Urgent Advice Needed

foxwales

Okay im wondering if you can offer some advice on what you think I should do?

Put in an offer for a house at 109k
Offer accepted
Mortgage arrange
Home buyers report done

Homebuyers report noted a load baring wall removed from the kitchen, new roof fitted but no extra support for the heavier tiles used.

Solicitors then note that no planning permission for building regs for these changes was done.

Asked vendor to drop price to 105k as homebuyer report stated house was slightly overvalued. Vendor accepted.

Vendor has offered to take out indemnity insurance against building regs.

This house is stunning but I am really put off by the lack of building regs for the wall and roof.

What do you think we should do? Go ahead with the purchase or get someone in to insepct the work needing regs but incur more costs??

HELP!!!

arnie&caseysma!

The seller should apply for the planning permission/building warrant now and this should be obtained prior to completion of your purchase, otherwise as the new owner YOU will be stuck with the problem if/when you want to sell up and move on.

Do not complete on this until the above is in place as it may be the case that permissions are turned down and the property has to be returned to it's original state - the load bearing wall rebuilt etc.

It is now up to the seller, offer them the same amount on the condition that planning permissions are sought and in place prior to you buying the property as at the end of the day if it was like that when they moved in it should have been noticed then, or if themselves that carried out the work they have cut corners and done the work which planning would not necessarily have given them the permission to do in the first place.

AManOfKent_2

arnie&caseyma! above give excellent advice. Tell the vendor you require what is called a Regularisation Certificate and he/she has to pay for it. It will not take long to apply for and will be dealt with quickly if the local council are made aware a sale depends on it. Your vendor will then either get a certificate confirming the work done is to standard or get a notice of works required (this could include re-instating the property to how it was). I'm surprised your lender has not picked up on the matter and asked for it as a condition of your loan. Once the council has done their inspection and assuming they say work is to be done you could then make that work being done a condition of your purchase or negotiate a further reduction and do the work when you move in. Once again (as you have already been advised) DO NOT proceed until you know what the situation is regarding the work done by the owner. You do not want to be lumbered with a load of hassle in the future. Best Of Luck. Regards , Andy

danm

i'm pretty sure that if you/the vendor approach the council, then you will no longer be able to get idemnity insurance.

If the council do not grant the certificate, then without the insurance your lender is unlikely to releass funds.

bear in mind that what was deemed sufficient 2/5/10 years ago may now fall foul of Mr. Building Reg's. That does not neccesarily mean unsafe.

One route would be to get a structural engineer in to advise on the safety aspect and then if happy to proceed, get indemnty to satisfy lender (if they are happy to accept)

Doozergirl

Unless it is a listed building, there is no need to obtain planning permissions for removing walls or replacing roof tiles. You will not be asked to reinstate anything.

Building Regs would have been required for the load bearing wall but as danm says, if it were carried out a little while ago, it may not comply to current building regs. In order to pass current Regs it would have to be completely redone, BUT (eg.) if the windows were put in before April 2002 they don't meet current regs either, it doesn't mean they aren't safe! I can also bet that no-one is asking for the building regs certificates for when the house was actually built!

re: indemnity insurance, I can appreciate that having dropped £4k, the vendors don't want to be pushed financially any further. If you want an indemnity policy and the house, it isn't that expensive (around £100 probably), just pay up yourself! It covers future owners so if and when the lack of building regs does appear in the future, it has been addressed and you will have no further problems. The fact that after 4 years, there is nothing that building regs can do anyway appears to be ignored by most solicitors

If you want to go the whole hog, I'd ask your surveyor whether they feel the building is structurally sound and see if they recommend having a structural engineer look at it.

(There's a little bit of scaremongering in a couple of the replies here. You just want to be happy that the building is still structurally sound and that you have the policy to cover future questions)

Tiger_greeneyes

I've just bought a house which needed an indemnity policy due to a load-bearing wall being removed without planning permission - Doozergirl is spot on with her advice, it's exactly how it happened for me, too.

Don't let it put you off if you like the house. Get it checked structurally if you like but technically, it's not a biggie