garden walls

@lizzie wrote:

I’ve put in a offer to buy a small detached bungalow on a residential estate. I would be the second owner. The house was built in 2000. We have been given the Cert of Compliance. The planning permission was granted with one of the conditions being that the rere garden walls were to be block,capped, plastered and 2m high. The front side walls were to be 1.5m high. The house has only 2 walls – 1 front and 1 front side.The engineer has stated that the house is in substantial conformity with the permission granted.
Who is responsible for the walls not being built – the builder or the engineer or the council?
In the grant of planning permission I note that no finalisation date was included for the project. Does this mean that the walls might never have to be built?

you buy what you see… caveat emptor.

a permission has 5 years i which to be completed… obviously engineers / architect do not wait 5 years to certify compliance, therefore most certs state ‘in so far as site works are complete’.

the engineer’s Cert of Compliance is dated May 2009- so He did wait more than the 5 years to issue the cert for the house with missing garden walls! What now – a formal complaint ? Against whom?

@lizzie wrote:

the engineer’s Cert of Compliance is dated May 2009- so He did wait more than the 5 years to issue the cert for the house with missing garden walls! What now – a formal complaint ? Against whom?

interesting…

certification is a very informal process..

firstly the engineer is giving an ‘opinion’… secondly he is stating “in ‘substantial’ compliance”…

both of these allow a flexibilty to the certifier as to what they actually certify.

but my first point still holds… you buy what you see, caveat emptor.

Unlikely that I will now be pursuing the purchase – but I find it puzzling that the owner and his neighbours should have bought their properties without the specified walls. Do the planners at the Irish councils turn a blind eye or is it not their responsibility to ensure that planning conditions are complied with? This would definitely not happen in England.

@lizzie wrote:

Unlikely that I will now be pursuing the purchase – but I find it puzzling that the owner and his neighbours should have bought their properties without the specified walls. Do the planners at the Irish councils turn a blind eye or is it not their responsibility to ensure that planning conditions are complied with? This would definitely not happen in England.

you have it in one!!

the english system of ensuring compliance with planning times is a million times better than the non-existant one we have here.

here the remit to ensure compliance is with the building control section, this is a severly under staff section of most councils.. and actually accept a measly 10-15% of new build visits as being a success!!!

therefore compliance is somewhat loosely and badly based on a ‘self certification’ basis… the client hires someone to ‘sign off’ the work, and as ive described above, these certs can be extremely vague as to almost negate the certs in reality….

The certifier wants to take responsibility for as little as possible…. the client just wants the piece of paper to give to the solicitor, the solicitor does not understand the ins and outs of construction… the purchaser is the one who is left with the mess….

edit: i am actually delighted that youve decided will not be proceeding with the purchase. Its about time the developers understood that the power is now with teh purchaser and the quality of what he/she is selling needs to be top notch…