HELP! Extension without permission

john.smith_5

Hey guys,

I've been lurking around the forums for a bit & still not managed to get an answer for my question. The wife & I are buying a normal 3-bed semi and we are close to exchanging. We just found out that the single storey extension (2-3 metres to the back) which is now the kitchen has no planning permission/building regulations of any kind.

The extension was built around the 2005-2006 and the current owners have offered to pay for idemnity insurance to cover the extension.

Is this enough? Would this affect us in any way if we want to do further work like a loft extension? Future problems with lender/council?

Sorry if this sounds like a stupid question. We are nervous first-time buyers!

jbainbridge

Given the age it is unlikely the council could take action. Speak to you surveyor and ask their opinion on its construction.

Also keep in mind you may have to declare this when selling the house too.

When we bought our last house we had a similar problem - our surveyor said he could see no problems and the vendor obtained a letter from the council stating that they would only take action if it was unsafe.

pmlindyloo

Welcome!

Sorry nobody has answered your query.

This type of question comes up over and over again and people do get a bit fed up with saying the same thing!

Put planning permission building regulations into the search facility and you will see lots of threads.

to get you started:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4291707

DTDfanBoy

Planning permission may not have been required, have a look at the Government Planning Portal http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/permission/commonprojects/extensions
The extension may fall under permitted development.

I'd be more concerned about the lack of building regs. In my opinion you'd be mad to build an extension to the required specification and not spend a few quid to get it signed off. There is a good chance corners were cut in it's construction.

A house up the road from us recently sold, after nine months on the market and several sales falling through, for £45,000 less than it would have sold for had the extensions not be done at all :eek:

They had added an extension on the back of the property and also converted the loft, both had neither planning permission or building regs. They must have spent ten's of thousands of pounds only to devalue their house :T

planning_officer

Whether or not the extension required planning permission when it was built, it is now in effect perfectly lawful. The Council cannot take any action after 4 years (and that's assuming they would want to - which is highly unlikely given the small size of the extension).

This answer only applies to the planning legislation, not building regs, but you certainly have nothing to worry about regarding planning permission.

timeou

Hi there, please may I jump in here and ask a quiestion about builiding regs?
We converted our garage 5 years ago - the council officer came out and we paid the fee for buidling regs (no PP required) but we never got it signed off. We had a problem when the electrician who moved 2 sockets for us passed away and couldnt provide us with the part p cert to complete the work for building regs.
Is this likely to cause problems if we try & sell?

andie_303

Hi Timeou

we had a garage converted in 2002 and the builder was paid to include building reg notification and obtain the certification, we came to sell this year and discovered he had not done so and so had no building regs and due to this our buyer pulled out.

We thankfully had a nice building regs manager at the council and he was really helpful in helping us get it sorted. In the end we paid £477 for a retrospective inspection (inspected at 2002 standards not todays) and they granted us a certificate 3 months ago - almost 10 years after it was built.

we are now selling again at the certificate has been accepted by our buyers solicitor - they never even questioned why it is dated 10 years later than the build date.

SuzieSue

timeou wrote: »

Hi there, please may I jump in here and ask a quiestion about builiding regs?
We converted our garage 5 years ago - the council officer came out and we paid the fee for buidling regs (no PP required) but we never got it signed off. We had a problem when the electrician who moved 2 sockets for us passed away and couldnt provide us with the part p cert to complete the work for building regs.
Is this likely to cause problems if we try & sell?

I'm pretty sure that you can get any part P qualified electrician to inspect the work and give you a certificate.

Too_Hairy_Husky

We are having a similar problem - the previous owners of our house built an extension and never got Building Regs. I've been looking in to it a lot this week as it was flagged up by our buyer's solicitor on the day of exchange - needless to say our buyers didn't sign and I've been in a bit of a flat spin about it!

The simplest answer seems to be to speak to the Council about retrospective Building Regs - there will be a form to download and a fee to pay. The fee for our Council depends on the square footage of the extension.

With regards permitted development and your attic, again it comes down to square footage and - I believe - the %-age compared to the square footage of your house.

Our buyers have a builder coming round on Tuesday to look at the extension to see if it would pass Regulations and if so we have offered to pay the fee if he applies after Completion, which he has indicated he would do... fingers crossed!

McKneff

If you have a seperate query from the OP, you would be better starting your own thread, it saves a lot of confusion as to who is answering a particular query.

planning_officer

Too_Hairy_Husky wrote: »

With regards permitted development and your attic, again it comes down to square footage and - I believe - the %-age compared to the square footage of your house.

This post is a bit confused - most applies to building regs and then there's this paragraph about planning permission thrown in the middle. Permitted development is a planning concept (nothing to do with building regs). It also has nothing to do with any percentages or square footage.

Basically, for planning purposes (not building regs!), loft conversions (i.e. converting existing volume of loft) do not require planning permission as they are not development. No need to consider permitted development, as they are not development in the first place. Planning permission may be required for any external alterations - windows, dormers, roof extensions etc, however under Class B of the GPDO, some of these will be permitted development and will not require a planning application - especially to the rear of a house. Any dormer windows to the front will always require planning permission and in certain areas (conservation areas, AONBs etc) all roof alterations will require planning permission.