reporting illegal listed building work

[Becka]

Hello,

Does anyone know how you would go about reporting illegal and damaging work being done on a listed building in south cambridgeshire? My boyfriends landlady has been having some very inappropriate, and very poorly done work carried out on the cottage he's living in and we're very concerned about it and would like the work stopped or at least redone with appropriate materials. Complaints to the landlady resulted in the builder turning up and attempting to assault my boyfriend for 'dissing his work'! He'd actually been remarkably patient and polite considering that the builder had hacked off the outside render (from the rubble it looked like there was at least some of the original lime and wooden laths under a more modern coating) and re-rendered so poorly with a concrete/gymsum based pebbledash that falls on our heads when the front door is closed. We'd like to get the appropriate authorities involved before more damage is done (my boyfriend also plans to move out as soon as possible as a result of all this), does anyone know how to go about this?

Many thanks,

Becca

 

[MdB]

I would guess, contact the CO here: http://www.scambs.gov.uk/Environment/Planning/DevelopmentPlanning/default.htm

Note however, that if the building was listed after the cement render was put on then there is nothing the CO can do about it being replaced with something similar - at least that is my understanding.

Poor house though.

 

[Becka]

I imagine the pebbledash skin that was there was pre-listing, but there looked to be alot of lime and broken laths (or is it lathes? i can never remember) in the chipped off rubble, unfortunately as the builder was there at the time i didn't get a good look as I felt a bit intimidated. I suspect the modern render was a skim over the top of the old at some point when pebbledash was considered fashionable.. Either way there is no chance that listed building consent was even applied for and the guy doing the work was apparently boasting about the waterproof plaster he used to redo a wobbly lime wall on the inside. Between the gypsum on the inside and the cracked concrete render now on the outside I can't see the timber frame surviving another 30 years, let alone another 300!

 

[headgear]

For me the scariest thing about this is the possibility that the laths in a timber frame cottage wall may well be hundreds of years old wattle work; was the wood you describe as laths flat strips about 1 to 2 inches wide or was it round/split sections ?. Even if the render was on before listing there is still a duty of care to the underlying fabric which the CO should act on.

 

[Becka]

Hello, they looked very similar to what I found in my external wall when i was repairing some lime plastering.. strips rather than half round profile. I couldn't say if they were sawn or split, in my place they look more like they are split at the thickness is quite uneven and these look very similar. I think both houses are 17th century or thereabouts if that helps. I had intended to take a proper look in the daylight before the builders turned up for work the day after it was chipped off but they were there too early and I didn't feel comfortable trying to explain why i was examining the rubbish pile, with good reason it seems as he took a swing at my other half after some polite complaints about the work. All I can say is that the majority of the pile looked far too while to be anything other than lime and contained an alarming amount of broken laths.

 

[Becka]

Hi Headgear, Just been looking at pics on Mike wye and I'd feel confident saying the laths were definitely split/riven if that makes any difference to the dating? I will definitely be getting in touch with the CO, and have also got an enquiry in with EH to see if they have any advice.

 

[headgear]

I wouldn't dare to try dating anything on a verbal!
Techniques and materials are timeless, especially at the cottage end of things, original build and subsequent repairs would have been done by local craftsmen with local materials, to varying standards according to time and resources. There has of course been a trend to up grade houses since the dawn of building so any given house can have elements separated by hundreds of years. I find this especially true of filled panel timber frame, where panels range from modern foam through cement/straw to brick, to sawn lath with render, and on back to possibly original wattle with daub of clay lime and fibrous material; straw, hemp, horsehair.
Any fibrous binding in the broken wall?

 

[vicky whitworth]

Hi Becka, poor you, poor boyfriend and poor cottage. I would report the assault to the police, as well as talking to the CO about the building work. That's outrageous.
Vicky