Complete Building Control Ltd Reviews 96

This company purports to be a reputable Approved Inspector. In my opinion, it is not. It is no surprise to me that other reviews on this review site say about them that they are either incompetent or corrupt and in league with the builders. I do not know for a fact whether those opinions are true. But what I do know is that we had terrible builders who destroyed our house over a period of several months while Complete Building Control Limited at every visit said everything was alright. When challenged, after parts of our house nearly fell down, Complete Building Control Limited denied all liability and said it would be too expensive for us to sue them. We might just give them a surprise there.
In addition, I suggest that everyone who has suffered from them now clubs together to form an action group to ensure this company is properly dealt with by the authorities. For starters, Trading Standards, their regulator CICAIR, BBC Watchdog and as many online postings as possible. Others should be warned.

I used Complete Building Control because the builders doing the work on my property suggested/insisted that I use them because they worked with them in the past and that they were efficient and quick. As other reviews have stated I strongly suspect that they are in fact working with the building companies as I had numerous building reg infractions which could have only been deliberately overlooked. As an example these aren't small issues, the main structural work was so defective that my loft conversion was going to collapse into the rest of my house, which we were still living in at the time, because they passed off works which had used either wrong sized steels, second hand steels, or areas where no steels were fitted at all.
Reading the other reviews it is clear that they have some sort of agreement with builders to pass defective works so I would welcome the opportunity to discuss this with anyone who has had a similar experience because this is a serious accident waiting to happen and I do not want someone else to suffer in the same way or worse. Legally they may have a case to answer so if anyone wants to discuss this please feel free to let me know.

BEWARE OF THIS COMPANY and any builder who recommends them. I lodged complaint with the regulator CICAIR and had a complaint successfully upheld. they were in cahoots with my builder and signed off on noncompliant work. Plenty of other reviewers here seem to have experienced similar problems so i'd urge you all to lodge complaints with thier regulator cicair. the public needs to be protected from this unscrupulous and unprofessional company thier directors are
Melap singh
Bhinder Bassi
Andrew Harris
Peter Hogarth
Clive Parker

This company has recently been involved in several projects in Ipswich. Signing off work that has not been inspected or completed to regulatory standards.Signing off on Work where Party Wall Notices have not been served or Agreements given. Thus allowing neighbouring properties to be damaged due to poor building control pratices and building standards. After managing to lure Chris Farr to my mothers home he appeared quite concerned when representatives from Ipswich Borough Council arrived. The council representative had brought along Health & Safety, Structural Civil Engineer and Building Control representatives. After considerable discussion Chris Farr admitted that he had not followed best practices as his role and statuatory regulations dictated. Also that he signed off projects that he should not have, knowing the required applications had not been made. When informed that he would be referred to the CICAIR he went into this ramble that he had been offered another job with better money but he did not take it and that we do not know what these people are like. Daniel Gaye the Manager is more than aware of the problems that have gone on in Ipswich as I phoned him on several occassions explaining the problems. I think Complete Building Control Ltd believe they are above the law but they are not, They should consider their employees whether permanent or contractors have been retained by Complete Building Control Ltd. I would say to anyone who reads this review, DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. I am curently in the throes of gathering information for an expose.

My builder engaged complete building control and during the build everything was ok. I dont think they attended once but had pictures sent to them. The problem occurred trying to get sign off and with the fact that the ladies in the office don't have access to the surveyor's notes therefore you can't make any progress and get passed from pillar to post. As mentioned previously Daniel Gay doesn't answer or reply to any calls. I am going to take this up with my solicitor as having already paid they will be in breach of a contract. They definitely have the feel of cowboys and i refuse to let them get away with it. UPDATE 18.6.19 after much chasing I finally got the sign off letter. I had a long discussion with their chief technical officer and fed back my frustrations.

Fraudulent - did not inspect the building works before issuing a certificate , cancelled agreed appointment to meet the owner ,no certificate awarded - dodgy builder dodgy building inspector - avoid , avoid

We have worked with Complete Building Control since January for our recent kitchen extension in Upper Welland and are very happy with the support we received and professional advice offered.
They readily took over the paperwork and local applications, their visits were regular and reliable with constant communications and feedback throughout, the advice and polite insistence of their Surveyor to our contractors was much appreciated.
The Final Certificate was received within two weeks of completion. The cost was more than reasonable for the level of professionalism received. I expect to be utlising their services again in the future with some roof alterations.
Thank you - Dr Laurence Brown

This company have many red flags. At the beginning of our relationship. The police were involved and one of the staff involved with FRAUD. They assured me it was exceptional but since then have had the same status conversation multiple times and then they apparently forget (Keep notes cowboys) resulting in ultimately cancelling without notice. This business is very unprofessional at best.

