Building regulations

James19

Hi,

I'm looking for some opinions on how people would react in the following situation.

We are in the last stages of buying a house (aiming for exchange next week) and have just had a bit of a shock.

The house has a basement that has been converted to a room. We learnt early on that there were no building regulations for this work which was carried out before the current sellers moved in. As we see this space more as a useful storage area than a habitable room we carried on with the sale.

The basement has had window fitted and here the confusion starts as on one lot of paperwork we received it states that the current owners had this fitted but on the formal solicitors form they state that it was already there. We queried this weeks back but assumed that it was just a misunderstanding as surely you would know if you'd had a window fitted?

We have now had it confirmed that the current owners did have the window fitted and that in fact the garden had been excavated down, a retaining wall built and an opening created with lintel inserted. In other words, fairly substanial works which should have building regulations but don't. Their solicitor has offered an indemity policy.

Any comments welcome as we're a bit stunned really that anyone would just not mention this. Does it matter? Is this usual tactics in selling a house? Would you proceed?

Cheers,
James.

poppysarah

Never mind the paperwork - what about the actual work?

Is it all structurally sound? I'd be much more worried about that - the lack of paperwork would indicate maybe they were trying to cut costs (It's only a few hundred quid isn't it for building regs?)

TrickyDicky101

How long has this work been in place for? If for 10 years+ then one could argue it has stood the test of time and thus maybe isn't so much of a worry, but if for only one or two years then I would be very concerned with it as poppysarah has already pointed out.

Did your surveyor say anything about it?

James19

As far as we can tell the work has been done to a good standard and by a reputable builder.

Is it possible that they couldn't get building regulations for the window with out upgrading the rest of the cellar conversion? Not sure how these things work.

It's the seeming attempt at deception which is annoying but you're right - we should focus on whether the work is actually ok.

Thanks.

James19

We think the work was carried out around 2005 or 2006. Surveyor was ok with it but had assumed the window was fitted in an existing cellar grate which many of the local properties have.

We're thinking of getting the surveyor to have a closer look given this new information.

Thanks for your reply.