Lack of Building Regulations and Planning Permission

doberman100

Hi,

During the conveyancing process in buying a house, there was a long delay by the sellers solicitors in responding to some basic questions about planning permission and building regulations in relation to an extension.

It turns out that there is no evidence of either of these, and my solicitor has obtained a quote for indemnity insurance, which will only cover me for legal expenses if the Local Authority serves an Enforcement notice in the future.

However, I need to mitigate the risk of there actually being a serious problem. I do not want to pull out of the purchase unless there is a serious problem.

My HomeBuyer survey revealed no issues with the house, including the extension.

The extension was built over 12 months ago. I am trying to find out exactly when.

My options appear to be:
1. Ask the vendor to apply for retrospective planning permission and building regulation approval.
2. Get a Structural Engineer to check out the extension. In theory, if they say it's fine, then the Local Authority should not ever have grounds to have a problem either. Is this theory sound?
3. Take out indenmity insurance to fast-track to completion and hope for the best.

Does anyone have any experience of being in this situation?

If I requested a drop in price as a result of this what chances would I have of success? The vendor has already spent money on the whole process (around £800 by now I would expect) so they'll not want things to fall through either, as they'll have to start again. This property has been vacant for about 6 months, and has been rennovated to fairly high standard.

All suggestions welcome!

Cheers and MERRY CHRISTMAS!

AlexMac

I've no directly comparable experience, as the internal changes in the house we bought last year had been done some 10 years ago and were only a structural/possible building regs issue (removal of internal walls), but...

if the work you describe is so much more recent, I'd question why the vendor didn't simply do it the right way- maybe with certification from the local council of 'permitted development' (assuming the extension was within these rights- see the fun little interactive mini-guide on the uk gov planning portal website) and building control approval which only costs a few hundred quid.

And as regards your Q 'If I requested a drop in price as a result of this what chances would I have of success?' you're in the driving seat on this but I'd say, certainly- yes. We've bought and sold almost ten times in the past 25 years, and in our experience solicitors are becoming increasingly (exponentially more) cautious and picky so buyers are becoming in effect much more risk averse. So when you come to sell, your buyer may hold you over a barrel.

So don't rush of cut corners, much as you love the place. Bargain hard

Buzby

I'd give the council planning a quick ring. Say you're a potential purchaser and this came to light and you require some info. The worst that can happen is a demand for reinstatement, so the loss of amenity and the costs for this would be met by you (as the beneficial owner). However that's the worse-case scenario. A check may reveal they have issued permission - but if not, can advise if this retrospective application might be problematic. After all, all you are trying to do is regularise this 'oversight'.

doberman100

I've checked on:

http://planningonline.bristol.gov.uk/online-applications/search.do?action=simple

There are application records going back to 1993 for other properties with the same postcode, but none for the house I'm trying to buy.

There have been no Appels, and no Enforcements either.

I wonder how far back the records go?

doberman100

I have also read several times that if any change in the Use of land and buildings must have existed for in excess of 10 years before it can be protected from enforcement action.

Therefore I am trying to find out if the extension has existed for more than 10 years. If so, this is less of a problem.

notanewuser

Buzby wrote: »

I'd give the council planning a quick ring. Say you're a potential purchaser and this came to light and you require some info. The worst that can happen is a demand for reinstatement, so the loss of amenity and the costs for this would be met by you (as the beneficial owner). However that's the worse-case scenario. A check may reveal they have issued permission - but if not, can advise if this retrospective application might be problematic. After all, all you are trying to do is regularise this 'oversight'.

DO NOT do this. Any indemnity policy will be null and void if you alert the council to the issue.

angrypirate

Buzby wrote: »

I'd give the council planning a quick ring. Say you're a potential purchaser and this came to light and you require some info. The worst that can happen is a demand for reinstatement, so the loss of amenity and the costs for this would be met by you (as the beneficial owner). However that's the worse-case scenario. A check may reveal they have issued permission - but if not, can advise if this retrospective application might be problematic. After all, all you are trying to do is regularise this 'oversight'.

Do not got to the council and say this with details of the property. Any potential indemnity policy would be void. Your conveyancer will tell you your options. As im aware there are probably 2:
1. An indemnity policy if both you and your mortgage provider are happy with this solution
2. Ask the vendor to get retrospective building regulation sign off and being prepared to pull out if they dont.

doberman100

Yes, my solicitor said I should not contact the local authority about this. They also said I could ask the vendor to gain retrospective consent, but said that they might refuse.

Why might they refuse?

It would take a number of weeks for the consent to arrive, but if it means I don't get held over a barrel when selling in the future (perhaps losing thousands) then it's worth it. The time-line and costs would still be better than starting over.

Does that sound sane?

tim123456789

doberman100 wrote: »

Yes, my solicitor said I should not contact the local authority about this. They also said I could ask the vendor to gain retrospective consent, but said that they might refuse.

Why might they refuse?
?

Because it might be refuesd and they are forced to knock it down

tim

doberman100

A succinct answer, but yes, I guess that could happen. Therefore their strategy would be to refuse, and try to sell again whilst not disclosing the issue for as long as possible so as to force a buyer into taking out indemnity insurance, but still leaving them open to losing thousands in the future.

doberman100

My solicitor says a Building Control Inspector would look at the property if the vendor agreed to a retrospective application.

Is this skill set the same as a Structural Engineer? I could get one of these to inspect the property.