Extension without paperwork and Indemnity Insurance

Frogmena

I am selling my house. It has a ground floor extension.

When we bought the property five years ago, we had trouble establishing whether it had the right permissions. On contacting the local authority at the time they said they had planning consent for a conservatory back in the 1970s. The extension is brick built with a felt roof (conservatory?). My solicitor at the time advised us that given it had been up such a long time, not to worry about it too much. She said we could write into the contract that the sellers had to supply the documentation as soon after the sale as possible. Never got anything. Anyway, we are selling our property and the whole thing has reared its head. I have been asked to supply the paperwork for the extension. I have managed to get the planning consent for the conservatory. However, on chatting to my neighbour he tells me that a conservatory was built in the 1970s and then removed and the extension we now have built and no planning was obtained. What shall I do? Shall I keep quiet, send the document I have and hope no-one checks it too closely? Am I worrying needlessly given the extension was built in the 80s? Would it have even needed planning? Someone suggested I could get a certificate of lawfullness for existing development but this looks like it will cost a couple of hundred pounds and my partner is adamant we are not paying the money. Help! Also, another thing. Apparently before putting up an extension the people should have got permission from the original developer. We were told this had not been given, couldn't trace him and was told to purchase an indemnity policy to cover it, which we did when we purchased the house. However, we never actually got a document as such. Should I have had a document? Or is it written into the title?

butterflysam

Hi

Contact your local council's planning permission/buliding regs department. Explain to them the situation you are in and they will advise you what to do.
I have something similar although not on such a big scale.

Try and get as much detail and documentation that you could need relating to this. Once you have sold your house, you do not want this holding things up when it comes to exchange of contracts. We have had to have a building inspector come out tommorow for just putting up an internal stud wall, and to be honest it has really been stressing me out. We were told that we did not need building regs, but a similar house in the same road as ours which has just sold got held up because they had the same work done us us, but no building regs.
If you go to the council they will point you in the right direction.

Sorry I couldn't have helped anymore.
Sam

silvercar

Send the documents you have. Neighbours' memories are unreliable, how did the neighbour know what planning was obtained? You may find that the extension was a permitted development and there was no need for planning permission, or that the PP for the conservatory allowed for the extension to be done. Whatever the case, you cannot now be asked to remove something done so long ago.

An indemntiy may be requested, but it is not really worth anything. You could contact the solicitor who acted for you on purchase and ask for the document but it may prove fruitless.

clutton_2

take your current solicitors advice on this - it is a very common situation. Dont contact the local authority before talking to your solicitor, as once they have been "alerted" they have to do someting about it.

Frogmena

Thanks for your advice. My solicitor has finally rung me back. He has started to talk about taking out an indemnity policy. I am not doing that. I have sent him the paperwork for the conservatory and will go from there. I think I will probably ring up the building regs people and see what they say. I thought solicitors were supposed to work for you...

silvercar

Frogmena wrote:

Thanks for your advice. My solicitor has finally rung me back. He has started to talk about taking out an indemnity policy. I am not doing that. I have sent him the paperwork for the conservatory and will go from there. I think I will probably ring up the building regs people and see what they say. I thought solicitors were supposed to work for you...

Don't ring the building regs people. If you do, you or any buyer will not be able to get indemnity insurance. Indemnity insurance could be the compromise you need for the sale to proceed.