Buying a House, extension has no building regs

zeon999

Hi

We are in the process of buying a house but it has come to our attention that the seller does not have building regs or planning permission for the extension.

Now they have said the extension does not require planning permission due to the size. They have also contacted the council after their neighbour has told them the extension was built 20years ago. The council have told the seller they have no interest due to its age.

Now our solicitor and seller keeps pushing for indemity insurance, but problem is the insurance is to cover against the council taking action, thing is they have notified the council about the extension so the insurance would be invalidated anyway. Further to that they also say due to the age the council are not interested in the extension. So why pay for indemnity insurance when they know its going to be invalid and according to the seller there is no need for it anyway as the council are not interested?

We have suggested they get a letter from the council stating they are happy with its age and wont take any action so we have something in writting, further to that due to lack of building regs they get a structural survey done on the extension to proove its integrity. Or alternativly get retropective building regs.

Whats your thoughts on this any advise would be great as the seller does not want to do anything and even says if we want the survey then we should pay for it.

Now I have said I will pay for the survey once the deal is complete as a final stage if you will just as we really want the house, but so we dont pay for it upfront to findout it needs loads of work, which they would not get done obviously meaning we paid more money and still no house.

But they are not happy with this, an now started going on about indemity insurance again even though we have explain we carnt. Our solicitors are just a naf they keep pushing for indemity insurance too even though they know thats not sufficiant just so they can get the deal through as we are both using the same solicitors Countrywide Conveyancy Services (Dont ever use them!!!)

Obviously we have to think about when it comes to us selling the house further down the line and without sufficiant paperwork we will be left in the same position as the current seller.

Cheers
John Eva

Thrugelmir

zeon999 wrote: »

Our solicitors are just a naf they keep pushing for indemity insurance too even though they know thats not sufficiant just so they can get the deal through as we are both using the same solicitors Countrywide Conveyancy Services (Dont ever use them!!!)

Your solicitors are also representing the interests of the lender who is providing the mortgage. So they are not naff just doing their job professionally.

If you've nothing in writing then its merely an opinion nothing official.

Richard_Webster

The indemnity policy is mainly to assuage fears from frightened mortgage lenders and buyers in the future but really has no other use as it is very unlikely to be actually needed as the Council will have better things to do than take any action.

Any buyer should have an survey done and if the surveyor says that he can't see an actual problem with the work then most people will take a common sense view. Yes, there will be some neurotic buyers who will get worried, but some folk worry about all sorts of unlikely things.

Why make a fuss about things done 20 years ago? You have to see it in the context of whether people worry at all about aspects of the original construction of older properties that would be no means comply with modern building regulations.

zeon999

But we only have the womans say so that it is that age, to be honest it does not look to us anywhere close to that age, surely asking for something in writting from the council and a structural survey to cover lack of building regs is only fair?

So whats your advise dont trust the mortgage company who I spoke to and just go ahead an let Countrywide go through with a deal I think is wrong and mortgage fraud?

Only way mortgage company will allow it through is indemity insurance or the correct paperwork, but I know the indemnity insurance would be invalid so allowing the deal to go through with invalid indmnity insurace would surely leave me open to the mortgage company?

Also this does not solve the problem and when we come to sell we will have the same problem.

Richard_Webster

It will be difficult to get a policy and if the seller was silly enough to talk to the Council then he has dropped himself in it and he can be told that an indemnity policy would have kept the lender happy (although really useless) but now he can't get one he will have to get the work regularised at his cost - more fool him for talking to the Council - his solicitors should have warned him not to do so.

The other thing you can try to do is ascertain the extent to which the work doesn't comply. When are you likely to sell? If you wait say 5 yaers and the Council (as is likely) does absolutely nothing about it then you should be able to get a policy then if you need it to keep your buyers happy.

The neighbours should tell you how old it is if you think the seller is lying about its age.

However, as far as surveys are concerned, you should have your own survey as it is a wise precaution for any buyer to have a survey, so it is not reasonable to ask the seller to pay for it.

zeon999

we had a normal survey/valuation done already, but the extra survey is a structural survey of just the extension to do is ascertain the extent to which the work doesn't comply. As you say, there would be no need for this extra sructural survey if the seller had the correct paperwork for the extension.

Yorkie1

Bet the seller won't tell the next potential buyer that they've already approached the council, thus preventing the possibility of an indemnity policy... they'll simply offer it and the buyer will accept it in blissful ignorance.

zeon999

Yorkie1 wrote: »

Bet the seller won't tell the next potential buyer that they've already approached the council, thus preventing the possibility of an indemnity policy... they'll simply offer it and the buyer will accept it in blissful ignorance.

This is exactly my worry, though also would not be our problem. Thing is we want the house and want this resolved, unfortunatly the solicitor seems to have alterior motives as they are both the seller and buyers solicitor. As we were both recommended by bairstow eves to use them and both stupidly did.

Wont be making that mistake ever again.

puddy

in what way could the council give paperwork for something that was completed at a time when the 'paperwork' would have been unecessary or completely different?

of course it wont meet current building regs, most of the rest of the house wouldnt either, unless its a new build


get a survey done to satisfy yourself that its safe and not going to fall down

also, what do you mean the solicitor is yours and the seller's solicitor?

zeon999

puddy wrote: »

in what way could the council give paperwork for something that was completed at a time when the 'paperwork' would have been unecessary or completely different?

of course it wont meet current building regs, most of the rest of the house wouldnt either, unless its a new build


get a survey done to satisfy yourself that its safe and not going to fall down

also, what do you mean the solicitor is yours and the seller's solicitor?

We only have her word to say the extension is that old though, personally I dont think it is. An she is only going off what the next door neighbor says. We want something in writting from the council to say they are happy to belive this an will take no action.

Or some other method to proove its age or something other than simpley her say so.

We have already had a basic home buyers survey/valuation done as previously stated, but as the extension has no building regs have asked for a structural survey to be done on the extension, as advised by the mortgage company when I contacted them.

Well same company Countrywide Conveyancy Services, who I have lost all faith in after this whole episode, they have been slow prior to this extension issue and dont seem to care about our best interests at all. They were pushing for indemnity insurance even when they knew and we knew that the seller had spoken to the council. Which is surely mortgage fraud as we would have been trying to get a mortgage under deception saying the indmnity insurance is covering us when in reality we both knew it would be invalid.

Seems like they wanted to just bury their head in the sand and cover up the issue to the mortgage lender to get the deal done so they can get their money ASAP without any hassle. Even though that is not helping their client, me an the other half. We are paying them for legal advise and to deal with the legal side of the purchase. Yet I have had to research the issue contact our mortgage company for advice on the issue and seek legal advise from other various sources.

puddy

if the structure is over 12 years old there will be no planning problems

with regard to building regs, as i say theres nothing for any council to do as it will have been built to suit the needs of the property at the time and the regs at the time

so you're getting an extra survey already to check the sturdiness etc of the structure - great

if you dont want an indemnity insurance then dont take one and put in writing that as far as you're aware the fact that the vendor has spoken to the council will invalidate one

whats the problem? the council arent going to take any other word as to how old the structure is from anyone but the vendor and perhaps the neighbour, so as far as they are concerned its 20 years old