Question one must ask before carrying out work is, does this work need a consent?
As a Mechanical Services provider and an expert in the HVAC industry I find quite often that work has been carried out without obtaining a consent.
This sounds quite alarming and a cowboy like behavior. It often is the case that the contractors carrying out the "works" have vast experience within the industry and are widely considered professionals. They simply do not know the rules.
When carrying out any HVAC work it is important to identify if the work been done requires a consent. This rule applies to both the contractor and the building owner. It always pays as a building owner to ask your contractor before works starts if a consent is required and have it documented.
Things we ask ourselves before carrying out "works" is..
1. Am i going to effect any specified systems within the building?
2. Are any of the penetrations larger then 300mm?
3. Is the thing I am installing a specified system? i.e providing mechanical ventilation, ducted air, air handling systems etc
4. Am I installing any "dead loads" on to a roof?
If we answered "yes" to any of the above we would do a consent.
A new client of ours had a system installed into their building in 2012. The system removes contaminates as defined under G4.3.3 and was extracting it to a "safe place". This system was designed to remove car exhaust fumes via a direct tail pipe ventilation system. Our clients had this system installed to help protect the occupants within the building such as the mechanics working on the vehicles and their customers. Our clients did not know that the good intentions they had was going to cause them a few sleepless nights.
A few years had passed and a building audit was carried out by the territorial authority. Our client had received the dreaded "notice to fix" (NTF) from the territorial authority stating that they had carried out building works without a consent and furthermore removed a specified system.After a few stressful months and not finding any assistance they contacted us at The AC Guy to help.
We reviewed the job and carried out a full background research on the building. This went all the way back to 1971. After our review, we established what the breach was and worked on a plan to resolve it for our clients, and we did.
If in any doubt happy for you to give us a ring.