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The powerhouse for building control

At the beginning of 2022, JHAI and Stroma Limited were purchased by the Phenna Group PLC. CICAIR Limited has approved the companies’ merger into a single company trading as Stroma Building Control Limited, which will become England and Wales’s most prominent, robust, well-resourced Building Control Body. JHAI Limited will cease to trade at the end of September 2024. All Inspectors and Staff have been transferred to the Stroma.

You have received the correspondence to assure you that we want to ensure continuity in your project. The following paragraphs explain how that will happen, depending on the project’s progress.

Your Projects

Provided that your project has not lapsed due to being occupied for a protracted period (usually for more than two months) without inspection, your existing JHAI project will be automatically transferred to Stroma Building Control without needing anything.

If your project has not started, JHAI will cancel the existing initial notice, and Stroma will issue a new one. A copy will be provided to you, along with the team’s details. All you need to do is contact us as your project starts, and the service will resume as usual.

If your project has already started, JHAI will issue a final certificate for any work undertaken to date and cancel the remaining work from the scope of the initial notice. Stroma will serve a new initial notice for the remaining work. All you need to do is contact us for further site inspections or queries, and the service will continue as usual.

We aim to make this process seamless, so it should maintain continuity in service provision to you.

If you would like to use another Building Control Body instead, email us back within the times stated in the letter, and we will cancel the initial notice. However, please note that you will have a financial disincentive to do this if your project continues with another building control provider. They will charge you fees for work you may have already paid to JHAI and may interpret the regulations differently to your Inspector, which can increase the cost of your work.

Should you have any queries, please get in touch with your Regional Admin Team. Contact numbers for each team can be found by following this link: https://stromabc.com/contact/. Just scroll past the boxes, and the offices’ contact details are past the Get in touch form.

What happens if my job finishes before the end of September 2024?

Then, your work does not need to transfer to Stroma, and JHAI will continue to process your application as usual until the project’s completion. Please note that your project needs to be complete to the point when all building regulation items can be signed off, and this does not generally include decoration, etc. Please let us know by replying to the correspondence within the time stated in your letter.

What will it mean to transfer the project?

The transfer will not affect the project in any way. Stroma Building Control, and probably in most cases, your existing project team will continue to handle your building control application.

How will my data be transferred?

For all jobs that transfer to Stroma, all data will be copied to the new file and used to ensure continuity in processing your application. A copy of Stroma’s Privacy and Data Protection Policies can be found at our website, www.StromaBC.com.

Will I still deal with the same people?

Yes, in most cases, you will deal with the same Inspectors, and inspections can be booked the same way using your existing contacts.

If I want to proceed, do I need to do anything?

You do not need to do anything if you wish to proceed. We will do everything for you. However, if you want to use another body, see below; what if I don’t want my project to transfer to Stroma?

What if I don’t want my project to transfer to Stroma?

The choice is yours. You can use a different Building Control Body for the remainder of the work. Please note that this almost definitely involves incurring fees from your new Building Control Body. But if you still wish to stop the transfer, please let us know within the period in your letter.

If you do not wish to proceed with the transfer to Stroma, we will need to issue a final certificate for all works completed on your project to date, and we will cancel the remainder of our initial notice; this will allow you to work with your new Building Control Body to serve the required paperwork on the Local Authority to allow the continuation of your project. You can use another Approved Inspector or your Local Authority to do this. Please note that you must ensure you let us know who your new Building Control Body is, as it is usual to

Please note that JHAI will not become liable to settle outstanding fees with your new Building Control Body.

All outstanding invoices held by JHAI must be settled in full before we can proceed, and jhai will not offer a refund for any work already undertaken.

16 January 2024