Lack of planning permission/building reg/completion certificate

arlee

I am thinking of put my house on market for sale, but bit tricky with the above as subject, hoping to get some advice from here.

It was built in 2005 and it comes with a NHBC warranty for 10 years from 2005, however on the local search regarding 'Planning and building regulations ' (f) building regulation approval, (g) building regulation completion certificate and (h) any building regulations certificates or notice issued in respect of work carried out under a competent person self -certificate scheme, there is a note stating 'any adverse circumstances in existence at the effective date of this search causing actual loss because the information provided was either incomplete or inaccurate will be covered by the Local Authority personal search Insurance subject to any exclusions set out in the policy document'. What does this insurance cover? is it same as the indemnity insurance, if not, do I need to get one to enable my house mortageable?

I bought the house with no mortgage and my solicitor didn't raise these issues at all... but obviously these can be serious?

Thanks very much for any advice!

Doozergirl

Presuming they built more than just one house at the time, the planning permission will be there for the entire development, not logged as an individual record against your house. Major developers often don't use the LA building inspector route for building control, from what I remember it can be signed off by others - I think the NHBC representative that also inspects stages of a build. It was such a long time ago that I looked into it that I can't remember the detail, but I don't think it's a concern at all.

The fact that it has an NHBC guarantee means that it has to have passed building regulations.

arlee

Thanks Doozergirl for such a quick response!

yes, my house is in a small development which has flats and houses, all the flats which were built in 2000 do have planning permission/building reg etc, however all the houses which built later don't have these...

I did check with NHBC but was told they didn't act as the building control on this particular house, only inspected the house at different stages and ensure its structurally sound.

It seems houses in this development are well known to most of my local estate agents, as when I rang them up about selling my house, the first question they asked me was ' have all the planning permission /building reg stuff been sorted out?' I really want to or need to sort them out, just don't know how to go about it? is there actually a way or insurance to cover above?

Thanks again, more comments are extremely welcome

PhilRey

I think your search was carried out by a Personal Search Company. They save money by not requesting the information from the Local Authority, and then try to cover themselves using 'insurance'. If an official LA search had been carried out, a full response would have been provided.

Linton

arlee wrote: »

I am thinking of put my house on market for sale, but bit tricky with the above as subject, hoping to get some advice from here.

It was built in 2005 and it comes with a NHBC warranty for 10 years from 2005, however on the local search regarding 'Planning and building regulations ' (f) building regulation approval, (g) building regulation completion certificate and (h) any building regulations certificates or notice issued in respect of work carried out under a competent person self -certificate scheme, there is a note stating 'any adverse circumstances in existence at the effective date of this search causing actual loss because the information provided was either incomplete or inaccurate will be covered by the Local Authority personal search Insurance subject to any exclusions set out in the policy document'. What does this insurance cover? is it same as the indemnity insurance, if not, do I need to get one to enable my house mortageable?

I bought the house with no mortgage and my solicitor didn't raise these issues at all... but obviously these can be serious?

Thanks very much for any advice!

Dont worry about it. Leave this sort of thing to you and your buyer's solicitors, it's what you pay them for. If an indemnity insurance is required your solicitor will tell you and charge you.

Richard_Webster

Dont worry about it. Leave this sort of thing to you and your buyer's solicitors, it's what you pay them for. If an indemnity insurance is required your solicitor will tell you and charge you.

I agree - it is likely that the old local search you have was a private search agency search where they did indeed insure this part of the searches because they couldn't get the info from the Council. Most likely the appropriate certificates etc do exist - and your solicitor may have got copies of them from the developer's solicitor if you bought new - so I wouldn't worry.

PhilRey

On the contrary, I think this is a very serious issue that all property buyers/sellers should be aware of. I work for a Local Authority supplying property searches to conveyancers. We index and maintain property information from all parts of the Council in order to provide this service.

Since the late 1990's, private search companies (PSCs) have taken advantage of provisions designed to afford individuals 'personal' access to core property information (the Local Land Charges Register) in order to resell that information at considerable profit. All the other information contained on the form Con29R Enquiries before Contract is obtainable from a series of public and other Registers.

However, in order to access some of these, including the Building Control Register referred to by the enquirer, the private search company is supposed to pay a fee (strictly controlled by the Government on a Cost Recovery basis). In my experience, the majority of these PSCs do not even ask for this information, preferring instead to use 'insurance'.

So, in many cases, so-called 'Local Authority Searches' provided by these PSCs are not complete and may put buyers/sellers at considerable risk.

Linton

PhilRey wrote: »

On the contrary, I think this is a very serious issue that all property buyers/sellers should be aware of. I work for a Local Authority supplying property searches to conveyancers. We index and maintain property information from all parts of the Council in order to provide this service.

Since the late 1990's, private search companies (PSCs) have taken advantage of provisions designed to afford individuals 'personal' access to core property information (the Local Land Charges Register) in order to resell that information at considerable profit. All the other information contained on the form Con29R Enquiries before Contract is obtainable from a series of public and other Registers.

However, in order to access some of these, including the Building Control Register referred to by the enquirer, the private search company is supposed to pay a fee (strictly controlled by the Government on a Cost Recovery basis). In my experience, the majority of these PSCs do not even ask for this information, preferring instead to use 'insurance'.

So, in many cases, so-called 'Local Authority Searches' provided by these PSCs are not complete and may put buyers/sellers at considerable risk.

Genuine question - Why is this a problem for buyers/sellers?

OK I could see if it's a flagrant and obvious breach of planning regulations it could be an issue, but for a 5 year old house built as part of an estate?

In any case if it is an issue I would have thought its best dealt with by a solicitor rather than an amateur house owner.

Richard_Webster

Originally Posted by PhilRey
On the contrary, I think this is a very serious issue that all property buyers/sellers should be aware of. I work for a Local Authority supplying property searches to conveyancers. We index and maintain property information from all parts of the Council in order to provide this service.

Since the late 1990's, private search companies (PSCs) have taken advantage of provisions designed to afford individuals 'personal' access to core property information (the Local Land Charges Register) in order to resell that information at considerable profit. All the other information contained on the form Con29R Enquiries before Contract is obtainable from a series of public and other Registers.

However, in order to access some of these, including the Building Control Register referred to by the enquirer, the private search company is supposed to pay a fee (strictly controlled by the Government on a Cost Recovery basis). In my experience, the majority of these PSCs do not even ask for this information, preferring instead to use 'insurance'.

So, in many cases, so-called 'Local Authority Searches' provided by these PSCs are not complete and may put buyers/sellers at considerable risk.

Yes, but that was the search done when OP bought - he is now selling - doesn't that suggest that it is most likely that when the new buyers have a search done it will show this information and all will be well? It is only if it doesn't that OP has a problem. Whilst that's obviously possible, it isn't very likely and OP should stop worrying.

Bananamana

the nhbc certificate may also act as the building regulations sign off- it will say on your cover note if it does

mulligatawny_2

Building reg documentation can often be readily found on a search of your local councils planning portal which can throw up all sorts of documentation. The chances of the house being built without Building Regs are more than a little slim and are often pre requisite of a planning application and an NHBC cover note.