact the builder if there is a problem.

BTW, I expect A £5k ensuite to be completed with 10 working days, max.

Building control is not like planning permission - you would not have to get rid of it (usually) ust fix any things that don't comply - as said it is about safety, structural integrity and some attention to efficiency.

Oh that's a bummer and no poo mincing! poo is banned in the en suite. Doesn't even get used for wee, just seemed silly to do it and not have a loo

How come sometimes you can add a photo but no option here?

And there is a window in it as there was one there anyway and shower so no heavy bath on the joists, phew

New electricity supply for the shower? It's supposed to have a dedicated one (which cost me an extra £300). Or is it mixed off the mains?

Dunno. Mains probably but it's just off the normal boiler mains, not an electric shower