Buying House - Conservatory Not Had Planning Permission

kossohead

Hi

In the process of buying a property and received a letter from our solicitor today to say that the conservatory did not have Building Regulation Approval nor Fensa certificate.

The conservatory was built in 2007 and is over the 30 square meter limit.
The seller said that the installer went bump in 2008..

The sellers solicitor is offering us with an indemnity insurance, this covers us against enforcement action by the LA (ie, ask us to knock down the conservatory), but does not offer any guarantee against build quality!!!

Really not sure what to do? Can anyone give me any feedback.

Many Thanks

Doozergirl

Make your offer according to the fact that there isn't a guarantee on it. Have it surveyed to see if it's built well enough. Unless it's a pretty new build, the house itself doesn't come with a guarantee either!

Planning Permission and Building Control Approval are two different things.

It doesn't need planning permission if it falls within these limits
http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/permission/commonprojects/conservatories/

As for building regs, they've seriously got better things to be doing than enforcement action on residential conservatories when most of them are exempt anyway. As long as your surveyor is happy then I'd accept the indemnity policy.

nell53

Agree with doozergirl. Unless it looks like it's falling down/leaking, then I'd go for an indemnity policy too.

kossohead

HI

Just cant understand why the seller never explained to us that the conservatory did not have planning permission?

My concern is have they something to hide, does the foundations,walls,floor,etc meet current regs?

As per your reply, suppose we should get a survey carried out to check and make the seller pay or get the seller to go through planning before we sign, which takes approx 8 weeks.

Does anyone agree?

Thanks again

Richard_Webster

See below:

Just cant understand why the seller never explained to us that the conservatory did not have planning permission?
Please don't get planning permission and building regulation compliance confused. They are not the same. Doozergirl has already pointed out that it could well be exempt from the requirement for planning permission.

Please understand that lots of people don't understand these regulations. So if a conservatory salesman tells them it will all be OK they don't think about whether any permission is needed. The salesman may not even know himself.

As the 30 sq m limit is mentioned and this relates to Building Regulations I assume this is what you are really concerned about. If you are not sure get a surveyor to look at it for you. As far as a guarantees are concerned even if the company was still going it may well not be in a few years time so I wouldn't see a guarantee as of any significance


My concern is have they something to hide, does the foundations,walls,floor,etc meet current regs?
Possibly but as I said above they may simply not have realised that they needed to comply.


As per your reply, suppose we should get a survey carried out to check [Yes, do that] and make the seller pay or get the seller to go through planning before we sign, which takes approx 8 weeks Again do you really mean "Planning Permission"? Have you actually found out whether or not it needs it by looking through the publications referred to in the link Doozergirl gave. You should also look at the original planning permission for the house to make sure that the general "permitted development" rules referred to by Doozergirl were not disapplied by a specific condition saying in effect that you need planning permission for any extension.

Planning can take 8 weeks or more because applications generally have to be advertised and the neighbours given the opportunity to comment.

Building Regulations are nothing to do with neighbours and are purely technical matters so getting a building inspector to come and check whether the conservatory complies should not take so long - but the seller may not want this because if does get the inspector in he will have to do whatever is needed to comply and an indemnity insurance wouldn't then be available.

80schild

Most likely they didn't realise they had to get planning permission or maybe they wanted it doing right away so didn't bother to apply!
We have a loft conversion on our own house which we were told didn not need planning permission as its only considered for storage and not an additional room.
The buyers solicitor made a fuss about it saying it needed building regs so we took out an indemnity policy with our solicitors for them. They seemed to accept this!

kossohead

Thanks for the feedback guys much appreciated.

Am i right in saying then its best to get a surveyor to check the conservatory?
How do we find out about a surveyor, do we speak to our solicitor for approved surveyors or look in the yellow pages, etc.
How much does it cost for a typical survey?
We had a valuation survey carried out last Friday through the mortgage company, would they have picked up that the conservatory is over the 30 sq metres? (25`x13`).

Like doozergirl said, could we ask for a reduction on the price due to the fact that the coservatory does not comply and has no guarantees?

Suppose without planning/regs we will have the same problem when we decide to sell the property on or wont we.

Thanks again

casper_g

25 feet x 13 feet is only 30.2 m², barely over the limit. It would be a bit mean to take any enforcement action on that basis, wouldn't it? In any case, how accurate are the measurements? If that 13 feet is actually 12' 11" then the conservatory is bang on 30 m²!

Doozergirl

How old is the house?

Look, you should be having a survey. You can't be panicking about relatively small things like a conservatory which isn't even classed as a proper part of a house, and then not get someone to check the house over properly for you.

I'mnot sure why your solicitor has raised 'planning permission' as an issue - have you looked at my link - does it actually need it? See the vast majority of conservatories need neither so I'm surprised they've even pulled it up; a lot of solicitors don't really understand what is and isn't required.

As far as building regs I think in the case of a conservatory, most people would be satisfied with an indemnity, especially as it's barely even over the limit for needing building regs at all! When you come to sell it will be even older and less important. As long as it is separated from the house by an outside door then I'd not be particularly concerned - they are too hot in the summer, freezing in the winter and can't really be used as all year living space. They can buy an indemnity that covers you and future owners - ask for that.

Russe11

FENSA have nothing to do with conservatories I thought, they are only a voluntry code of practice for instalation of windows.

charles_b_2

FENSA - as I recently found out - supply certificates for the installation of REPLACEMENT windows. They are often used as an alternative to building regs approval. It does not apply to Conservatories.