Buying a house that doesnt have building reg approval

puddy

If you saw a house that you really loved, but that you knew that you would need to do some extending and building on, AND then you found out from the local council that the existing kitchen, bathroom extension and building work had never been given building reg approval, what would you do?

What is the impact of not having this approval for previous works if you then want to do more works. I want to put an extension on top of the kitchen extension and put a roof terrace on top of the bathroom extension.

hanandhen

hi

my oh is a builder and said best to steer clear unless u are getting for a bargin price cos,

u can apply for rectrospective planning permission and this may be approved but it will also have to be checked my building control to make sure it was built properly, they will want to see the foundations so u will have to dig a hole for them to look if it has'nt u would need to underpin, basically they will want to see every part of the extension, and if the worsed happened planning could make u pull it down,

my oh also asked why was it not put through planning have u asked the owners?

lincroft1710

In answer to the first part of your post - I'D FIND SOMEWHERE ELSE!

Worst case scenario would be kit and bath extns have to be demolished. How will you know if kit foundations deep/strong enough to take weight of 2nd storey. It may be worthwhile phoning building inspector and asking his opinion.

puddy

planning permission was not needed for the extensions (the owner said she didnt need it, i suspect this was done about 10 years ago), she wouldnt have needed planning for the removal of the load bearing wall, BUT she wold have needed building regulation approval, this (I checked with the council) she has not got.

I know that you can be asked to demolish things that havent got planning permission (if its needed) but dont know what the situation is with regard to building reg approval (they are two differnt things)

silvercar

I would get it surveyed properly, tell the surveyor the plans you have and ask his view on whether it would be possible. He will probably advise getting a structural engineer to look at the property.

If it didn't have building regs 10 years ago, then it is too late for the council to do any enforcement action. Similarly if there were defects in the construction they would have shown themselves by now.

Doozergirl

silvercar wrote: »

I would get it surveyed properly, tell the surveyor the plans you have and ask his view on whether it would be possible. He will probably advise getting a structural engineer to look at the property.

If it didn't have building regs 10 years ago, then it is too late for the council to do any enforcement action. Similarly if there were defects in the construction they would have shown themselves by now.

Thank the Lord for a voice of reason.

puddy

thanks, if we get that far then of course we would, theres no way we would buy something without that, but i was hoping to get an idea of whether it is worth even getting that far as my lenders full structural survey is 900 quid and obviously the solicitors fees would be paid too, and if we had to drop out because of problems, we will lose that money, so we're just not sure whether to up our offer because we love the property so much, leaving us with concerns about whether its worth doing that having heard this information today

Doozergirl

You don't have to instruct the solicitors to do anything until you are satisfied that the house is absolutely right for you.

You could engage a structural engineer first and run through your requirements before the full survey, it will be cheaper than a full survey so you can at least save on the survey if the structural engineer finds a problem - the problem is going to be that the foundations aren't deep enough so it needs underpinning and the joists need to be replaced in order to take another storey above which you should expect to hear and be overjoyed if it doesn't! Have a chat with the vendors about what they've done, if they have the plans etc. or ask the structural engineer to, I guess might be better.

Once you are happy that the house is sound for you to extend again and therefore buy then you instruct the solicitor to commence the conveyancing.

You don't have to commit yourself to anything more than you need to financially until you are ready. It will just take a little longer to get to exchange than if you did it all at once and it turned out fine.

Ulfar

The first thing I would say is run away fast.

If you are still thinking about buying it, were there any obvious cracks or new paint work. If there are run away.

After this if you are still thinking about it get it inspected and ask the council some very searching questions on whether it would meet building regs. and what the liklehood of planning permission is of being granted.

_bankrupted

A house built in 1940 would not be complient with building regulation in 1950. A house built in 1950 would not be complient with building regulations in 1960. You get the general idea.

If you had double glazing installed in (I am guessing here) 2000, it would not be be complient with building regulations today as all new windows must have certain insulation characteristics.

My house is solid wall (no cavity) and no roof felt. Foundations probably don't conform to current standards as well as it's pre-war.

So building regulations need to be understood in context. You simply need to have a structural engineer assess the suitability for your modifications and then decide on what to do.

Take professional advice but really understand what building regs mean. It might be the most over engineered extension ever built and take 10 storey's above it.

puddy

thanks, we have 7 viewings for saturday booked. if we dont see anything we like, then we may have to reconsider whether we would up our offer on that house or not, in conjunction with consideration of the regulation issues