garage never had planning permission, insurance when sell house needed?

Dilfred

I have a house which I bought 4 years ago, the garage that was built at the same time as the house was not built exactly to plan and had planning permission applied for, but never approved.
This is 20years ago when the house was built.

When I bought the house my solicitor made sure the previous owner took out insurance to cover eventualities should this become a problem.

Do I need to take out new insurance when I sell the house for the future buyer, or will the previous insurance be transferable?

The reason I ask is that I simply do not have any details of the insurance etc. and have not contacted the solicitor regarding it, just have a note in the brief.

What are the thoughts on this?

Richard_Webster

How big is the garage and how far from the nearest point of the house?

After 20 years lack of planning permission is irrelevant as it is too late for any enforcement action to be taken and you could obtain a certificate of lawful development from the Council if you really had to, but normally showing it has been there for 20 years is enough.

There are two other possibilities:

1. It was built in breach of covenant in the deeds which said that the buildings had to be in accordance with a specific planing permission. If the breach of covenant is 20 years old then again it is too late for anything to be done.

2. Building Regulations. If the garage need to have complied with these then in practice nothing will happen (Council too busy to worry about such things) but a buyer's solicitor might require a Building Regulation Indemnity Policy because a very theoretical possibility of enforcement exists. if your previous solicitor obtained this then it may still be valid. It might need to be upgraded if the cover was only for the price you bought for. Sometimes the cost of upgrading is not much different from that of a new policy as premium levels have gone down generally over recent years.

Having said all that most average sized garages set apart from the house never required to have complied with the building regulations in the first place!

So likelihood is you won't need the insurance at all!