Building Plans

[wallifer]

Where would I be able to find the building plans for work that was done on my house somewhere about 2001 and 2002.

I went to the local mayor a few years ago but he said no work had ever been carried out, strange as he then gave me the Certificate of Confirmitie for the new waste water and sewage from the bathroom to the Fosse. I have a very bad crack appearing on the corner of the bathroom and want to see how deep the foundations are for the whole of the newish rooms that were added.

 

 

[gosub]

It maybe very difficult to find out that kind of info, you would need to ask the previous occupier, or if you have details of the tradesman that did the work with dates, try to claim on his 10 year guarantee.

[La Guerriere]

The main problem is that there is no real equivalent of Building Regs approval in France, so the records may not exist at the Mairie etc

[wallifer]

I know it wasn't the woman I bought the house from and going by the date of the Fosse Certificate it would have been the couple she bought from.

Having a closer inspection I think the extra part of the house was self built, he seems to have put up three walls not keyed in and then just put up the interior walls again not keyed in.

Looks like OH is going to have to dig down in sections and underpin before the Winter rains arrive [:@]

[Polly]

A timely warning for anyone thinking of buying a property without a pre-purchase survey: there are Chartered Surveyors working in France you know, look at the FPN website for ex

[La Guerriere]

True, but even the best would not be able to predict settlement before it happened

[wallifer]

I did ask about surveys in France, even spoke to other expats about it and was told people didn't generally bother, there was no sign of any problem when I bought the house and it was empty when I looked round so nothing could be disguised.

[La Guerriere]

What sort of soil are you on ? It does look very much as though the (self) builder didn't do adequate foundations

[wallifer]

I'm on clay soil and until I dug ditches around the garden last Summer, in the Winter the rain water would charge down the hill into the garden and down that side of the house, where he had put in a concrete gully to the front ditch.

By the looks of it he has just put a concrete raft like base and built right on the edge of it.

[Chancer]

Hmmm

Underpinning a raft, that should be interesting. It sounds like it wants to go downhill with the flow of water like most rafts.

The self builder is not likely to have produced detailed plans, all the mairie would have required if he did seek permission would have been a sketch or even marked up photocopy of a photo.

[wallifer]

I thought for the major work that was done, detailed plans had to be submitted

[suein56]

[quote user="wallifer"]I thought for the major work that was done, detailed plans had to be submitted[/quote]

But if the major work was invisible from the road then it is possible that, in some areas, planning permission might not have been sought, and no one outside the project would be any the wiser until a much later date.

Sue

[wallifer]

It would certainly have been visible from the road as a room was added to the house on the road sde and a new roof, even though that hasn't been done properly