Building regs?

thisisthecount

We have a 1930s semi property we have rented out for about 7 years.

The tenant i really interested in purchasing it from us, which is great as we really need to get the property off our hands as the mortgage does not cover the rental at all.

He has got a surveyor to check the house and there are no major issues, apart from one thing.

These properties are common to have a long galley style kitchen, and a lot of them have an outside coal shed room at the end of them. We had a builder knock through so that the kitchen is now longer.

The surveyor is saying that the construction of this is of poor quality and would not pass building regs.

Obviously, we didn't get building regs involved.

We can no longer locate the builder either.

We had the knock through done probably about 10 years or 11 years ago.

TO be honest, its been fine ever since and I really don't understand what could be an issue.

what should I do in this situation?

I have already offered him the property at the absolute bottom price according to the estate agents valuations which we showed him from the estate agents, so we were completely transparent about the whole thing.

Any ideas - advice?

thanks in advance

cashndash

you would probably be best off ringing building control at your local council for advice.

Building regulations change all the time, so what might have been OK 10 years ago may not be now, but as your work is 10 years old, who's to say what the regs were then.

I think that generally after 10 years, Building regs won't be interested, but you need to check with them to find out the procedure.

as has been pointed out before, a house built 100 years ago probably wouldn't pass building regs today!

tek-monkey

I am trying to buy a place that has no regs for a few things, my sol thinks they can get an indemnity policy that protects me from any problems. Shame they can't get indemnity for the drain problem, which may well kill the deal.

thisisthecount

great, sounds like I am covered then with the Indemnity thingy :-)

Hailstorm

Don't want to being bad news but your buyer's lender might also have a problem if it doesn't conform to building regs. My seller's seller had to pull out of a purchase because their lender refused a mortgage because the property they were planning on buying had an extension that didn't have or conform to building regs. That is what the EA told me anyway.

Was the wall that was knockd through load bearing or not? If it wasn't then building regs would not have been required.

thisisthecount

no, its not a load bearing wall.

stanleyunwin

cashndash wrote: »

you would probably be best off ringing building control at your local council for advice.

Building regulations change all the time, so what might have been OK 10 years ago may not be now, but as your work is 10 years old, who's to say what the regs were then.

I think that generally after 10 years, Building regs won't be interested, but you need to check with them to find out the procedure.

as has been pointed out before, a house built 100 years ago probably wouldn't pass building regs today!

DON'T inform the council, otherwise you won't be able to take out an indemnity policy!

silvercar

"coal shed room" suggests to me a single skin building (ie the width of one brick rather than a cavity or solid wall). This will never comply to building regs (even those in force 10 years ago) without a complete rebuild including foundations. If that is the case then the easiest answer is to offer an indemnity policy.

Indemnity policies cover the buyer from the fact that building regs aren't in place. Basically they cover the costs if the council insists you do some work, they don't cover shoddy workmanship. As the council are extremely unlikely to require any work, they are a cheap solution to what could be a problem.

The practical problem is that the room could be cold, you also couldn't build on top of it without sorting the foundations. There may also be a damp problem if there was no damp course put in.

For a buyer the risk is tht the mortgage lender will be unhappy, more likely to be the case if the area concerned is a kitchen or bathroom.

Given that rebuilding would be expensive, I would suggest offering to pay for an indemnity policy and see what they say. If they pull out there is little you can do. Don't inform the council as that would mean you can't take out an indemnity policy.

thisisthecount

ok, thanks for that pointer. so just tell the seller that I will take an indemnity and I should be fine?