Selling without Building Regs

Aladin_MF

Hi Everyone,

We converted a downstairs room to a shower room and wc. I now realise that we should have got building control involved, however we didn't . Feeling very cross with myself! We are (hopefully) going to sell our house so obviously this is going to come up. Any tips for how to deal with this? As I understand it we can apply for retrospective approval but I'm really concerned as to what this will entail and what they will want to check. I'm also concerned as to how long it will take to get the certificate. Is it a better option to offer potential buyers an insurance policy?

Any advice would be great.

hazyjo

Don't contact the council if you go for an indemnity policy. Won't get one if they know about it.

How long ago was it done?

Jx

martinsurrey

The main (but not only) requirements for building regulations on new bathrooms in existing dwellings are

1) Structure – is the floor a solid concrete floor, suspended timber, etc? It must be strong enough to take the new loads and sound insulation between this room and other habitable rooms.

2) Electrics – these have to be notified as bathroom wiring is a lot more stringent than normal – who did the wiring adn what paper work have you got?

3) Ventilation – does the room have a window which opens or an extractor fan linked to the lights with a 15 min overrun?

4) Drainage - how does the drainage link to the existing drainage? Was it planned and installed by a plumber to consider all the risks, for example branch pipes can only be a certain length without automatic air admittance valves, and new branches can only connect to an existing stack at certain locations (generally away from existing ones)

(there are others but these are the main ones)

If all of the above is in order there is no reason retrospective approval would be hard or difficult, but I would be careful about telling them too early, as mentioned above if you ask them and they say no, you can’t get indemnity insurance.

Aladin_MF

It was completed a few years bank.

Thanks for the advice so far!

vegasbaby100

What you have to remember is if you do not get retrospective permission there is nothing stopping any potential buyer contacting the council and making any indemnity policy not possible for them or any other potential buyer.

I personally if are not already involved in a sale would contact the council you will actually usually find if you speak with them and work with them it can be an easy process. For example a customer of mine had a single story extension without building regs, they came around and inspected on the Monday gave a list of 5 items to change including upgrading fan moving a socket the work was done in a few days they came back out on the Thursday and certificate was issued on the friday.

Far better to do it correctly now than potentially have a nervous buyer pull out after you have found your dream home and delay it all but hey thats just my opinion.

suebfg

Hi, I'm a buyer of a house where I have now found out that building regs was not obtained for a modern extension. I have flatly refused the indemnity policy as that gives me no assurance re the quality of the works - a policy is practically worthless. Interestingly the sale of this house has fallen through several times before and I think it was because of this issue. The owner is now having to obtain a regularisation certificate and the council has asked for works to be opened up.

suebfg

I should add that in our case the extension was a loft conversion so a much bigger project so maybe a buyer would accept an indemnity policy in your case.