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Hi all What legislation (if any) covers the health and safety aspects of balconies in properties? Its a first floor flat and we are worried if we let it out and the tenant has children that it poses a risk (not bought the flat yet). Any advice appreciated regards

Just wondering if anyone has experience of making an NHBC claim and how you went about it? Our house and garden is built on an incline and therefore we have a retaining wall at the top of the garden with a property behind us (constructed by the same builder) and a retaining wall at the bottom of the garden also holding up the land behind. The "wall" is made up of Timber posts, which are rotting away and falling down causing the land behind to collapse through. The "walls" are therefore not fit for purpose, not structurally sound and more importantly pose a health and safety risk when falling down. Will I need to get legal support to make the claim? I estimate it could cost in excess of £10k.

About to start a refurb, so did a search on here for CDM to ask some questions and two topics appeared, neither of which dealt with the issue, so decided it's definitely worth starting a topic as many of you could be at risk of prosecution (potentially for manslaughter). Briefly, if you're undertaking any refurbishment works for business purposes i.e. not on your own home, then you're a commercial client and CDM applies. That means you have legal duties for H&S both for the public and the workers on your site. Employ a cowboy and not only will you end up with a poor quality job, but you will be liable for any injuries etc. In fact, doesn't even need an injury, just needs someone to report the site for being dangerous and the rest is up to HSE. So that's my scaring half of you done, so now for my question which hopefully someone can help with: The client (me) needs to employ a principal designer and principal contractor. Intention was for me to do the design (put a kitchen there, paint that wall magnolia), but I was planning on using various tradespeople to do their bit e.g. a plumber for the GCH and maybe some bathroom bits; a kitchen fitter; a window fitter; a plasterer; a decorator etc, so none of them is the principal contractor, so who takes on that role? I could employ a CDM specialist, but it's not really required for the level of work and I know a reasonable bit about construction H&S through work, just not for a smaller project or where I'm the client.

Good afternoon everyone, Very good to be here, what a fabulous site this is. What have I done in property before? I have been a co- owner of one buy to let property that we rented to the council so the house was used for social housing. Also a co-owner of an apartment in Tenerife. Both of these have since been sold. So my property buying experience is thus far is limited, however I have been educating myself over the years and now feel ready to embark on the property investing journey. Ideally I would like to invest up north (Manchester way), South Wales (Cardiff and surrounding), and Wiltshire, initially just very average 1,2 & 3 bedroom properties that need some TLC. My plans include building a portfolio to include BTLs for social housing, multi lets, distressed but habitable property flips, and possibly a couple of HMOs when I am much more experienced. I am also very interested in learning more about lease options (run ethically of course). i would be very interested in hearing from any potential investors, brokers, specialist lease option solicitors, architects etc and trades people from anywhere including the areas I wish to invest in. Regards any skills I have that may benefit other members here on the hub? I am an experience Health and Safety professional with a common sense approach, with industry experience in Construction, Manufacturing and offshore Oil & Gas. Certainly, my credentials and experience may be of value for members investing/developing larger refurbishment and construction projects in the UK. I very much look forward to learning and hopefully contributing here. have a good rest of the day.