Laura T.
Posted
A horror story of incompetence
A horror story of incompetence, huge expense and blinding stress. Hugh from Office S&M told us and our builders we had planning consent from Waltham Forest Council to go ahead and start our renovation in Dec 2020. But in truth Office S&M only applied for planning consent 3 days AFTER demolition started on our renovation. We didn't realise our situation until 4 months later in April 2021 when we received a letter of rejection. Hugh submitted another 2 applications at our insistence, both of which were rejected. Hugh also failed to contact the Council to request a pre-application meeting, which would have cleared up the issues we now find the Council has with our house design. Hugh also did not take any notice of feedback from the Building Control Team we used which raised problems which we have now managed to rectify on our own. Now we are left with the huge stress of having a house that does not have planning permission. Four years after our renovation started, we have 4 rejected planning applications and the Council is started enforcement against us. I really don't know what to do or how to fix this. Our predicament is not our fault, as we thought we were hiring a professional and trusted him as our architect and project manager. This is especially as Office S&M was/is registered with the Architects Registration Board (ARB) and RIBA. Avoid.