[Graeme]

The Inspectors Who Look the Other Way

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'F')or 21 years builders in this country have been legally bound to construct homes which conserve energy. The building regulations tell them how much insulation they must use, what kind of windows they must fit and how good their draught-proofing will be(1). Guess how many builders have been prosecuted in that period for non-compliance. I won’t keep you in suspense. The answer is none(2).

There could be only one good reason for this: that they are building houses so well that enforcement is unnecessary. But a study conducted by the Building Research Establishment, looking at just one factor (the rate at which cold air leaks in) found that 43% of the new houses it checked should have been failed by the inspectors(3). All of them had been passed. In some homes the requisite amount of insulation had been left in the lofts, but it was still tied up in bales(4). No one has been prosecuted because no one gives a damn.

[Chaparral]

Same problem here in the States in many different jurisdictions. Hoo boy! could I tell some stories of my own!