Garage Conversion BR

TightGit

I have touched on this previously , but bare with me.

I have just bought a house with a room advertised as a study. Turns out it was the garage originally.

No building control was applied for. Solisitors didnt pick it up , nor valuers etc..

Should they have ?

The conversion took place 20 years ago so negates the need for them really but i am in two minds wether i have been ripped off for a room in terms of value on the house. And i am also worried about resale.

I have spoken to the council today ( ddint mention the address )

And the guy there mentioned that if it was converted before april 6 2006 then they would have told the previous owner not to bother with building control as insulation etc.. would have been adequate anyway ?

Help !! its making me feel sick

googler

Depending on circumstances, shouldn't you have noticed too?

There's garage conversions on a street near me, and I can spot them a mile off, because there's windows in some where the others of the same style have a garage door. There's also driveway leading up to the spot where the new windows are. Sometimes the windows in the space where the garage was are a different design to the others in the house. etc etc....

The clues are usually all there. Is the 'study' the size of a car, perhaps?

TightGit

I have read that four times now. And not once can did i find anything useful.

Yes its pretty bloody obvious its a garage conversion , but i let the people i pay hundreds/thousands to to make sure that all of the relevant planning/building permissions were there.

pmlindyloo

Solicitors and lenders are really 'hot' about planning permission and building regulations.

At the least your solicitors would have been talking about indemnity insurance if planning permission and building regulations had been required.

If I were you I would give your solicitors a call and find out why this aspect was ignored/not mentioned

I really wouldn't stress too much. The council has told you that the permissions wouldn't have been required if the conversion was done before a certain date so I would imagine that you will be covered.

PS Before you ring your solicitors have a check through your papers that you received from the solicitors. There should be letters that your solicitors would have sent to your vendor's solicitors covering this.

Niowrtt

If it were 20 years ago there's (probably) no legal issues.

The only issue you have is the quality of conversion, using the same criteria as the rest of the house. Your surveyor should have indicated if there were any problems, if they didn't it is (probably) okay.

googler

TightGit wrote: »

I have read that four times now. And not once can did i find anything useful.

Yes its pretty bloody obvious its a garage conversion , but i let the people i pay hundreds/thousands to to make sure that all of the relevant planning/building permissions were there.

I read your OP twice through, and this phrase -

"I have just bought a house with a room advertised as a study. Turns out it was the garage originally."

suggests to me that you found out after the purchase, not that you'd realised beforehand, and thought it was "pretty bloody obvious".

No?

GAH

OP, Why don't you worry about re-sale when you actually come to sell it. If you liked it enough to buy it then someone else will.

Without sounding too harsh, if you were that concerned, you should have pulled any worries up with your solicitor before you exchanged.

You also viewed the house so you have paid what you felt the property was worth.

I'm guessing from your post, that your main worry is money. When you decide to sell, someone will pay what its worth to them, that maybe more or less than you paid for it.

dkmax_2

TightGit wrote: »

I have read that four times now. And not once can did i find anything useful.

Curiously enough, I have read your post and can't see what the actual problem is.

ReadingTim

The council have indicated that they're relaxed about the conversion, so I don't think you have to worry about them ordering you to turn it back into a garage. However, if things like obtaining the relevant permissions weren't done, you might wonder what other corners were cut in the conversion process - re-read your survey, or get another one done if you're really worried, although modern building regs will be rather different from those in place at the time of the conversion, and just because it doesn't comply now, doesn't mean it didn't comply with regs in force at the time of the conversion.

As for resale, if the matter was picked up in the future (and that's not a certain, as it was missed this time around), it could cause some jitters. For the sake of completeness, you could apply for retrospective permission, but this process could be time consuming and costly, and potentially needless, as the council are unlikely to ever take issue with the conversion - why draw attention to it now? Finally, if the matter was ever uncovered, you could plead ignorance, and say that it's not been an issue for you in the time you lived there; or say that even though you were aware of the issue, you're not prepared to incur the cost of seeking retrospective permission as it's unnecessary, given the length of time since the conversion.

zappahey

googler wrote: »

The clues are usually all there. Is the 'study' the size of a car, perhaps?

Half of the time the 'garage' isn't the size of a car :mad:

ReadingTim

zappahey wrote: »

Half of the time the 'garage' isn't the size of a car :mad:

Most of them still are the size of a car.

Just not with its doors open...