Planning permission

sprog

I'm a first time buyer and i made an offer on a house. My solicitor and surveyer have both said that the loft conversion has no planning permission. The vendor has offered me a reduced price and an indemnity policy to cover it. She says it was built 15 years ago but there is no proof of this. I am not sure how i stand with this. Do i need to approach the council? What does an indemnity policy cover? Can the council make me take it down and would this cause me problems if i was trying to re sell the house? Would i be better to walk away from this? The price i have been offered is very good.

m_13

The idemnity policy is to idemnify you from any action taken because the planning permission is not there. It will pay the legal costs etc.

However, if there are no building regulations and so, for example, there are no fire doors then it might not be safe to inhabit and use.

maninthestreet

sprog wrote: »

I'm a first time buyer and i made an offer on a house. My solicitor and surveyer have both said that the loft conversion has no planning permission. The vendor has offered me a reduced price and an indemnity policy to cover it. She says it was built 15 years ago but there is no proof of this. I am not sure how i stand with this. Do i need to approach the council? What does an indemnity policy cover? Can the council make me take it down and would this cause me problems if i was trying to re sell the house? Would i be better to walk away from this? The price i have been offered is very good.

Did the surveyor say anything about the loft conversion not meeting building regulations?

Pee

You should get a Stautory Declaration from the current owner that it was 15 years ago, you will probably need that for the insurance policy anyway. Then you should not have any problems with a resale, unless like the OP says there are problems with safety etc

sprog

He did not mention anything about it not complying but did say he was disregarding the room for the valuation.

Astrix340

In my experance it will not be a problem if the currant owner will idemnify you from any action taken because the planning permission is not there. if it is over 15years old it may not have to comply with currant regs.
It is inportant to remember that you will not be able to use it as a "habitable" room E.g a bed room. is there a fire escape window? or something sim?

You could make a condition of sale that it is brought up to currant standards or the cost plus to complet this and remember its a buyers market so you will beable to verry close to what you want. Also I find that talking to other estate agents in the same area can help.

Good luck

Doozergirl

A full buildings survey would let you know if it were safe for use as a habitable room. That is what is important and that is what the valuation should be based on.

It is not your surveyor's job to know whether it has planning permission or not, they are employed to just look at the building and produce a report on it. They don't check for Building Regs or PP.

giraffe01_2

If you approach the Council then that may invalidate any indemnity policy as the policy will assume that the Council do not have notice of the works. I would say take up the offer of the indemnity but make sure you are satisfied that the work is of good quality, perhaps with a full survey or even if you have a builder friend who can take a look

alm721

We have just had a similar thing with a house we are buying. At some point there has been a loft conversion but the survey has said that it would not meet current building regs. Unfortuatly I have not yet managed to get hold of the surveyor to find out exactly what he means, is this common and is there a likely reason for this?
Thanks

planning_officer

There's a big difference between planning permission and building regs (common mistake to assume they are the same or inter-related) as they are completely different. A loft conversion does not require planning permission if it is purely internal works - even adding a rooflight normally doesn't need planning permission (unless there are restrictive conditions attached to earlier permissions preventing the insertion of additional windows). A dormer window can require planning permission though - if it's on the front of the house it will almost definitely need it (if it's fronting a highway), however unless a property is in a conservation area, AONB or National Park, a rear dormer window will normally be permitted development, i.e. not requiring a planning application.

MX5huggy

alm721 wrote: »

We have just had a similar thing with a house we are buying. At some point there has been a loft conversion but the survey has said that it would not meet current building regs. Unfortuatly I have not yet managed to get hold of the surveyor to find out exactly what he means, is this common and is there a likely reason for this?
Thanks

I do find this "does not meet current building regs" line so infurating. What matters is if it met building regs when it was built or altered.

Nothing existing has to be changed to meet current regs.

I looked round a 19th century property in the past the EA saying the loft can't be used because the stairs dont comply. I pointed out the the stairs from the ground floor did not comply either. I asked if an offer based on it being a 1 bed bungalow would therefore be accepted.

What you need to work out is if the loft has been done properly, have the celing joists been increased in size, was the roof structure reinforced properly, electrics done properly.