No completion cert - don't know what to do next!

sam39

Sorry this is a long post, but we are in the process of buying a house, were due to exchange last Wednesday and complete next Tuesday. Asking price was £292k, offer accepted at £280k - 1930s bungalow converted to a dormer/chalet.
I have been asking my Solicitor all along to check that the works complies with Bld Regs and she has said that all initial searches are fine. There are cracks on the exterior walls so we had a Structural Eng's report which says that the cracking has been caused by differential movement of the structure and 'we are of the opinion that the damage wd have occurred shortly after the alteration work and we do not consider that further significant settlement is likely to occur. This of course assumes that the steel beam is adequately supported and in this regard your legal advisers should confirm that Bld Regulation approval was obtained for the extension and alterations'.
My Solicitor has been away for a week now and before she went, she told me again that all searches were fine and 'in her professional opinion', obtaining the certificates from the Council was 'purely academic'. The vendor's Solicitor has applied to the council for these and I was told yesterday from the Estate Agent that there is no completion certificate but they have closed the file and no enforcements. The Solicitor has already given notice to our mortgage lender to release the funds on Monday/Tuesday of this week and I am really angry about it now. Are we liable for ERC to the mortgage lender now if we back out - surely this is the Solicitor's fault for not checking that the regulations were all in place. Her Secretary even rang me just before 3pm yesterday to check that I was transferring the remaining balance prior to completion!
We are really unsure what to do next. We are currently in RAF accommodation but have been given our eviction notice as my OH left in June, and is to start a new job on 6 September close to this new house (which is 220 miles away from where we live now!).
Should we pull out, although we really do like the house but of course want to be sure that it is safe, do we renegotiate the price or can anyone suggest what we do next? Can the Council issue anything now to say that the building works are satisfactory?
Another thought is to rent the property from the vendor until we can get this matter resolved - we need to move to that area and need to be out of our current RAF property.
Appreciate any advice at all, thanks in advance!

Cissi

Sorry, not sure I've understood all of your post, but did you in fact exchange contracts last week? If you did, then it would be very expensive to pull out at this stage as you'd forfeit the 10% deposit to the vendor. If not, then yes you can pull out although you'll lose any costs you've already incurred.

sonastin

When was the conversion done? If it has been there for a while, it is probably safe.

Did the council carry out any inspections during the building work? If it was inspected during the conversion process, but just didn't receive final sign off, it is probably OK.

If you want reassurance, you can get the building inspectors in to look at it and sign it off now. If you want to continue with this purchase but you're really not happy about this lack of completion certificate, you could try to renegotiate the price based on it being a bungalow with loft space rather than a chalet bungalow. The vendor might be unwilling to renegotiate at this stage though. Did the vendor have the conversion done or did he buy it already converted? That might affect his willingness to accept responsibility for the certificate not being available.

sam39

Cissi wrote: »

Sorry, not sure I've understood all of your post, but did you in fact exchange contracts last week? If you did, then it would be very expensive to pull out at this stage as you'd forfeit the 10% deposit to the vendor. If not, then yes you can pull out although you'll lose any costs you've already incurred.

No, we didnt exchange. If it had been up to the Solicitor then we would have, but I have been saying all along that I want proof that it had the necessary Bld Regs and the solicitor has been saying that everything on her searches appeared to be fine. I put my foot down & said not to exchange without me seeing proof and yesterday I found out from the EA that there is no completion cert. They had planning permission but no completion cert issued afterwards.
I know that I can pull out, but we really do like the house. I was wanting to know if we can obtain anything at all from the Council to say that the works are ok now or should we re-negotiate with the vendor and if so, how much reduction would anyone suggest?
Sorry, its complicated as we're moving areas but this should have been so simple - we are chain free and the vendor lives abroad so the property is empty. This is why I'm wondering now whether we should suggest renting it from him so that we can move down immediately until the other matters are resolved.
Thanks again.