Extension with no Building Regs approval!

royP_2

My wife and I are at the present downsizing our home, and going through the process of buying a Detached House which has a large two storey extension at the rear, but the searches have thrown up couple of problems.

The original house was built in 1981 for which we have copies of the Planning Permission etc.
Sometime between 1981 and 1998 an extension was added at the rear of about 55 cu/metres comprising of a dining room, utility room and WC, all with a flat roof, but there is no trace of a planning application or approval and according to the Building regulation Control records no Building Regulations consent.
In 2003 a further extension was added on top of the first, extending the size of two bedrooms and adding an ensuite, we do have copies of the planning approval and Building Regulations consent for this build.

Having spent some time at the local planning office I have hit a blank wall, there is no sign of any information about the first extension, all they can suggest is that I have full survey carried out and see what that shows, but the surveyor can only make comment on what he can see above ground and my concern is the foundations, I doubt very much if the first extension was built with a future upstairs extension in mind.

Some may well suggest it is not worth worrying about, but at my time of life and having had previous experience with troubles to dodgy foundations I do not wish to repeat the exercise it was extremely stressful.

Any thoughts or should I pull out.
Thanks.

tek-monkey

So it passed building regs for the upper extension? Wouldn't that have needed them to check the foundations could take it? Sounds dodgy, can you not ask the vendor to have it brought up to current building regs and signed off? If they won't agree I'd walk, not worth it.

Doozergirl

For the upstairs extension to comply, the downstairs foundations would have to comply to regs in force at the time the upstairs extension was built! There is not a chance that building control would have signed off in 2003 without adequate foundations. The foundations were either good enough to start off with or they were underpinned to provide more support for upstairs.

The building control officer's notes if not drawings supplied by the owners at the time will detail the foundations in place for the upstairs build.

There is nothing to worry about.

Tuscan

as above, if the first floor extension was signed off then the ground floor will have been checked. no way a building inspector will sign off without knowing if the foundations were deep enough for a 2 story extension....

royP_2

How would the building inspector know about the depth of foundations when there is no paperwork, would they have needed to dig an inspection hole and would they?

Doozergirl

Yes. And Yes. The owner would have had to organise the digging.

royP_2

Therefore should that have not been recorded somewhere?

molerat

It could have been a very lax building control officer that approved the upstairs. My only visual inspection was after everything was completed. My SIL was the same but with a different council. Everything approved by the drawings.

David_Aldred

Hi royP,
There is no getting away from the fact your search has thrown it up as a problem and accordingly without this issue being resolved, if you come to sell the house at some point in the future it will become a stumbling block to any future purchaser.

Some contractors building houses, often on an estate in effect self regulate their Building Regs via a suitably qualified person with appropriate insurance and accordingly the Local Authority are never involved / consulted / have on file any drawings / spec etc and this took quite a lot of work away from the Local Authority Building Control Officer. This can include additions to the property say if the contractor was still on the estate doing other houses and somebody says can you just alter my standard house to include an extra bit. If the size of the extension was within permitted development no planning permission may have been sought.

The Building Control Officer (BCO) is not a legal police for houses though many people assume they are. They only have to do (for the properties that come before them to consider) mandatory inspections at certain stages and if things go wrong they immediately run for cover. An example being they will turn round and say the architect should know what they are specifying and we don't have time to check every specification and be on site all the time we just have to assume in many cases specs and work is compliant and if it is not at a later date then that is for you to dispute with the architect / builder as their legal department will not let them get involved and the BCO will deny any liability. If you have ever tried taking a BCO to court you will discover what a slippery eel they are and you usually have to go for the architect / builder instead.

From the above you will see how the Planning / BCO may well have signed off the upper floor extension without having anything on file regarding the ground floor extension / suitability of the lower structure to cope with the increased loads of the upper structure. The issue of this lack of signing off may be explainable given both my example and the posts by others above but it remains an issue that you could well do without. This being the case you could well do with throwing the matter back to the vendor and if you are concerned enough insist that they obtain:

1. Structural engineer to have trial pits to the foundations excavated for them to inspect and for them to sign off and provide an insurance backed long term warranty that the entire extension as structurally stable.

2. That retrospective Building Regulation Approval be sought from the Local Authority BCO who will require a drawing from a competant architect with specification of what is currently in place which may well have to include opening up.

3. That a letter is obtained from the Local Authority Planning Department stating they Approve and will not dispute the extensions as they currently now stand and that these extensions are logged on file as being a volume addition to the original structure.

Ensure the extension as it is complete is incorporated into the deeds and that the Planning / BCO approval is documented to form part of the deeds.

I would also raise the matter with your potential Building Insurance provider given that you probably have a duty of care to make them aware of the matter should you have to claim for anything structural at a later date.

Kindest regards, David Aldred Independent Damp and timber surveyor

royP_2

Many thanks David for your very detailed repy and advice.

Roy.