Hundreds of homeowners face having to rebuild newly erected extensions, lofts and basements because of a crisis in building inspections arising out of the Grenfell Tower disaster.

The crisis has led to private building inspectors, known as Approved Inspectors (AI), being unable to obtain insurance, forcing them to hand over inspection of newly built homes and extensions to local council officials.

But it has now emerged that unless the AIs can provide satisfactory documentation to show councils that the building work meets certain standards, then local authority inspectors may order the structures to be dismantled so they can be re-examined to determine whether they were built in accordance with strict safety rules.

That means hundreds of loft extensions, basements and other structural work may have to be partly or wholly dismantled in order for council building inspectors to issue the required approval certificates.

The crisis is the result of a number of Approved Inspectors no longer being able to obtain the necessary liability insurance for them to carry out their work.

One of the two main brokers, Howden, is currently not arranging cover after its insurer stopped underwriting professional indemnity insurance as a result of the potential cost of the requirement for potentially lethal cladding to be removed from buildings in the wake of the Grenfell fire. This left 72 people dead in June 2017, after flammable cladding was used during its refurbishment.