Help! No Building regs??

pulliptears

Our house went on the market this week and we have found a lovely dormer bungalow thats enormous.

Now, I dont want to let my heart rule my head here but there are many many coincidences with this house. Firstly my aunt and uncle lived there when i was a child and I recall it rather well. Secondly, my aunt had a rather unusual maiden name and sold the bungalow to a couple of the same name. That couple are still there, and I also share that unusual maiden name.... Finally the day I found the bungalow for sale I was clearing out some old books and found one belonging to my cousin, also named Jane and having the address of this house written in the front!!

Anyway, we viewed the property and made a few discoveries. Firstly they have knocked out a corridor meaning one of the bedrooms now leads directly on to the living room. This is against building regs. DH called the local planner who is a mate, and mate confirmed he had no building apps for this property for the last 25 years....

Next we discovered they have knocked the 2nd bedroom into the living room creating one big lounge. They have then put in a false ceiling. No record of this at the planners, so assuming they havent got the regs again did they put a beam in? And how can we possibly tell under a false ceiling?

Lastly, we found they had added french doors to a dormer bedroom leading onto the flat roof of the kitchen as a terrace...again, no planning.

The house has been on the market on and off for 18 months. Im inclined to think its because its deceptive from the road looking tiny...

My questions I guess are this:

How can we trust the seller to be honest about the beams?

Would you commit to a survey thats going to cost money?

Would you ignore your heart and run away?

sortofok

4 questions :

is it empty?

how much is it?

can you afford it?

what are your future plans?

pulliptears

Nope not empty, but the sellers have no chain.

Its currently £170,000

Yep, we can afford it

Its going to be our final home we hope, other than the problems it has perfect accomodation for us and lots of potential for future works

Hapless_2

Firstly they have knocked out a corridor meaning one of the bedrooms now leads directly on to the living room. This is against building regs.

Eh? the council was going to do that with our council house so i didn't have to use the stairs so much. (stupid idea as the loo was upstairs!) Can anyone show where this is in the building regs?

Running_Horse

Can you get the price down enough to do the work?

silvercar

I think its a question of whether supporting beams were put in place, rather than the fact the living room leads to the bedroom.

If you like the house get a survey done. If you viewed another house with a similar layout you wouldn't know any different.

sortofok

pulliptears wrote: »

Our house went on the market this week and we have found a lovely dormer bungalow thats enormous.

Now, I dont want to let my heart rule my head here but there are many many coincidences with this house. Firstly my aunt and uncle lived there when i was a child and I recall it rather well. Secondly, my aunt had a rather unusual maiden name and sold the bungalow to a couple of the same name. That couple are still there, and I also share that unusual maiden name.... Finally the day I found the bungalow for sale I was clearing out some old books and found one belonging to my cousin, also named Jane and having the address of this house written in the front!!

Anyway, we viewed the property and made a few discoveries. Firstly they have knocked out a corridor meaning one of the bedrooms now leads directly on to the living room. This is against building regs. DH called the local planner who is a mate, and mate confirmed he had no building apps for this property for the last 25 years....

Next we discovered they have knocked the 2nd bedroom into the living room creating one big lounge. They have then put in a false ceiling. No record of this at the planners, so assuming they havent got the regs again did they put a beam in? And how can we possibly tell under a false ceiling?

Lastly, we found they had added french doors to a dormer bedroom leading onto the flat roof of the kitchen as a terrace...again, no planning.

The house has been on the market on and off for 18 months. Im inclined to think its because its deceptive from the road looking tiny...

My questions I guess are this:

How can we trust the seller to be honest about the beams?

Would you commit to a survey thats going to cost money?

Would you ignore your heart and run away?

Outline your concerns to the vendors.

Regardless of the lies they tell you, just offer £140k and take it from there.

fruitbat_2

If you had a full survey done these issues would be raised by the surveyor, you'd be advised to raise them with the vendor and they'd (you're guessing) not have any paperwork for anything that's been done. A structural engineer might (only might) be able to tell you what effect these changes could have had on the fabric of the building but unless you start taking off bits of ceiling you might not know for sure. They might also be able to advise you what would need doing to bring the house up to scratch, and a builder could give you a quote for the work. There is also the issue of the council turning up one day to tell you to undo all the changes because they weren't permitted - your vendor can take out an indemnity policy against this (which then passes to you as buyer) but if this happened and you had to undo all the work, how big would the house be? The age of the changes might have an effect on this as I think after a certain time they're allowed to stay regardless.
I've had some experience of this (unregulated dormer) and it was painful and expensive to put right, so I suppose it depends how much you want the house, but I'd say be wary, and don't blindly fall into this because 'fate' is telling you to buy the house.

silvercar

The council can only order correction for 1 year in the case of building regs and 4 years for planning permission.

Imagine you had not known the house before, you would rely on a survey and take it from there.

pulliptears

Hapless wrote: »

Eh? the council was going to do that with our council house so i didn't have to use the stairs so much. (stupid idea as the loo was upstairs!) Can anyone show where this is in the building regs?

Its there, I married an architecht who now works in development. He knows building and planning regs like the back of his hand. Basically you cant have a room opening into another room. Its all to do with "means of escape". If there is a fire in the living room and you are in the bedroom you have no choice but to escape via the living room.

There are ways around it, you can fit an escape window into the bedroom to overcome the problem, but in this case it would mean fitting two, very expensive bay window escapes.

Fruitbat, our concerns are as you said, a structural engineer wouldnt necessarily be able to tell us about the beam because of the false ceiling, so it is a risk. Im trying to be objective about it now

sortofolk, that was my suggestion but DH is concerned that going in that low may not offer us enough to right the problems

Silvercar, yes, the means of escape is the simpler issue and can be rectified with 2 new windows, but as I said this will also be quite expensive. I agree the beam is the main issue.

I think we really need to go back (yet again) and ask these questions then decide whether or not to put in an offer. I just dont want to get to the point where the surveyor uncovers a series of disasters and we have had to pay for surveys etc.

Time for a long think..:rolleyes:

Thanks all
x

sortofok

pulliptears wrote: »

sortofolk, that was my suggestion but DH is concerned that going in that low may not offer us enough to right the problems

x