buying a house without building control completion certificate

rozi77

Hello,

I found a house to buy, which was extended at the rear (single storey only) by previous owners (not the current ones) at some point before 2004. The extension was done under Permitted Development hence no planning application exist. It looks as though the building control completion certificate does not exist either at least this is what I was told when I rang the council planning. The reason I am searching for extension details is I would like to make a first floor extension on top of the existing ground floor extension and need to know how deep the extended foundation is.
My question is : will I be allowed to extend if the existing ground floor extension has no building control approval certificate.

many thanks,
rozi77

angrypirate

You may find that the mortgage company arent happy about the purchase and will want an indemnity insurance. Which will in turn become void the moment you start to do work on the extension. You'll probably find a structural engineer will need to do a detailed survey of the existing structure (probaby dig holes around the existing walls / foundations) prior to any work to figure out if the foundations are good enough for a 2nd storey. You;d also need to bring building controls in at this stage to sign off the existing extension otherwise they wont sign off the 2nd storey.

AMO

Most 1 storey extensions need reinforcement - its unlikely that it was built with 2 storeys in mind.

I would spend £300-500 on a Building Survey to help you assess (and ask them to detail what you'd need to do to build an extension).

However, you would need to submit a planning application to determine whether you can extend.

The Permitted Development would have been restricted to small extentions. You'd need additional planning permission and you won't know whether they'll say yay or nay.

If you do buy the house, let your solicitor know the concern with the Permitted Development and the lack of Building Certificate. The local searches will require the required documents to be passed from the other solicitors side to your side to ensure all is well.

DannyboyMidlands

Will you only buy the place if you can extend upwards?

I think that your problem (even with a building survey) will be a lack of information regarding the existing construction.

What is the wall construction?

What size and spacing are the roof joists? Although you can assume that they will need to be supplemented in order to take floor loading.

What are the lintels? As above, assume they may need to be upgraded.

Foundations? The big one. How deep? How wide? Sitting on what type of soil? If there are no records you can only find this out by digging some holes. The vendor may not be up for this.

lincroft1710

By 2007 foundations needed to be strong enough for 2 storeys even if only 1 storey extn being built, but don't know if this was case in 2004.

GDB2222

Most vendors would be very reluctant to allow you to do the investigations you will need. You'll certainly need to dig holes to show the depth of the foundations, for example. Maybe you should offer on the worst-case basis, ie the extension will need to be demolished and rebuilt?

rozi77

Thanks very much to everyone who replied.

The agent is making enquiries to find the building approval certificate and the details of the extension, so hopefully he will find all the info.

The walls on the existing extension are 26 cm thick and double skinned - looks properly done.

I thought I could extend the first floor under permitted development. It would be about 3.2m x 4.5m third bedroom, I think this is what the neighbour did.
I don't think I would buy this house if the extension is not possible.

many thanks again,
rozi77