In a mess over garage

[totallybonafido]

We bought a house in 2021. The previous owner had already made changes to the garage, converting it into a workspace. It still had the original door between the garage and the house. They didn't change the whole garage, the section at the front is still used as a store. They wrote on the PIF that no permission was needed.

The kitchen and the garage sit alongside each other. Shortly after we moved in, we boarded up the original door between garage and house, and knocked through the kitchen wall into the garage, to make it into a dining room. It now has double glass doors from kitchen to dining room.

I only recently thought about whether we would have needed any permission for this, and how I'm freaking out. I'm concerned about what should have been done with insulation, as it is very chilly in there, and also about whether it meets the regulations for fire, as it's only separated from the house by the glass doors.

Shouldn't the builder have dealt with this, or at least advised? He didn't mention it at all 🙁Not sure if I should go to the council, in case it's all completely wrong and will cost £££ to correct. We're not planning to sell the house until we retire, but I don't want it to cause issues later.

We had to have building regs out several times when we had our garage converted. They wanted to see it at the point wiring and insulation could still be seen etc. they also insisted on mains smoke alarms in certain places. They were a pain in the arse to be honest but we wanted the paper work sorted in case we ever sold.

You can apply retrospectively for buildings regs and planning permission. Unfortunately the owner is responsible for checking not a builder.

It seems absolutely obvious insulation would have been needed to use an external garage as now part of the main house.

Yes, your builder should have discussed the implications of your decision but it depends how good / qualified they were. How did you find them?

It really is the owner's responsibility to check whether BR are required.

If it is cold, is it insulated in the roof, walls and floors? Are the walls double skin? You can retrospectively apply for BR but you might need to cut small areas for the inspector to check these things.

I think you might be alright for planning permission since the work didn't change the way the house looked from the front.

We have a similar garage conversion to yours.

1/3 storage and 2/3 utility/ living space.

You need building rgs to have a proper look and give you advice on what you need to do.
There were cretin (fire) reg that we had to meet: fire door between storage & living space. The living space had to have a raised floor (as storage space still has original garage doors) and of course proper insulation ...

Get proper advice and get it signed off.

Do you mean cretin here?

@strumpert

Fairly clear it is meant to be certain from the context

@EarringsandLipstick thanks. I had specific in my head and I couldn't figure out what the op meant - unless she meant stupid and had used an insult

Thanks all. Can't even remember where I found the builder, but he's been around for ages and done loads of work locally! I emailed him and already heard back, he says that insulation, fire proofing etc are nothing to do with him, as they didn't convert the space, they only knocked through the wall after the conversion was done. He says the doors that he installed don't need to be fire proof anyway, as it's not a bedroom and has a back door that can be used as a fire escape. Fair enough.

The previous owner who did the conversion stated that no permission was needed, but didn't mention building regs and I'd be surprised if it was even checked. So we were a bit stupid really, not questioning it more when we bought the house. It didn't occur to me then that it might be an issue. It's very confusing to me how it's ultimately the owner's responsibility, but the builder can be prosecuted for doing work that isn't up to standard! You'd think if he can be prosecuted he'd want to make sure that it was done properly.

So we're now pondering whether to get the council in to check it and suck it up, if anything needs redoing, or leave it and hope it doesn't come up when we sell.

The previous work probably didn't need any building regs to be a workshop, but I'm pretty certain the work you did to knock through and make it habitable certainly did.

If your builder didn't even discuss building regs with you, are you certain that he (the cretin!) knocked through safely? If the wall was load-bearing, this could be catastrophic without a correctly calculated beam in place.

If I was you, I'd get a different builder in to advise and quote for rectifying the work to make it more usable - ideally to get it certified too. Otherwise it will definitely come up in a survey and probably in the searches too if you try to sell. That's if it is safe and doesn't become disastrous in the meantime.

We knocked through into the garage to create living space and definitely needed sign off from building regulations. They wanted to see insulation under the floor to a certain thickness and we had to maintain the step into the garage.

How long since you did the work? How long until you will likely sell? There are rules about how long after it was done that you can be fined or prosecuted. I wouldn't be letting the council know now unless I knew what these were. It can be destructive getting sign off if flooring has to be lifted etc. So if you aren't planning on selling for another 20 years you could wait until you're redecorating or similar to apply for approval.

I think it's pretty immoral to hope that it doesn't come up when you sell!

So I've done some more research since the other day, and have also been in touch with the builder. I disagree that insulation, fire regs etc aren't his problem - the garage had already had work done, but that was to turn it into a workshop and not a habitable space. I asked the builder for a habitable space, which is not what I've ended up with. It's too cold to use and won't meet building regs.

As far as the regs go, it may have been my responsibility to apply, but he was perfectly aware that there would have needed be inspections at the important stages, but completely failed to mention to this to me as the work was going on.

I'm now taking legal advice and my advisor thinks that I have grounds for a professional negligence claim. The builder failed to carry out the work with the level of skill and care expected of a competent builder, He also failed in his implied duty of care in not advising me that his finished work was not going to meet building regs standards. The resulting space is not fit for purpose as a habitable room, and also is making the rest of the house really cold, as the heat just escapes out of the opening into the garage space.

I am going to contact the council to get it up to standard, but looks like I will have a fight on my hands getting the builder to take any responsibility.

What does your building contract say re scope of work and building regs? I think our contract said it was our responsibility to submit building control notice and arrange visits and sign off, and the builder's responsibility to adhere to regs and notify us when the council would need to inspect.

We had a fairly clear scope of work, but no contract as such, and no mention of building regs whatsoever, either written or verbal...obv a total cowboy and will know to avoid this type of thing next time 😡