Builder/ regularisation certificate advice please?

[De88]

Long story short, we had a wall removed and RSJ put in approx 4 years ago.

Structural engineer did attend, this is in the invoice which we paid and though we weren't introduced formally, I am sure he was the unfamiliar man in the hard hat who visited and took notes before, during and after RSJ went in.

We spoke with builder about permissions a d certificates before work started and he said he would sort as he did this all the time. When I asked about this again later on in works, he told me it wasn't required and of course be done to regs, but to take lots of photos of RSJ for peace of mind.

Not knowing anything about anything we trusted him and left him to it. They were great and we're really happy with it.

Now selling and its only the legal forms that's promoted me to look into this and realise we have no certificate. Spoke to Building Control who were fab, sent them lots of pics and they are happy to sign off once calculations received.

Cue attempted contacts with builder... its only been a week, yes I know its Easter but I'm on mat leave with nothing else to think about and its making me very twitchy!

We've filled in accordingly on the forms for the solicitor, and kept our buyer updated.

Has anyone had a similar experience, and what happened? And if you bought, what were the issues for you if any?

I'm buying a house which has a regularisation certificate. It just says it's (the loft in this case) been inspected and meets building regs. I am planning further works to the loft anyway. But yes that is acceptable to me as a buyer (and my lawyer)..
I had an rsj installed when I removed a wall, I do remember the building inspector coming out (that's not the structural engineer) but I had no completion certificate nor any record I had paid for building regs and the builders have disappeared. But it was listed in the local search results as completed so all I had to do was ask for a copy.
But in your case it sounds fine- it would only be a problem if the rsj wasn't there at all!

We just have! DH removed a wall and put an RSJ in which was calculated by a structural engineer. He somehow managed to forget to get building reg sign off 🙄 cue massive panic by me when we accepted an offer on the house and the question was asked about building regs sign off!
Anyway local council were great and we just sent pictures of the RSJ being installed along with engineer calculations and it was signed off and certificate issued within a week. They didn't even visit.
No problems with the sale (to do with that anyway) after.

Thank you for your replies, much appreciated!
It's time for me to pester the builder this week, to see if he can find out whether structural engineer kept the calculations from 4 years ago, and if so, can I have them

After a polite and friendly but clear Facebook post on the public page, he has replied and will sort retrospective calculations out... phew!!! But will still be on tenterhooks until then!

I panicked so so much about this -lost sleep, put it off etc as 6 years had passed builder had gone awol so I didn’t have engineer details or photos but I was there the day it went in snd was introduced to the engineer but similar to u didn’t know to push to get it signed off etc. Anyway .. was sleepless nights for nothing!! Two min visit to house, brief inspection -didn’t drill holes which I thought they would but took the details of what I said went it as fact and got the regularisation form no prob!! You’ll be fine!!

@Panda2021

I panicked so so much about this -lost sleep, put it off etc as 6 years had passed builder had gone awol so I didn’t have engineer details or photos but I was there the day it went in snd was introduced to the engineer but similar to u didn’t know to push to get it signed off etc. Anyway .. was sleepless nights for nothing!! Two min visit to house, brief inspection -didn’t drill holes which I thought they would but took the details of what I said went it as fact and got the regularisation form no prob!! You’ll be fine!!

Panda thank you - I've been worrying madly about what if they have to knock it all back to plaster and etc etc, this is reassuring!

I owned a house in Southwark and tried to get Building Control regularisation when we realised our builder had omitted to do so. We gave the BC team at Southwark all the info we had but they just kept adding more things, as if they didn't want us to have the certificate.
This was 6 yrs after the build of an extension and we had to knock £60k off the price of our place when selling. Southwark BC team never came once to visit the house to see the work (they made just one video call, claiming COVID safety).
The builder was no longer operating, which meant it was impossible for me to get some details of the build. I ended up in hospital with terrible anxiety and was literally on suicide watch because the BC team at Southwark refused to help in any way at all.
I later discovered that solicitors usually advise against trying to get regularisation as depending on the officer it could drag on for years.
I was trying to do the right thing, but Southwark BC's stance was to block every effort that was made to get regularisation. It all but destroyed my life.

@Markyj sorry to read this. We had one great experience with on council are and then one horrific experience similar to what u mentioned with a different council area, lost the sale, thousands of pounds having to do unnecessary work - but overall the attitude of the council staff in that area in BC was so so negative , rude, inflexible and basically power hungry. Terrible 6 months of my life and since we remain the the house I earnestly hope I never need to consult them again- I ideally would like to install a new Window but going without so I don’t need to involve them again!

Its Terrie isn't it that public sector employees in Council run BC DEPTs seem to forget that they are there to serve the public good.
With Southwark BC the entire process was 'hostile' and the officer so prejudiced against us and judgemental from the outset, she just kept telling us 'you should've had building control involved before building', which seemed to make a mockery of the regularisation process.
Their salaries are huge but there is a huge problem with the way they handle these things that needs serious addressing.
When it started to damage my health I knew there was something wrong with the process.

Oops Terrie should read 'terrible'. Sorry for the error