Don’t be surprised by this – it’s the same in almost all their departments, but TWC planning and buildings seem particularly lax and uninterested.

I bought a new-build house five years ago with TWC as the local authority. Assuming that builders couldn’t sell new houses without them meeting building regulations, I didn’t bother employing a surveyor to check it over.

During a recent inspection of the loft cavity, it turns out that the builders didn’t bother to lay any loft insulation, a requirement under building regulations. They also didn’t make the bathroom’s electric wiring adequately safe, installed double glazing that failed to meet noise barrier standards and plumbing that needs continual attention to prevent leaks.

As far as planning is concerned, they also failed to install complete footpaths around the estate, with the result that we have service walkways made of grass and mud rather than tarmac.

I was warned of the possibility of contraventions by a person who had been involved in the building of my estate; although his work was plumbing, he said that such was the need to rush the homes along and get them onto the market that ALL sub-contractors were given time targets which were so tight that it was obvious that corners would have to be cut to meet them, but that they knew that this could be done as TWC building regulations officers were not really too bothered in checking the results and planners could be relied on not to be on their backs as well.

Apart from the buildings regulations, adherence to which should have been checked by a council officer for EVERY house and at defined stages of construction, (meaning several visits), the fact that developers can avoid their obligations as laid down in the planning agreement leads one to wonder in whose interest the council’s employees are working.

I can’t give my real name because one of the building regulations contraventions is so serious that it renders part of the house dangerous, but the developer has gone bust and being unemployed, I cannot afford to rectify it myself, something that I’m sure the regulations officers would be happy to get off their chairs and enforce if it meant teaching me a lesson for complaining rather than getting the developers to do it 5 years ago.

True, NHBC will probably guarantee the work to rectify the biggest danger now that the builder has gone bust, but that still leaves me with shoddy workmanship everywhere else and the potential of a huge bill for replacement of windows and plumbing.

No, they’re certainly not working in the public’s interest. I guess if you’re a developer with lots of money, that gives you more power in the council’s eyes than the little guys.

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Thank you Ronald, I had not considered H&S, that’s genuinely a good idea.

However, the fact that my developer has gone bankrupt makes me worry that an officer would indeed declare the construction work unsafe but leave me with the responsibility and cost to fix it and as I cannot afford to have the work done, (it’s a structural problem, but if I explain exactly, the council would soon know who I was and I have no confidence in them any more). I’d be worried that he’d condemn the house and effectively make me homeless whilst still having to pay the mortgage.

I have to say, I’d rather the TWC building regulations officers would actually do the job they’re paid to do, instead of giving a blanket pass to their favourite developers, (same goes for the planning department). It’s that can’t be bothered attitude that passes the costs onto the public – the people they’re mean to be serving and protecting, rather than running around at the beck and call of money-rich developers.

But again, thank you, it’s certainly an interesting route to consider for the future.

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