Query from HSBC after exchange

HOPEFUL

Hi - just exhanged on a flat. Now HSBC is querying the building regulations on the block (it is 13 years old), apparently just outside a 12 year 'something or other'. Should the solicitor have picked this up before exchange?

Richard_Webster

Need more specifics to answer properly but can guess.

How is HSBC querying this?

Their mortgage securities people in Sheffield or wherever don't go out and look at the blocks nor do they get sent copies of searches and other documents from which they could pick this up. It could only be something in the valuation report and I suspect that tis the root of the problem.

Just to make solicitors' lives interesting HSBC, unlike other lenders, issues its mortgage offers before it has carred out the valuation! So if solicitor hadn't spotted this he could have let his client exchange without a valuation - surveyor then goes out and raises some issue relating to the construction. However I don't know what the 12 and 13 year periods have got to do with anything.

HOPEFUL

Thankyou Richard.
I have more specifics now. HSBC says they have no planning permissions/building regulations in place for the building. They've referred back to the valuer, my solicitor may have to get indemnity insurance.
My query is what is the likelihood of a building going up in London without planning consents/building regulations? Do they mean they just don't have in their hand?

Richard_Webster

Your solicitor should have checked whether these permissions existed.

How long ago was the block built or the building converted (whichever is applicable)?

m_13

We had similar problems with a flat we own. The builder went bust before finishing it and the final inspections were never done so no NHBC certificate was issued and the final building regulations inspections weren't done. The management company had to sort it out and get the building finished (although not to the same standard as when people bought it off plan). Various things are a complete mystery and the plumbing is an utter nightmare. The parking spaces are numbered differently to the plans in the lease too.

Planning permission is a different issue though. Our flat is in a converted shoe factory and planning permission does exist and we've seen it. It is hard to imagine that a large property could be converted to flats without anybody noticing although this could happen in a single dwelling, for example, that is now three flats but looks no different from the outside. You say 'block' which suggests this isn't the case here.

Your solicitor should be able to track down how far the building regulations got with the council although they can be slow to respond.