Should we get a building regulations cert - we're selling our house

Money_Doctor · 6 May 2010 at 3:10PM

Carmen, might be worth making enquiries with an aricitecht as they would draw the plans up? Yours sounds a lot easier than say opening up fondations of a kitchen without a building control certificate and face the prospect of having to knock it down and rebuild it

sunshinetours · 6 May 2010 at 4:03PM

Carmen just get in touch with your builders first and foremost to get thsi sorted and ask your solicitor what his advice is - its what you pay them for

MoneyDoctor - what are you talking about architects and kitchens for???

Money_Doctor · 6 May 2010 at 4:22PM

Sunshine - Purely a passing comment that if you were dealing with A Kitchen that had been built Without Building Regulations and were faced with obtaining the relevant Building Control Certificate surely it would be much more cumbersome inspecting foundations e.t.c

Hopejack · 6 May 2010 at 8:31PM

Tread very carefully, appreciate you probably want to get the cert (I would) but as it's been touched on here, there are cases where you get a Building Inspector in and they want all sorts ripped up/out to investigate!

Speak to the builder but I fear you won't get very far with them. I then, would speak to your solicitor (or the one you wish to use) and get their advice before going down the council route, once you give your name/address to them, that's it, there's no going back really. Like someone else touched on, an indemnity policy might work - so speak to a solicitor. However, I've read on here that some mortgage lenders won't allow indemnity policies anymore on any properties they are lending on - can't remember the details, might have been for more than a bathroom rejig though.

Good luck! I do know of a few sales that have fallen through recently (or stalled majorly) due to lack of building regs/and pp where needed. Years ago no-one batted an eye, but these days people are much more risk conscious I think.

Budgeting_mum · 6 May 2010 at 9:50PM

Definitely explore getting a certificate. When purchasing our current house it transpired that the owners thought they didn't need building regs for the extension as it was built in 1991. Neither solicitor was bothered about my concerns and said I should just get indemnity insurance. NO WAY. I did not want to be left having to have the extension ripped apart at a later date. As it happens I called the council and it turned out that the extension was approved and met the regs at the time - it's just in 1991 certificates weren't issued. So the council merely wrote me a letter confirming all the details so I had it in writing. Job done. But the main reason I have written this essay (sorry!) is to say I wouldn't have proceeded without confirmation that the building regs were adhered to. Good luck.

carmen_blue · 7 May 2010 at 10:11AM

Thanks for all your replies. It's such a tricky one. I need to get the builder over and talk to him. My sister in law went through something like this a couple years ago and regretted getting the council involved because they found some other things that hadn't come up in the survey and that the buyers weren't bothered about. I just wish I knew if it would be approved - there are other houses on our street that did the exact same work, so I'll talk to them too.

timmyt · 8 May 2010 at 12:19PM

carmen_blue wrote: »

We’ll be putting our house on the market soon and started filling in the HIP. There’s a question about any work we did and if we got planning permission and/or a building reg certificate. About six years ago, we got rid of a tiny bedroom and, in its place, we made the main bathroom bigger and put in an en suite in the back bedroom. We had good builders and the work was done without a hitch. I just called the council about this question in the HIP and they said we didn’t need planning permission but we should have had a building regs cert. They can come out and look at it and, if all is ok, give us a cert for a fee of about £250. My question is: do we really need to do this? Would this really hold a sale up? Our builder said it would pass, so wouldn’t a buyer’s surveyor see that and be ok with it?

if you identified your house to the Council then you have made a possible huge mistake.

a buyer may insist on either getting belated consent - could be costly - or cheap £40 indemnity insurance. You canno now get indemnity insurance as you spoke to the council, which is a no no for indemnity insurance.

your lawyer will now need to play hard ball wit a buyer and say that after 12 months the council cannot take action anyway..

fingers crossed.

Never ask the COuncil about consents without first speaking to the lawyer you are using.

Doozergirl · 8 May 2010 at 1:34PM

Carmen what exactly did they do? Did they remove a structural wall and place a steel in?

Did they dig new drains outside or did they connect the ensuite up to the existing soil stack (you'd be able to see this outside, most likely)

A new window?

You don't have a buyer yet so you do have time to get things sorted. It is possible that you didn't actually do anything that required building control sign off. Some electrical work would have been done but whether it was significant enough to need sign off, I think you'd have to check with the electrician; who should be able to sign off the work himself - job done.

Don't panic. IF you can speak to the builder if you're not sure exactly what was done.

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Should we get a building regulations cert - we're selling our house

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