Buying a house with extension and loft conversion

shousto6

Hi all.....This is my first post. I'm really struggling to get to the bottom of a problem. We're quite soon about to exchange on a Victorian terraced property (circa 1870) but it's come to light in the searches that the house has an extension and loft conversion which are at least 10 years old that were done without planning permission or building regulations. Because they were done more than 10 years ago I'm not that concerned that the council would want us to pull it down so I'm not sure an indemnity policy is even worth having. What I am concerned about however is the lack of building regs particularly in terms of selling on in the future. We've had a survey done that hasn't shown up anything wrong but without taking the building works apart it's hard for anyone to say whether it was a good job or not.

The MAJOR sticking point and heartbreaker is that I can't seem to find a home insurance company that will insure a property where alterations were carried out without approval. The property is currently insured through Direct Line but when I called them yesterday they said they didn't know anything about that and wouldn't insure us and would be contacting the current owners!!!!

There are plenty of properties out there insured with alterations that don't have the correct permissions and regs but are their insurance policies null and void because they haven't fully disclosed???

Please can someone offer some advice before we have no choice but to walk away from what was looking like the house of our dreams.

poppysarah

Walk away. It's not a unique property.

Owain_Moneysaver

Lack of building regs and a 3rd / attic storey probably means the house is a firetrap.

shousto6

I understand that but I want to know what the situation is with insuring a house that has been extended but there are no signs of planning permission or bldg regs?

Doozergirl

If we start from the beginning - 1870, when your property was built, there would have been no formal planning permissions and very little, if anything in the way of building control. Planning regulation was only formalised in 1945 and BC legislation the way we know it was only introduced in something like 1981! In terms of buildings insurance, it's total double standards to suggest that they will cover a house that has no approvals (which of course they do), but won't cover an aging extension.

An indemnity policy should satisfy future buyers.

Now I am sure that when it comes to buildings insurance, they will not cover something which fails because it wasn't built correctly in the first place. If the place is surveyed properly (which might be a good idea on a house built in 1870 anyway!) and deemed to be safe and sound then I really don't think there is any reason to worry about the insurer, especially when the extension is of an age where it has already stood the test of time. They will examine what is failing and how it has failed, they won't judge the loft conversion if the loft conversion isn't the problem. The likelyhood of ever having to claim on buildings insurance is so small, and if you can exclude, through survey, the likelyhood of the loft conversion/extension causing a problem in the future then you have very little to worry about...

As far as planning goes, it's entirely possible that the extensions never even needed permission, and even if they did at the time, they would be considered lawful development by now.

If you speak to a customer advisor on the phone, they are generally not going to have any underwriting capacity (their computers assess risk, not them) nor actually understand how PP and BR work. I would suggest that when you purchase insurance that you go with a company that offers a good level of cover and is not a budget option that may make many exclusions. Extensions is a question when you're applying for home insurance, so you'd presume that the risk and therefore premium are weighted accordingly.

There is an insurance board here which you may wish to ask the question again. And it might be worth sitting down with an experienced broker face to face if you are still concerned. One of the most frequently asked questions, in fact,. probably the most frequently asked when people are already embroiled in the house buying process, surrounds PP and BR. A huge propertion of properties exchange hands every day with indemnity policies in place - it is not rare by any stretch of the imagination!

poppysarah

"The property is currently insured through Direct Line but when I called them yesterday they said they didn't know anything about that and wouldn't insure us and would be contacting the current owners!!!!"

They will get their insurance stopped maybe until they get regs. OR have their premiums go up.

Doozergirl

poppysarah wrote: »

"The property is currently insured through Direct Line but when I called them yesterday they said they didn't know anything about that and wouldn't insure us and would be contacting the current owners!!!!"

They will get their insurance stopped maybe until they get regs. OR have their premiums go up.

Are you going to substantiate this?