Assent BC Reviews 204

Made my Christmas complete hearing these thieves have finally collapsed. Let’s hope the management get jailed for their crimes and the distress they’ve caused so many innocent people over the years. Truly a national disgrace. Good riddance to bad rubbish, anyone who ever worked there should be ashamed of themselves

The worst experience I’ve ever had with a building-control company

I genuinely regret ever using this company. The entire experience has been a nightmare from start to finish. What should have been a straightforward process ended up taking over a year, with constant delays, zero communication, and absolutely no professionalism.

They were supposed to come out and check the work at each stage. That is what I paid for. They never showed up for inspections, and instead expected me to take photos and prove everything was done correctly — something that is completely unacceptable for a service that is supposed to handle building control.

I paid them to do a job, and they simply did not deliver it. Their lack of site visits caused massive delays, extra stress, and wasted an unbelievable amount of my time. I’ve never dealt with a company so disorganised, unresponsive, and unhelpful.

I would strongly warn anyone considering this company: avoid them at all costs. No one should have to go through what I did.

Thieves,took the money up front now the company's gone Into liquidation, And none of my work has been,Signed off. A lot of people have been ripped off and this company should be investigated cause there's something not right.

Took 2.5 years to finally get a certificate.
Lots of unanswered calls to the company.
Appalling customer service.
Would not recommend.

Company took money in advance, carried out a few inspections and then went into liquidation. Now no BC companies accept my case other than the Council - who basically charge an additional fee for reverting it. Being more expensive than it would've been in the first place.

Avoid it that company!!!! Do not recommend to nobody!!!!!! Liquidation start it ….loose moneys no final certificate !!!! Thieves!!!!!

They took the money upfront and stopped responding to emails after all the work was completed. I was expecting my final certification to arrive, but instead, I received an email saying that the whole thing had been cancelled. This is an absolute shocker.

I’m certain they already knew they were going into liquidation when they accepted this project. They completely scammed us by taking our money upfront and failing to deliver the final work.

Taken the money in advance and done no work!

Received a cancellation notice over the weekend. Tried calling this morning to be greeted by a voicemail advising they have gone into liquidation.

Looks like the directors knew what they were doing as they set up other companies in July.

This company has gone in to liquidation. We were left unaware that the company was struggling until the very last day. The company has left us high and dry.

Same as all the other comments. I too have lost money with these lot. £2500 just gone, just like that!!

I can see I’m not the only one who received a surprising cancellation letter early on a Sunday morning. I seriously doubt that any of us will ever get back the money we paid for their services. Our project has now been returned to the Council to continue the work, which means we have to pay the building control fees all over again.

This looks and feels like a complete scam, and I’m absolutely shocked.
All the negative reviews here are 100% true — I can fully relate to every single one of them. Communication was extremely difficult, impossible to reach anyone by phone or email. We waited weeks for an inspector, and when they finally came, it was at random, unarranged times — seemingly just when they happened to be passing by.

In my opinion, companies like this should be subject to far stricter regulation — or simply not be allowed to operate at all. I can already see more than ten people here reporting the same issue, all receiving the same cancellation emails on a Sunday. Each of us has lost around £1,500–£2,000 in unexpected costs.

I honestly believe we should consider a collective legal action to try to recover at least part of the money that was effectively stolen.
In our case, only two inspections were carried out, while the full fee was paid upfront and the project is only halfway done.

Can't belive that the company has cancelled and have passed it to the council, without any prior notcie and information, they have taken the full payment before even the work started. I need a refund of my money

Just received surprising letter this morning, Assent BC have written to Kirklees council and given notice of cancellation without informing myself of any intention to do so. Two of the inspectors have left recently, Lois Tasker and Jacob Senior, again giving no prior notification.
Inspectors have simply looked at the job and passed as OK.
I am left to do a lot of disastrous, remedial works carried out by builders myself.
Kirklees council need to look into this company.
Money down the drain.
Please, please look elsewhere for BC inspectors and investigate before parting with your cash.

Given notice of cancellation with no prior notice ir explanation. Zero service. Taken all our money.

They have taken my money and gone into liquidation. just received an email saying they have cancelled my works and we were on final stage to get signed off.

As an Architect I would highly recomend avoiiding this awful and usleess company
The service they provide is disgusting and in 30 years I have never worked with such an awful firm. they ignore correspondance, fail to upload documents despite mutiple attempts, they make the entire process super hard work and fail at every level

Assent Building Control (who own LB Building Control) changed it's name to Assent Building Compliance in October 2024, because the Company did not register to become a Registered Building Control Approver (RBCA). It says online that a Company that is not a registered building control approver cannot legally approve Building Control for a house extension in the UK. Head office voice mail box always full. Very expensive compared to local Council Building Control and wish we had never listened to the builder to use them. Impossible to get hold of local inspector by phone and they rarely responds to emails. I actually paid to move our Building Notice to the local council and got some work signed off seamlessly (so in effect paid twice). Wish we had used the Council from day 1. Also read that in October 2024, they changed their name

Our builder was chasing this company up so that they could come and do a site visit. Ringing no answer when we called them we were notified that the company had gone bust. We cannot find any credible information on this online. Can someone please confirm whether this is true. We would like a refund of the £2700 that we paid.

This company used their building control "responsibility" and "skill" to sign off our builders extension construction as compliant with the building regulations and with the design drawings. It was actually neither and we've now spent another £6k, 12 years after it was constructed, having the extension re-roofed, damage, caused by bad water penetration, rectified and Velux windows adjusted to the correct roof pitch. UK law doesn't seem to recognise that a "professional" building control company should take responsibility for the "expertise" it professes to employ and so you can't rely on that for justice and fair play. So, in summary, I would recommend anyone needing a professional building control service NOT to use this company because if you don't get a professional service from the outset you won't get recompense for the remedial work you'll need further down the line.

We understand that Assent (Wakefield) and Occulus (Bath) are sisiter companies that share at least two directors. However thier inspectors seem to be independant franchise holders of a geographical area which gives them autonomy, but little support from thier head office. They invoice the fee at the start of the job, and hassle you if they dont get paid.
Our experience with the on site BI was positive, he came when requested and was on time. He was professional in his approach and provided some useful tips along the way.
The problem came after the last site inspection. Assent use a "fire officer" to sign off the fire saftey aspects, which took over a month. Then the Assent QA system required a number of procedural documents to be signed off before the issuance of the Final Certificate. More than a 7 week delay to receive the sign off.