Have now reported to trading standard. AVOID

Avoid like the plague
Demanding more money even though we paid £900 to their employee. They’re saying they never received the money from him so demanding more. We rang and emailed the company to sort out the issue but they didn’t respond so we gave up. It has been 3 years now suddenly they have the decency to call us out of the blue to demand more money.
If you have a problem with your employee not passing the money on that’s your problem. We are entitled to the certificate as the checks were done. Don’t threaten us with court and shove it all on us.

Quite simply one of the worst Building Control company I ever had the misfortune of taking on. Different surveyor's contradicted each other before and after signing off the pouring of main slab.
Daniel Gay doesn't seem to ever return phone calls or emails as he must be far to important to deal with a complaint. (seems to get a lot of them judging by the reviews)

I have been working with Daniel Gay from Complete Building Control for over ten years. I have never received a service that can match theirs. I would highly recommend, especially Daniel. I am currently using Complete Building Control on my own extension

Disgraceful company.

I concur that CBC appear to be in cahoots with our Lofts in Central London conversion contractor.

There were recommended to us by our builders, so we saw no reason not to use them as the cost was the same as the council.

CBC never contacted me to arrange a visit to the site during the whole build.

CBC have told me they have carried out inspections at my property. However at no point did they come and see their paying customer (ME) and introduce themselves and ask to inspect the build. I was on site all day/everyday.

CBC have then demanded i pay the full invoice before they will issue me with the certificate.

Now call me dumb, but im not paying close to a grand to a company to simply print off a certificate for a build they have never visited an independently verified as safe and meeting the current building regulations.

CBC amazingly now the project is finished have discovered a phone and constantly harass me to make payment. Added to this are constant letters demanding payment otherwise they will take legal proceedings.

I have told them if they visit my site, I will pay them, however as the build is finished there is now no chance of them checking how the build was completed as it is all covered by plaster so unless they intend to knock bits down there is very little for them to inspect. CBC state they wont send me my certificate unless I pay them. hmmm.

I am now left with a loft which the builders have declared as finished and i have not accepted as finished. due to a whole host of issues that were mentioned during the build and on the final snag list and not put right and no independent building control certificate to deem my build as safe.

I feel my only option is to take both my builders and CBC to court.

We had to report these people to the RICS for coming after us like hoards for money we'd already paid our builders up front for a loft conversion and as was contracted, and who we believe were in cahoots with them from the start. We had kicked our builders off the project after they failed to fulfill their end of the contract and after their electrician went AWOL. CBC & the builders had bypassed us from the start, so imagine our surprise when a thuggish demand came in for money. I asked them to chase the builders and was told the builders no longer existed which transpired to be untrue. As punishment for the complaint to the RICS, CBC then added more regulatory requirements to the original specification they signed off. Our experience is one of a vile company. I nearly lost my marriage over it and wasn't able to fulfill my other deadlines for 3 years.

We've just got the paperwork through from them for regulatory compliance and on the cusp of the 3 year limit, but for some bizarre reason they sent the builders a copy so breaching our confidentiality and sticking two fingers up to previous statements.

The RICS advised we go to litigation, but essentially always try to uphold their chums' behaviour in an industry which is clearly rigged against the individual.

Telling that they are no longer with the RICS as of July 2017.

Steer clear if you can and stick to your local authority building control.

Edit - following their response below:
1) CBC say we decided to continue their services after dismissing the contractor as if it were a choice. Utter rubbish, they made a demand for money which meant we couldn't afford to invoke another building control company as by that point we had paid around £700 twice, ONCE TO THE CONTRACTOR AND THEN AGAIN TO THEM AFTER THEIR DEMAND. Clearly, CBC should have demanded their money from the contractor who invoked them at the start of the project as is the norm with individuals dealing with their local authority inspection team.

2) CBC insist that RICS said there was no case to answer. Again UTTER RUBBISH. In an email from the RICS investigation team, let's take the phrases for consideration as follows: "Whilst I am aware that you retained the services of CBC post termination of your contract with [redacted], CBC should have issued you with their own Terms of Engagement. I note that this was only done after RICS involvement", "CBC have been strongly advised with regards to the issue of Terms of Engagement. This clearly led to your distress and confusion when you received demands for fees.", "CBC will be monitored for compliance". They were also picked up for not providing a RICS approved complaints process.

If CBC wish to take that as "no case to answer" then they are more deluded than I thought. Finally, you should see CBC's demand for money - as threatening as they could make. It made me REALLY UNWELL what they did to us.

I've learnt a lot from this process.

This company did not calculate the RSA before the project started. When the steel beams where installed they were inadequate and caused major structure cracks in the rest of the house

Serviced this client and sadly the lack of transparency and out right lying made for a terrible experience.