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Being ordered to stop work and ignoring the order can lead to your imprisonment or unlimited fine. Government asked Dame Judith Hackitt to report on improving building quality and building safety. She had previously been head of the Health and Safety Executive and she chaired the Grenfell Tower inquiry. She recommended something like school teachers who have to file a lesson plan in advance and Ofsted who will inspect building control bodies to ensure that builders' plans were agreed and filed away in advance of their work; as well as signed off by the same parties on completion. Wider changes to buildings regulations These extracts are taken from a government web page. Please read the whole government web page, where it applies to non-tall buildings, here. And carry out your own additional research as might be necessary. The link on the left 'Wider changes....' seems to get you past the tall building stuff. Dutyholder duties and competence. The Building Regulations etc. (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2023 set out a framework which identifies those dutyholders involved in the procurement, design and undertaking of building work, and imposes duties on them. They apply to all building work from 1 October 2023 onwards. The dutyholders to which these regulations will apply will be clients, principal designers, designers, principal contractors and contractors. As has always been the case, the duty to ensure that the work complies with all relevant building regulations is on those procuring and undertaking the design and building work. Dutyholders will need to plan, manage and monitor their work, cooperate and communicate with each other and coordinate their work. Those undertaking design work and building work will need to have the right competence (the skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours or organisational capability) for the work they are engaged to do. The person making the appointment for design work or commissioning building work has a duty to appoint a competent person, and the person undertaking the work should not undertake the work if they are not competent to do so. My first brush with the new rules got this email from the local authority building control officer. To confirm our conversation Building Control require a site-specific strategy report from your waterproofing specialist demonstrating the design in accordance with the guidance within BS 8102: 2022 (Protection of below ground structures against water ingress). As part of this strategy the following should also be included:
Supplementary information template on the Planning Portal. This section will no doubt be added to as I learn more. Where I see this going horribly wrong, is where the client requires a structural warranty, and the structural warranty provider (NHBC, LABC W, Premier Guarantee, ABC+ Warranty, Protek and others) or the privateer Approved Building Control Body (NHBC, Premier Guarantee, Assent BC and many, many others) don't get it that the rules changed. NHBC, LABC W and Premier Guarantee all have on their web sites, more than two years after BS8102:2022 became the only relevant Approved Document, they want your project basement waterproofing designed by a CSSW who will cover over leaks and pump water out contravening C2 of the Building Regulations and BS8102:2022 that says fix leaks till the basement doesn't leak. UNTIL THE STRUCTURAL WARRANTY PROVIDER PUTS IN PLACE THE PROPER APPROVAL OF YOUR CONTRACTOR BY YOUR BUILDING CONTROL BODY, YOU PERSONALLY REMAIN COMPLETELY RESPONSIBLE. iF YOU ARE ORDERED TO STOP, BUT THE CONTRACTOR DOES NOT STOP, YOU ARE PERSONALLY LIABLE FOR IMPRISONMENT OR UNLIMITED FINE. There are, clearly, two sides to these new requirements. Materials and workmanship. I would like you to accept my material choices, more here, and my supervising you doing your own work with people you pay directly for their time.
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