Buying a house that doesnt have building reg approval

planning_officer

Also, if the extensions were constructed more than 4 years ago, the Council cannot take any enforcement action regarding the lack of planning permissionas they are now perfectly lawful. In any event, they may have been permitted development at the time, thus not needing a planning application.

Emy1501

When we sold a property that did not have building regs they other sides solicitors made us take out an indemnity insurance to cover it which only cost about £80.

It s worth using a lack of building regs as a tool to knock down the price, but I personally would not work away from a property simply becuase there was a lack of building regs. It would be wise though to get a full survey.

What effect the lack of building regs would have on the further extenion I'm not sure but I suspect the surveyer would be able to give advice.

puddy

planning_officer wrote: »

Also, if the extensions were constructed more than 4 years ago, the Council cannot take any enforcement action regarding the lack of planning permissionas they are now perfectly lawful. In any event, they may have been permitted development at the time, thus not needing a planning application.

no its not planning permission that is the issue here, its building regulations, they are 2 different things. the building regs are not a problem for me in themselves, its only because i know that if i bought the property, i would want to extend on top of an extension and knock through from the downstairs extension to the original house. i also would want to put a roof terrace on top of the rest of the downstairs extension

poppysarah

You should get a full structural survey and ask the person doing it to look at what you want to do and see what he thinks.
You should also take legal advice.

Yes it might not fall down this week - but it might cause other problems.

jimmi

our loft conversion hasnt got building regs but we have been told this is becuase there are so many strict guidelines (which is completely understandable) e.g. fire doors, doors in the right places. but we have been happy with it as it is and just use it as a spare room. only probs it has caused have been with slowing down the process of selling our house. we had to pay for a certificate to prove it was done before we moved in, even then our buyers solicitor still had a prob with it. so u have 2 not just decide about how u feel buying a house needing building regs, but if u don't get it sorted yourself, the problems it may cause if/when u come to sell

lincroft1710

If you did not intend to do alterations it would be so much simpler. Having dealt with building control (and planners) during past year, I know what they can be like. Your problem isn't so much that existing extension hasn't got building regs, but problems you may incur when you submit plans for building reg/planning permission and they find ground floor hasn't got regs approval.

As I said in my original post, I personally would walk away and look for something that either doesn't need an extension. That is what I would do, not what anyone else would necessarily do. I've personally had enough hassle with extensions/builders/building control, so I wouldn't do it again! If you cannot find anywhere more suitable, then you will have to establish that the existing extn is suitable for a extension over it. And unfortunately you will have to pay surveyor/structural engineer to find out if this is feasible. I understand that current regs now insist that any foundations should be capable of supporting 2 storey building. The extension may well have been properly designed by an architect, it may not have been.

Only you can decide whether this will all be worth it in the end and how much time/money you want to spend finding out if you can make this your ideal home.

FilthyLuka

If you intend to build ontop of the extension the unauthorized extension will need to be checked to show that it can support the extra load. This would often include checking the foundations, beams/lintels and the adequacy of the walls. Potentially to build a 1st floor extension you may need to underpin, replace beams/lintels or even rebuild the walls of the ground floor extension.

Forewarned is forermed so your purchase price should reflect the risk of work you might need to do to get your extension.

Like Jimmi says in 5 years time you may be the seller and some people will not be interested in purchasing a property with an illegal extension so finding a buyer may take longer and get you a lower price than other properties with the legal approvals

Doozergirl

FilthyLuka wrote: »

Like Jimmi says in 5 years time you may be the seller and some people will not be interested in purchasing a property with an illegal extension so finding a buyer may take longer and get you a lower price than other properties with the legal approvals

Funny that. If the OP builds the extension and applies and gets building control approval , it's not "illegal" (not that it ever was), it has all the paperwork it needs, moving forward.

FilthyLuka

Doozergirl wrote: »

Funny that. If the OP builds the extension and applies and gets building control approval , it's not "illegal" (not that it ever was), it has all the paperwork it needs, moving forward.

Woah there

If they build a first floor extension with the correct approvals then that section would be legal but it does not make the existing ground floor extension that was built without approvals not illegal. It would need to be regularised to make it legal

There is the "Building Act 1984" which requires certain "Building Work" to have the relevant building regulation approvals, to carry out the building works, without these approvals leaves the owners and builders open to prosecution in a magistrates court, on that basis am I wrong to think that the building works are "illegal"?

Doozergirl

Building Control can't use their enforcement powers once the building is past 12 months. The structure would have to be dangerous for them to then spend their resources taking anyone to court past that point.

There's nowt they can do about it, nor would they even be inclined I bet.