Certifiably Certifiable
A certificate is evidence, but not conclusive evidence, that someone issued a certificate
Building Control Final Certificates
Chances are, your new home will have been signed off as ‘practically complete’ by a Local Authority Building Control Officer (a public servant) or, far more likely, by an Approved Inspector (a privateer), who will issue a Building Control Final Certificate.
That certificate, or others that are issued in consequence of it such as your new home warranty cover note, is usually what your housebuilder needs in order to require you to complete your purchase and hand over the full purchase price. So, it is a pretty big deal.
‘Practically complete’ means substantially complete in all material respects save for minor defects or incomplete works that can be put right without undue interference or disturbance to the occupiers.
The certificate will say on its face that it is ‘evidence, but not conclusive evidence, of compliance with the Building Regulations’. Which sounds great. But just how good is it as evidence of compliance?
Your housebuilder will probably try and reassure you that it is very solid evidence and that you can rely on it with confidence when handing over the purchase price to them (and with such a large sum at stake, they would say that, wouldn’t they?!). Some housebuilders go further and state in their standard term contracts that it is to be taken as conclusive evidence - that is how confident they are (don’t worry, such trickery is liable to be contractually unenforceable if you know how, which we do).
So what is involved in issuing these certificates? It may be some or all of the following:
Your home may not have been visited by the Building Control Inspector at all. Sometimes they just check sample properties and treat those as being representative of how yours has been built. But, would this not encourage the housebuilder to try a bit harder on the sample property, and less hard on all those plots they know are not being inspected, thereby making the certificate rather less than representative of how yours was built?
When Building Control Inspectors do visit, their visits will be spot-checks to ‘see if it looks about right’ and to report obvious problems that they happened to notice to the housebuilder. The Inspector may or may not have thought to take the approved plans and drawings with them against which to assess the as-built situation, so they might not notice significant departures from the approved design. Reported issues are meant to be signed off as complete by the Inspector, but they may just take the housebuilder’s word for it that the issues have been resolved - even when they have not been.
The Building Control Inspector owes you, the intended purchaser, no duty of care so you cannot sue them if they certify your home as practically complete when it is not. So, not much of a disincentive to signing off a substandard home if that is what is required to get paid to know that you can do so with impunity.
Understanding is the key to achieving fairness
With our New Home Buyer Claims service, you have access to leading expert legal advice and guidance on all aspects of the defects rectification process including in-depth knowledge of the various certification procedures that apply to new builds, what they really mean or don’t mean, how to deal with housebuilders’ attempts to defend your claim by relying on them, and much more besides. Get in touch today to find out how we can help you.
Inspections, maybe
Particularly on larger developments, Building Control inspections may take the form of spot checks of a sample of houses, and not inspections of every house. It is quite possible that a Building Control Final Certificate is issued by the Building Control Officer or Approved Inspector without them having even seen your home.
If a Building Control Officer or Approved Inspector does visit a property and spots something that appears to be wrong, they might rely on the housebuilder simply telling them by email or phone later on that they have put it right, without checking it for themselves.
Part of the Building Control function is to check and sign off plans and drawings for the proposed development before work on site begins. However, it is doubtful that the Building Control Officer or Approved Inspector will have full (or possibly any) of the approved plans and drawings for the homes they are inspecting with them when they are on site. If not, that would rather limit the extent to which they are able to assess whether the housebuilder is building in accordance with them which is part of what they are certifying when they issue the Final Certificate later on.
Even done well, the Building Control inspection regime may involve only an occasional and fairly brief spot check at key stages of the build. The Building Control Final Certificate is not a general quality control document, it is not strong evidence that the housebuilder has complied with the Building Regulations. Of course, that won’t stop your housebuilder claiming otherwise or even putting a term in their standard term contracts that pretends that it is conclusive evidence of what it says on its face it is not.
Certificates For All
Housebuilders seem to have an increasing tendancy to rely on the issuing of a certificate for all manner of different aspects of housebuilding as evidence that your new home is built to standard, in preference to ensuring that it actually is built to standard.
If you are concerned about the performance of systems within your home or aspects of its construction but are struggling to get past your housebuilder’s reliance on a certificate that it says proves that all is well, please get in touch with us to see how we may be able to help.
Here are some of the more common certificates you might encounter, which may or may not translate to your home having been built properly:
Airtightness - a certificate that your home is reasonably airtight, which is critical to achieving good heat retention, low running costs and comfortable living. These may be issued based on approved drawings rather than what was actually built, or on the basis of a sample property nearby (which the housebuilder might then ensure is atypically well built compared to the ones that are not tested). Contrary to best practice guidelines, housebuilders commonly test the airtightness of the internal plasterboard finish, not the building fabric, so a property gets issued with a certificate even though you only have 12mm of plasterboard between you and the cold outside air. If your home is not retaining heat, this could be why. It may also not be fire safe.
MVHR - Mechanical Ventilation and Heat Recovery systems are increasingly popular but quite difficult to get to work well in draughty houses as many seem to be. Certificates may be issued based on drawings rather than the as-built situation, or on a sample property elsewhere on site that may well be prepared to a higher standard than yours to ensure it passes its test.
Electrical Safety - a certificate that your electrical circuits and systems have been checked and found to be safe and in working order. Except, given the many incidents our clients have encountered with electrical faults and unsafe installations over the years, it may not be the reliable safety assurance you might hope. If you have concerns over electrical issues, call a competent local electrical contractor urgently. These are issues we can help you get put right through our New Home Buyer Claims service.