Loft conversion woes

[bmwmike]

Hi all

Looking for a bit of guidance please!

Long story short had a loft company in to split up a large bedroom in a dormer bungalow into two bedrooms.

Started in November and was due to be completed by Christmas. Most of the work was complete and kids were in their new rooms for Christmas.

Have since found out that part of the work has weakened the structure of the roof. The loft company have been dragging their heals over snagging and electrical signoff but since a floor bowed I've pushed them to send an SE who confirmed it was structural and they had damaged the roof when they cut a door into the eaves.

Given that they've been slow so far I want to push them to provide a date for completion of the remaining work and the fix for the structural weakness.

I am also going to insist their SE provide a full report on the rest of the roof because they made a lot of changes. Actually only went with them because they agreed the work was structural then they left the builders to it - no SE involvement until I asked why one of the floors had bowed up!

Anyway, if they don't agree to all this I am wondering what else I can do - solicitor?

Any comments appreciated. Very worried about my roof right now.


Thanks
Mike

[bmwmike]

Building control are involved already though I only told them about this on Friday when I found out. The SE is "bound" to be independent apparently.

Should I keep BC copied on all emails to the loft company? BC have been fairly useless to date I must say.

I am basically spelling out what I expect the loft company to do.

Edit decided not to copy BC just yet as I know the officer is on holiday. In meantime have spelled out what I expect loft company to do, giving them a deadline of Thursday to respond with a schedule of dates. I also expect their SE to visit within the week.

We shall see!

Edited by bmwmike on Sunday 26th February 23:11

[bmwmike]

Nope not cheapest.. we had a much cheaper quote from a builder but went with the loft co because of the roof changes and because they have expertise supposedly in this area.

Not had much luck with trades lately. Even had a NICEIC spark who, by his own deacription on the minor works cert, had to borrow a neutral.

[bmwmike]

joshcowin said:

Yep contact a SE get a report!

Don't copy building control in, just arrange a final appointment with them (sign-off), the BC officer will come out and either pass the work or tell you what is required!

What type of contract did you sign and what level of insurance cover do they have?

That's the thing though. BC had already come out to do final inspection and were happy with it all, pending final electric cert.

Contract - don't have it to hand at moment but there is one, original quote states "engineer calculations" and "all works to comply with building control and be certified".

[bmwmike]

Final payment - hell yes, approx 10% remaining. The SE even suggested (verbally) that the damage is done and whilst there should not be any further movement we won't really know for sure that his proposed fixes resolve it fully until 12 months have past.

[bmwmike]

The loft company were supposed to be doing all the work. It's not my SE but theirs who came around at my request after the floor bowed. Then I found out all the work had been done without any SE involvement.

Which begs the question what BC were doing? Should they not be asking for structural calculations?

Edited by bmwmike on Monday 27th February 11:35

[bmwmike]

Apologies just checked with wife and the SE is not their SE he is independent third party and was brought in to comment on the bowed floor. So not employed by loft company.

BC contact is out of office till Thursday this week but I have an email saying the only thing outstanding is electric signoff.

What a mess.

[bmwmike]

Does anyone have any advice for calling breach of contract in these circs? They've done most of the work bar snagging however they have caused a structural issue by cutting a sole plate.

Am considering giving them 2 weeks to resolve this otherwise I'll get someone else in and bill them. Is that the right way to do it?


Thanks

[bmwmike]

So they turned up Thursday to replaster a crack and ended up squirting expanding foam over one of my doors by accident. Promised to turn up next day to finish off making good but didn't show. So one snag item is now two because they need to clean the expanded foam off my door plus the plaster job looks worse than before they started.

It's actually getting funny.

In the meantime the SE turns up to do a report and finds other stuff done wrong which might require significant rework. We've decorated and got it all looking good not to mention carpets etc down.

Have to wait for the full SE report to be sent to loft company and then ask them nicely for a copy (they paid for it). Worst case I'll pay for a copy myself.

Thinking it might be time to get legal.

Edited by bmwmike on Monday 13th March 19:02

[bmwmike]

The SE report is independent but the consultant is required to give the report to the loft company as they are paying his fee. If they don't give me a copy of the report I will pay the same SE the 300 quid he said today cost and get a copy of the report. I "owe" £1k final payment so any costs to me I'm taking off the final bill..

So... Home insurance probably the place to start once I've seen the report.

Will also get BC round to explain how this happened.
The SE was very surprised that they had not flagged the work as being structural.

Tellingly the SE is the loft company's go to guy for structural work and is not involved in any of the current 16 jobs they are doing.. yikes!

Edited by bmwmike on Monday 13th March 20:41

[bmwmike]

Qcarchoo said:

In my friend's case, the Building Inspector was independant (ie. not Local Authority) and appears to have been signing jobs off without inspecting them properly.
The structural calculations appeared to have been done by someone who didn't know what they were doing and after independent inspection, beams, floor joists and rafters were found to be of inadequate size. Frightening when you think that these people are doing about 50 of these a year!

Interesting and yes scary. Actually this loft company had a private building inspector too, initially, and they charged me £500 for the privilege. Hilariously the loft company forgot to submit something in time so the regular council BC got involved. Was quite funny really as the council BC lady turns up at my door with a form of some sort and is half way through the sentence "I hope you have not started work yet" when a circular saw starts up stairs.

So I've had TWO sets of BC on this job and they still messed it up.