Did you use LA or private Building Control?

[WiltingWallfower]

As per the title really. If you have built an extension did you go with the LA’s Building Control or use an external/private company?

Is anyone willing/able to explain the pros and cons of each option for me. I hadn’t even considered not using the LA but our architect is recommending we go private.

We used our LA Building Inspector for our roof (it didn't need PP thank goodness- Planning here is in chaos, incidentally, next to no staff, but people don't want to pay taxes, so....).
The inspector worked very well with us and our roofer- came when necessary, communicated well, asked for photos when we were considering options, was approachable and reasonable, negotiated a solution or two, no problems at all.

I would run away from a contractor that insist in a particular independent building control.
That was the case in Our project. The contractor made very clear that he always uses an independent building control that is very trustworthy, and we signed it. the architect did mentioned afterwards that he didn’t like this BC (but still was too lazy to stop it before sign) as he has worked with this company in other projects as it is a favourite of many contractor and always has cost the clients a lot of money in much more expensive work for the contractor, and slow down the work.
all legal and according with regulations but in a way that suits the contractor not the client.
if you are signing an independent BC interview him and make clear he works for you and no the contractor, and understand the later fire regulations that are very, very strict. This was a very costly mistake.
local authority are slow, but so was my BC.
best of luck,

Four years ago we were about to buy a bungalow that has been extended.

We paid for a full structural survey or whatever the name for that is nowadays as we weren't having a mortgage.

The survey revealed that the extension was not built correctly and surveyor suspected it had not been correctly constructed.

Turned out that a private building control person had overseen it.

The current owners then said they would supply us with documents to prove it was well built.

Our surveyor thought this was unlikely to be possible and that it might need 30k spending on it.

Basically the floor (not the flooring) on the extended part (they'd made several rooms in the roof) was very sloped and likely to be moving but only a couple of years old. Once we knew you could see that furniture was not sitting properly.

We pulled out.

We did not trust that the private building control guy had done a good job.

I wouldn't now buy a property which had had a private control person involved

I think some people misunderstand what building control actually do, they come at certain points of the build and check key stages usually structural, insulation. They are not there to be checking/ measuring everything the builders are doing.

If the builder/ person wants to cut corners/ save money then they will still do it building inspector or not.