Extension called conservatory and no building regulations

baribar

Hello,
I am wondering if anybody has to deal with the same situation we are in.

We are buying a house in Surrey with a single storey extension built in 1985. The extension is a lean to, at the back of the kitchen (but still separated from the kitchen with the original house walls). It has 2 sides made of bricks floor to ceiling, a small patio door and 2 windows at the front, and a glass roof.

When we viewed the place, the seller stressed how it has been built as an extension, with planning permission, and we should be able to open up the kitchen on it and put a proper tiled roof.
Long story short, our offer was accepted and searches came back showing no planning permission for the extension, and a sewer drain under the extension. The drain is shared and has been adopted by Thames Water in 2011.

The worrying thing is that in the Fixtures & Fittings form the seller described the extension as a conservatory although as far as we know a conservatory should have at least 60% of glass per wall.
He also stated he doesn't know whether the "conservatory" has building regulations approval which is at odds with what he made a point of stressing during the viewings.

We would like opinions on the possible lack of planning permission and most of all building regulations. How to verify the quality of the work if no documentation is available? Is it worth to involve the council for a retroactive building regulation approval?

DominicJ_2

A conservatory needs total wall area to be 70% glass I believe. Not each wall.

Davesnave

If it was built in 1985 it doesn't need to meet today's building regs, so it's highly unlikely your council would come after you for that. Indemnity insurance would cover it, but not if you alert the council!

As it's been there well over 4 years without challenge, the lack of PP is even more of a dead duck.

The lack of a build over agreement could potentially be more serious, if the lack of structural modifications led to a collapse of the sewer. However it's been there 28 years, so the chances are that any unwanted effects would have manifested themselves by now. I would take your solicitor's advice on whether a one-off insurance could tackle that too.

I'd expect the vendor to pay for whatever indemnity insurance is necessary, but if a vendor told me porkies like that, I think I'd be re-negotiating the price in the light of the new information. After all, the vendor knows they will hit this problem again if you pull out.

baribar

Thanks for the replies, unfortunately the Indemnity Insurance is not an option as we are planning to either reuse the existing extension or demolish and build a new one. This of course if we don't decide to pull out.