Extensions

Building regs, draughtsmen & late invoices

Anonymous user 28/02/2024 - 3.32 PM

A year ago we had a small side-extension built. Our builder recommended a draughtsman who visited & drew up plans for us. He submitted them to the council & was told we didn't need planning permission, just building reg checks (I have a copy of the doc saying this). Throughout the build, building regs visited & everything went fine. It was completed & paid off a year ago. Then last week we got a letter from building regs saying they hadn't done our final inspection & needed to do it asap. My husband took a day off to show them round but they didn't turn up & didn't answer phones, eventually he got hold of them & they sent a guy over who admitted he didn't really know what he was meant to be looking for & just took some photos of the sink & oven. He also said he might need an electrical certificate but he'd check with his boss & let us know. A few days later, I got an email from the draughtsman (continuing from the old email chain about the plans) saying thanks for letting him do the final inspection & he does need the electrical certificate. It didn't click that he was the draughtsman AND building regs, so I sent him a scanned copy of the certificate. He replied saying he just realised we hadn't paid the building reg inspection fees (£500) & an invoice was attached. I wasn't happy about this & pulled out all the invoices & receipts from the build & found that the Draughtsmen company has one name & the building regs company has another name but they are both run/overseen by exactly the same people. I have an invoice that was given to us AFTER the build was complete which says we need to pay £500 to building regs before any building work can commence. Clearly the building work commenced & they visited 2 or 3 times throughout the build. I also have an invoice from the draughtsmen asking for over £600 - £78 to submit plans & £540 for drawings & "submitting planning approval." This was paid in full before building started & I'm now confused about what this was for as we didn't need planning permission. I admit this was my first house & first ever building work & I naively just did as the builder instructed. Because it was a year ago & I thought everything was done & dusted, I can't remember every detail of who was paid for what (if I were doing this again now I'd be keeping spreadsheets & detailed records) but I had zero experience & really didn't know what to expect. I'm trying to get hold of people to find out exactly what's been paid & why they're asking for £500 which I thought had been paid 14 months ago, but I'm not sure I trust the answers of the people demanding the money. Does it seem dodgey that the draughtsmen & building regs are the same people operating under different company names? And that they're asking for money a year after it's completed? AND that the building work supposedly couldn't start without this money but they allowed it to anyway? Thank you in advance for your help- it's really appreciated.