Buying a house with no building regs

icelolly_2

Hi,

I am in the process of buying a house which was has a single storey rear extension built around 1992.
I have spoken to the local council and they say that they have details of the extension but final building regs sign-off wasn't given because of a couple of outstanding things. They are 1) Extractor in the kitchen not vented outside and 2) sink in the downstairs toilet does not have an anti-syphon trap. Everything else regarding the extension seems to be in order. The person at the council said that if these two things are fixed the council can come round and if re-inspect and if everything is ok can note this in their records, although a certificate will not be given because back then they did not issue certificates. The owners have only been in the property less than a year and they were given no details of the extension by the previous owner.

My concern is if I make the changes to the property as required and ask the council to re-inspect what ramifications are there considering the building regs have changed considerably since 1992. Could the council bring up any further issues related to current standards?
I am buying cash but could buyers have a problem obtaining a mortgage in the future If I don't do anything?

Many Thanks
Sam

pmlindyloo

If the work is inspected then it will only need to be brought up to the Building Regulations requirements at the time it was built.

From what I have read, although a Building Regulations certificate may not be issued because of the time it was built, a regularisation certificate can be issued to say that it has been brought up to the required standard.

There is a fee involved in this. Either you or the vendor can have this done.

If you buy and do not bring it up to the Building Regulations standards then you might have a problem selling to someone who needs a mortgage.

They can go through the retrospective route (like you) or you can provide an indemnity insurance policy which usually satisfies any mortgage lenders.

Unfortunately, because you have already informed the council about this problem an indemnity policy would be invalid in your current situation.

Personally I would be asking the vendors to put this right. If they are not prepared to do this then you might want to do it yourself after you have bought it.

I am not sure whether your having flagged up this issue would make a future indemnity policy (either for a future buyer from yourself or a future buyer for the current vendor) invalid and therefore not an option.

Anyone else who can help here?

dominoman

I'd agree with the previous post, and ask the vendors to agree to put it right as a condition of completion.

Alternatively, if you are worried it will fall through because of this I'd take the risk, but ask for a discount to cover the costs and the risk of problems in getting building regs approval.

martinsurrey

Can I just put some perspective on this, it’s a 20 year old extension, and the points are so trivial it’s not even worth it.

If the lack of an anti-siphon trap was a problem the sink would have been smelly, and someone would have fixed it in the last 20 years, and even if it was fitted 20 years ago, my guess is that the bathroom would have been refitted since then and that means you have no idea if it’s been replaced.

The cooker hood not extracting to the outside does not make the house dangerous or unsafe, it makes it like most houses that don’t have extractor hoods (which is a lot of houses).

If there was no problem on the survey if I was the Vendor I wouldn’t be moving on these.

(ohh and mortgage companies don’t always need building reg’s for very old work, they need comfort that the house isn’t going to fall down, the passage of time and a survey can give them that)

Wi88le

icelolly wrote: »

The owners have only been in the property less than a year and they were given no details of the extension by the previous owner.

The fact that he owners want to move after less than a year would worry me more, unless there was a good non property reason for them moving.

icelolly_2

I agree that an indemnity policy might be worthless as the council is already aware of the situation.
Unfortunately I don't think the buyers will move on the selling price as the price I'm paying is about 5% less than what they were asking for nor do I think they will they want to spend any money to get things rectified.
My options are to either pull out of the purchase, get the work done when I move in or leave as it is. I am tempted to carry on with the purchase as the items are not big things and then I can decide what to do when I move in.
I was also concerned why they were selling within a year but they say that they are relocating for job reasons.

Appreciate the responses.

Tomm20

Pulling out over an extractor fan and an anti syphon trap?

These are two very minor items that required rectification 20 yrs ago, as pointed out by martinsurrey.

Get the vendors to complete these two minor repairs/faults and have the LABC inspect and pass the work. They will only look at the outstanding points as all other items have been passed.

Good luck.

Browntoa

recently had building works completed that were outstanding from the same time (1992)

took the building inspector a while to track down the relevant regs but I now finally have a completion certifiacte