Building Regs Approval missed by solicitor

chrisyb

I wont get the forms back until tomorrow as the solicitors is now not trading. Surely the vendor would have been at liberty to declare the allterations?

go_cat

What you need to work out OP is what are you going to do to correct this as any potential buyer will pick this up on suveys.

I wish you luck , it must be a complete nightmare

pararct

If he did then the solicitor probably at the very least should have been asking further questions.

If he did not then the solicitor would have been very much in the dark but then the vendor may well have completed the form untruthfully.

Do you know where this vendor is now?

DannyboyMidlands

Maybe, if they were the ones to do the work but they could claim they weren't or didn't realise. At the end of the day, you were buying it so the onus would be on you to alert the solicitor.

Fingers crossed that the vendor mentioned it on the forms.

chrisyb

This is the worse thing ever for me. You buy the property in good faith, engage a solicitor and undertake a survey and still this is missed. Being young and 1st time buyers you have no idea about these things. We were nearing the end of completion aswell and could potentially be looking at a 15-20k bill to conform to regulations on a 120K house:(

Thrugelmir

chrisyb wrote: »

You buy the property in good faith, engage a solicitor and undertake a survey and still this is missed.

It is always important to obtain the correct level of survey. Many people don't as it saves money a considerable sum of money. The surveyor primarily works for the lender, to value the property, not to advise the purchaser. Unless otherwise instructed to so.

Thrugelmir

Do you have the original marketing details for the property? If so how was the loft conversion described?

Richard_Webster

It is very very common for a seller to read questions about what building works have been carried out at property as only referring to building works they have carried out. Any conveyancing solicitor will tell you this happens all the time.

There have been numerous occasions when I have been tempted to express sympathy to the seller's solicitors about the sellers' evident difficulties with their eyesight, not being able to see the large two storey extension at their property!

So unless the solicitor was told about the work by someone else - the buyer or the buyer's surveyor - then he wouldn't know about them.

If the surveyor only did a valuation for the lender then it is difficult to fix liability on him. If he did a Homebuyer's or more detailed report then he should have mentioned works such loft conversions and at least suggested that the solicitor should check whether the required statutory consents etc had been obtained. There would have been a section in the survey report with a list of matters that the legal adviser should check - if the the legal advisor never saw the survey report then how would he know to check them?

chrisyb

OK, i understand what you are saying and it is difficult to know facts until I get the pack back. I cannot locate the survey details that we had completed so am pretty stuck here. In terms of the sellers notifying the solicitor then they did infact do all the work themselves. They even showed us a bloody video of the whole thing being demolished and reconstructed. This is major work that they had carried out and as such they cannot plead ignorance.

silvercar

Another option you have is to take out indemnity insurance to cover a buyer against the council taking action for lack of building regs.

Could be cheaper than contemplating any work yourself.

The other option is to get a structural survey dome yourself to show potential buyers the likely cost of putting things right and reflect that in the price.