Self build has a reputation as a rural or semi-rural pursuit. Grand Designs in the countryside, timber frame homes on large plots, people who have moved out of cities to build their dream house. The assumption is that it does not really work in London. That assumption is not quite right. Self builds do happen…
The Party Wall Act catches more London homeowners off guard than almost any other piece of construction legislation. Not because it is obscure, but because people assume it only applies to obvious situations, like when you are physically cutting into a shared wall. In practice it is triggered by a much wider range of work,…
A structural warranty is one of those things that sits in a filing cabinet and gets ignored until something goes seriously wrong. At that point, whether you have one or not makes an enormous difference. Most people building or buying a new home know they need a structural warranty because their mortgage lender requires it….
Planning permission gets most of the attention. But building regulations are the set of rules that actually govern how your home gets built, and they matter just as much. Building regulations set the minimum legal standards for construction in England. They cover everything from how strong your foundations need to be, to how much heat…
