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Articles
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Construction
· 3 min read
No business is too small for a proper plan: lessons from a fatal ladder strike
A sole trader decorator has been sentenced after his 24-year-old stepson was electrocuted when a ladder touched an overhead power line. What HSE found, why RAMS matter for one-person businesses too, and six questions every plan should answer.
Landlords
· 5 min read
EPC C by 2030: what a Thanet landlord should do this year
The Government confirmed it in January 2026: every private tenancy needs EPC C by 1 October 2030, with spending capped at £10,000 a property. Four years sounds like plenty. For an older Thanet terrace, it is about the right amount of time to do it properly.
Landlords
· 5 min read
Damp and mould: what Awaab's Law will mean for private landlords
Social landlords now have fixed deadlines to investigate and fix damp and mould. The same law can be extended to private renting, with the date still to be set. The landlords who will find it easy are the ones keeping written records now.
Homeowners
· 6 min read
A £200,000 bill for a wall that should never have come down
Supporting timbers and steels came out while chimney breast works were still open, with no temporary propping. The gable wall collapsed. The builder was sentenced — but because his public liability cover was invalid, the homeowner paid £200,000 to rebuild their own house.
Construction
· 5 min read
The open roof light: £60,000 for a hole nobody covered
No barrier, no crash deck, no scaffold, no harness — just an open roof light and a man passing materials down through it. The HSE inspector called it wholly avoidable. It is also exactly the kind of thing an outside pair of eyes spots in ten minutes.
Construction
· 5 min read
They cut the railings out on Monday. He fell through on Tuesday.
The railings came out to allow the steps to be replaced. Nothing went in their place. The next day a 65-year-old bricklayer fell through the gap into a basement lightwell 2.6 metres below. There was no task-specific risk assessment or method statement for the job.
Homeowners
· 5 min read
The boiler certificate that stops a house sale
A service record proves the boiler is safe today. It does not prove the installation was ever notified to the local authority. If it was not, there is no compliance certificate, and lenders routinely refuse to release funds until there is.
Homeowners
· 6 min read
Part P: the certificate you should have asked for before you paid
The TA6 form asks, under penalty of misrepresentation, about electrical work since 2005 and the certificates for it. If your contractor used an unregistered electrician, the answer is a problem — and indemnity insurance is no longer the easy fix it used to be.
Homeowners
· 4 min read
FENSA gaps: small documents, collapsed sales
An invoice proves you bought a window. It does not prove the window was installed to Building Regulations. Missing FENSA or CERTASS certificates remain one of the most common reasons a straightforward sale grinds to a halt.
Construction
· 7 min read
RAMS that actually hold up when someone reads them
A generic template with your logo on it is not a risk assessment. Here is what a principal contractor is actually checking when your RAMS lands on their desk — and the five failures that get them sent back.
Hospitality
· 6 min read
What a Food Hygiene Rating really scores
Operators assume the rating measures cleanliness. It measures three separate things, and the one that most often drops a score has nothing to do with how the kitchen looks on the day.
Homeowners
· 8 min read
Nine things to check before you sign a builder's quote
Three quotes, three different numbers, and no way to compare them. The difference is almost never the workmanship — it is what each one quietly leaves out.
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