Would You Touch It with a Bargepole

movingon

:rolleyes: I have an offer on my house and the purchasers are pushing to move in. We have found a property we like and have had to go to the full asking price. We contacted the local council on monday (outside of our area) to enquire about the possiblility of adding a conservatory. We then discovered that the vendor had not got planning permission for a third bedroom he had added to the bungalow in 1998. He is a builder, did it himself , and assumed it would be ok. So we went back to him and told him he would need retrospective planning permission. We then thought we had better check with the council about his loft conversion and lo and behold he has not got building regs for that either. So we rung and told him and he and his wife have gone beserk , saying we are intefering and should let the solicitors sort it out. They said that We have highlighted their house to the council and it will cost £1000s now, when the solicitors probably would have let it all go through.

We pointed out that we were trying to speed things up so he could get on with sorting it out now , rather than later, but they are not happy with us at all and are threatening to pull out.

I am tempted to pull out anyway because now i am wondering what else they have failed to do given he has built his own house. My OH says i am worrrying too much and the solicitors will sort it out. I think it will all take ages and i will have to pay for the priviledge

Any advice welcome. Thanks

Red_Elle

I have absolutely no idea, sorry, but I would feel the same as you and tbh them going beserk would really get my back up. They should have done something, so it's hardly your fault. If someone does not get planning permission, can't the council insist that things be put back to how they were? If they can and you move in, could they then? That's what I would be worried about.

littlereddevil

i wouldn' t touch it

robwend

stick to your guns,and yes it could take a fair ol while to sort out, and if this guys had a eplileptic fit over this then maybe he should have got regs in the first place.but also you have saved time and money finding this out before the survey, if you like it stick with itbut do not pay what you have agreed without the regs!

rchddap1

I would pull out in all honesty. If they've hidden this .... what else could they have hidden? I'd be nervous about other scary things that they've tried to hide in the closet that might come out and bite me later.

I would not be happy buying a house that didn't have the relevant permissions. If I did continue with it I would make the solicitor aware of the problems and would want him/her to sort out the retrospective planning permissions before any exchange / completion, or any other further costs were incurred.

If I did pull out, or they pulled out, I would also contact their estate agent to make them aware so that with luck any future buyers wouldn't have a problem.

There are plenty of properties out there....and this is simply extra hassle that isn't neeed.

silvercar

the solicitors probably would have let it all go through.

No, we employ solicitors to spot these sort of problems and sort them out.

We have highlighted their house to the council and it will cost £1000s now

He's a builder! They knew what they were doing, they knew they broke the rules. This is their fault and they are trying to pass blame.

I am tempted to pull out anyway because now i am wondering what else they have failed to do given he has built his own house.

A survey will identify other potential problems.

My OH says i am worrrying too much and the solicitors will sort it out. I think it will all take ages and i will have to pay for the priviledge

The solicitors can sort it out. If all that is required is for an indemnity policy to be taken out (to cover your costs if the council decide to take action), it is normal for the seller to pay for the indemnity policy. Only takes a matter of weeks to put an indemnity policy in place.

If the council now serve notice on them it is their fault. They were niaive to say the least. To build yourself an extension without P/P is risky. To do it when you want to sell your property is asking for trouble.

At the end of the day they would have had these problems with whoever bought the house not just you. All solicitors ask for copies of planning permissions and building regs etc. It would have come to light and they would always have had to deal with it.

Their correct procedure should have been to sort these problems out before putting the house on the market.

Incidentally, I understand that if the extension has been in place for over 4 years the council cannot ask for it to be removed. Though they can ask for it to comply with building regs. An indemnity policy would cover you if the council did take such action. Or you could ask for them to get the building regs certificates.

If the extension has not been in place 4 years they would now need to ask for planning permission and this could take a while.

greytroot

My mate bought a converted basement flat and when he came to sell it he found that there was no planning permission for the double glazing windows. He unsuccessfully tried to claim COMPO from his solicitors and ended up £11k out of pocket replacing the windows.

tee_pee_2

we bought our house with the integal garage converted into a 2nd lounge, there were no building regs for it. The solicitor was not interested his advice was " it is up to you" but when I rang the council they said if an alteration has been done for longer than 25 yrs, it no longer matters, (ours was done 18yrs ago when we bought it and are planning to stray put for a while, so we decided to go ahead)

The council should be able to tell you how much it will all cost to get permission , but it seems to me the builder already new that which is prob why he went off his nut.

silvercar

We are also looking at a house that has had a garage conversion without p/p or build regs. I don't think that is a big problem.

The danger is extensions done without p/p. There is a risk, depending how long they have been standing, that the council could insist you apply for p/p; if this is refused you would get served notice to remove the extension.

Ian_W

Hi movingon,
Just to balance up the arguments, which are mostly "don't touch" in nature:
1. 10% extension is allowed w/o PP as "permitted development" on houses which may cover bedroom 3.
2. As I understand it BRs aren't needed for a loft conversion if it's not designated as "habitable" space, ie: a bedroom. There are 100,000's of properties with "loft rooms" that don't have BR approval. Also it will depend on when the conversion took place as BRs are generally not retrospective - if they were many houses wouldn't comply even though there's no real problem with them.

Clearly you now need to satisfy yourselves that these issues won't be a problem or, as said earlier, see what the situation is with indemnity insurance. If you haven't had a survey done yet I'd point these out to the surveyer and ask for their comments. Also make sure your solicitor is aware of your concerns.

BTW, again as I understand it, unless it's listed or in a conservation area you don't generally need PP for a conservatory.

robwend

you do if its over 12feet