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Building Control/Building Inspector Costs??
Irony - 26/9/17 at 11:24 AM

I am just building a small extension (new garage) and converting the existing garage to a playroom. I am through planning and the builder starts in a month. I am thinking about building control and the building inspector. Apparently there are two routes, via the council or via a third party building services company. The architect recommended a third party and the builder recommended a third party. I don't trust the architects competence so I have only a quote from the builders recommendation. The invoice is £480+vat. Seems a lot to me.

Does anyone have any recent experience of this thoughts about the cost??

Cheers

SJ - 26/9/17 at 11:36 AM

I thought all building control inspections had to be done by the council. Ours were anyway.

Schrodinger - 26/9/17 at 11:53 AM

Why don't you contact the council and ask them how much it costs?

Irony - 26/9/17 at 12:01 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Schrodinger
Why don't you contact the council and ask them how much it costs?


They take 15 working days to 'check' plans.

peter030371 - 26/9/17 at 12:06 PM

I had a reasonably large extension last year and the council and 3rd party quotes came in about the same. We went with the 3rd party company as 1) most builders never have a good thing to say about the council and 2) I had used them before at work and they were very good to deal with (unlike our local council).

Job is now all finished and signed off with no issues

nick205 - 26/9/17 at 12:11 PM

We've just had our integral garage converted into another bedroom. The builder arranged the inspector on our behalf and the fee was around £320 inc. VAT IIRC. Being a local builder he was on first name terms with the inspector and the work was signed off without hesitation.

£480 + VAT (£576) seems rather high to me too. I'd call your council and find out the cost and process myself.

Nick Bragg - 26/9/17 at 12:29 PM

This is my personal view!!!

If you apply for building regulations you can legally commence work after 48 hours notice (via building notice or full plans application) plans can take a little longer to be checked, a full approval actually has legal standing when issued by a local authority though! I am probably biased as I am a local authority building inspector, but in my experience I will visit site as many times as I see fit, this can be helpful to the client especially if things are tricky on site e.g. At excavation stage. Not all builders want too much scrutiny though! I don't think an AI will visit as often as time is money to a profit making firm. I get the impression that there is too much of a cosy relationship between builder/ architect and approved inspector in some cases. The inspector should be working in your interest only, it is your property and investment after all, costs are usually comparable is the service?

Obviously the choice is yours and not all private or local authorities operate in the same way, hope it goes well whichever way you go.

Irony - 26/9/17 at 01:08 PM

LA Building Control want £364+vat to do the work. I have asked my builders opinion. I am not adverse to a cosy relationship between parties as long as the job is done properly and I am in the black.

Irony - 26/9/17 at 01:09 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Nick Bragg
This is my personal view!!!

If you apply for building regulations you can legally commence work after 48 hours notice (via building notice or full plans application) plans can take a little longer to be checked, a full approval actually has legal standing when issued by a local authority though! I am probably biased as I am a local authority building inspector, but in my experience I will visit site as many times as I see fit, this can be helpful to the client especially if things are tricky on site e.g. At excavation stage. Not all builders want too much scrutiny though! I don't think an AI will visit as often as time is money to a profit making firm. I get the impression that there is too much of a cosy relationship between builder/ architect and approved inspector in some cases. The inspector should be working in your interest only, it is your property and investment after all, costs are usually comparable is the service?

Obviously the choice is yours and not all private or local authorities operate in the same way, hope it goes well whichever way you go.


Thankyou for the reply and Welcome to the forum!

Sam_68 - 26/9/17 at 02:12 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Nick Bragg
I am probably biased as I am a local authority building inspector, but in my experience I will visit site as many times as I see fit, this can be helpful to the client especially if things are tricky on site e.g. At excavation stage. Not all builders want too much scrutiny though! I don't think an AI will visit as often as time is money to a profit making firm. I get the impression that there is too much of a cosy relationship between builder/ architect and approved inspector in some cases. The inspector should be working in your interest only, it is your property and investment after all, costs are usually comparable is the service?


I'm Director of an architectural practice (plus 30-odd years in the industry), and I'd agree with this totally.

Private companies are out to make profit, which means:
1) They want to expend minimum time and effort on inspections, and;
2) They want to make life as easy as they can for the people who recommend and commission them - the builders and architects - so can be too willing to turn a blind eye to sub-standard solutions.

I've never been very comfortable with the idea of AI's and usually guide my clients toward Local Authority, wherever I can (on the basis that if I do my job right, I won't have problems, and if I've missed something or got it wrong, I'd rather know about it)... although having said that, my nearest Local Authority now farms all its building control work out to a private company!

perksy - 26/9/17 at 04:08 PM

Know a few builders and they always say if you want it as hassle free as possible, go for the third party option...

Just their 2p of course

loggyboy - 26/9/17 at 04:22 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Sam_68
quote:
Originally posted by Nick Bragg
I am probably biased as I am a local authority building inspector, but in my experience I will visit site as many times as I see fit, this can be helpful to the client especially if things are tricky on site e.g. At excavation stage. Not all builders want too much scrutiny though! I don't think an AI will visit as often as time is money to a profit making firm. I get the impression that there is too much of a cosy relationship between builder/ architect and approved inspector in some cases. The inspector should be working in your interest only, it is your property and investment after all, costs are usually comparable is the service?


I'm Director of an architectural practice (plus 30-odd years in the industry), and I'd agree with this totally.

Private companies are out to make profit, which means:
1) They want to expend minimum time and effort on inspections, and;
2) They want to make life as easy as they can for the people who recommend and commission them - the builders and architects - so can be too willing to turn a blind eye to sub-standard solutions.

I've never been very comfortable with the idea of AI's and usually guide my clients toward Local Authority, wherever I can (on the basis that if I do my job right, I won't have problems, and if I've missed something or got it wrong, I'd rather know about it)... although having said that, my nearest Local Authority now farms all its building control work out to a private company!


As above. I'm also an Architectural Technician with 20+ years and plenty of successful LA applications under my belt. My day to day is with developers using NHBC or similar building control bodies, which only use them as they want the 10 warranty to sell their houses - and that's about all who should use them.
Your inviting the builder to cut corners with there being a likely small brown paper bag of cash being tucked in to a private inspectors pockets to ensure a quick approval.

Any decent arch technician should be able to get a pass with minimal conditions on a first attempt, combine with a competent a builder and the LA inspector should be able to sign off with only a few inspections.

[Edited on 26-9-17 by loggyboy]

fazerruss - 26/9/17 at 08:02 PM

I've built a number of extensions to different houses of mine over the years. This involved dealing with inspectors from different authority's. The inspectors have always been very helpful and signed off all my work.
At the end of the day they are there to make sure the job is done right and as the builds were for my house I did it right first time. Even had compliments regarding the high quality of work.

You can give building notice and get started pretty quick. I did this with my 40 M2 garage. This was about 6 years and cost me 120 quid at the time and the inspector will visit as many times as required with no extra cost.

ianhurley20 - 27/9/17 at 07:33 AM

I've just finished a self built extension and submitted a building control notice so started without any plans being submitted. I had no issues at all. Building inspector was happy at all stages and was very helpful with advice and some questions about things that had become hidden just to check that I had done things correctly.
That is the route I would go next time - plans are still on 'the back of a fag packet' as it were (what is a fag packet?)