Okay, But How?

March 3, 2024 Longrider General News, Humour 13

There’s a part of me that mischievously likes this idea.

Last week, the owners of the Crooked House pub in Himley, Staffordshire, were served with an enforcement notice demanding that they rebuild the venue to exactly how it was before a fire – which is being treated as arson – gutted the property.

They used unlawful means to remove the building. So the punishment does fit the crime. But looking at the unholy mess, where would you begin to start?

And before anyone mentions it, yes, property rights. But property rights don’t include arson which is a crime.

Popcorn, I think.

13 Comments

  1. I believe a total of five people have been interviewed over the fire but I am not aware if any have been charged. Whilst it seems suspicious I don’t think any actual link to the owners has been established.

    If kids or a homeless person was in injured in the ruins after the fire everyone would be blaming the owners for not demolishing it.

    So the owners have to rebuild a building that will in no way conform to Building Regulations.

    • That sounds about right. That said, there does seem to be a fair bit of circumstantial evidence pointing directly at the owners. Probably not enough to stand up in court, but who benefited from the building being demolished?

  2. Can’t help but wonder whether the proposal to “engineer” the new structure with a steel framework with be compliant with the order.

  3. They’ll either need a very, very good builder who can correctly replicate all the nuances of the old structure, or they’ll need a very, very bad builder just doing his best.

  4. It is a very strange human trait that this building was valued because it was defective. For some reason the wonkyness of the building is the thing that made it interesting. Had it stood the test of time without going out of shape, nobody would have minded if it burned down and was demolished.

  5. Is building something not to regulation illegal?

    Can the court order you to do something illegal?

    Can the court order you to build something against regulations?

    If you do build not to regs by court order and someone gets hurt at a later date, who is liable if they sue?

    • This is an historic building, so would be built using historic methods. It’s pretty standard when restoring old buildings. In this case, though, it’s just a mass of rubble, so good luck with that.

  6. Someone on the local radio was talking to a person who were renovating an old property. They had to source the building materials as they would have been at the time, build it as it would have been built. They were doing it as a labour of love but still took them 3 years to complete. So locals wanting a drink need to wait for their pints.

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