Purchased house in 2009 - no building regs for 2006 extension

Halle71

I'm posting a lot at the moment about all the niggly things that come up when you are buying and selling houses, particularly houses that are circa 100 years old, but I'm really angry about this one in particular.

We have just discovered that there is no building regs approval for a rear, ground floor extension built in 2006, 3 years before we purchased the house.

I have spoken to building regs and been informed that everything is signed off except for the electrical certificate that is still outstanding. Hopefully this won't be too much of a problem because we can get a Periodic Inspection and send it to building regs who will issue their certificate. But this will cost us an extra couple of hundred pounds, may delay exchange and, most worryingly, if the electrics are not signed off cause greater problems.

We used a reputable solicitor when we purchased the house so why was this not picked up then? Our current solicitor holds all the documentation from our 2009 purchase so I can't check at the moment, but presumably the vendor must have stated that there was a building regs certificate? If so, who is at fault - the vendor for lying, or our solicitor for not requesting to see evidence of the certificate and is it too late five years on for any recourse?

Thanks for reading.

m0bov

I think the general consensus is to just pay up for the certificate. You need to check your paperwork and see what boxes they ticked.

Halle71

I get that it's in our interests to do it quickly and with no fuss (and an electricial is coming tomorrow) but if there is no accountability for lying on a signed legal document and/or we cannot trust our solicitor to do all the checks they are paid to do where does this leave the process of conveyancing?

TBagpuss

Solicitors (even reputable one!) are only human. Sometimes mistakes are made.

It's also the case that things change over time - there are lots of things which would be flagged up now which would not necessarily have been considered an issue 10 or 15 years ago, details of what must be disclosed by sellers change etc.

Depending on exactly what the paperwork shows, you may have grounds for a complaint against the original solicitors, if it was indeed their error and not an error in the searches , or misleading information on the property forms.

Yorkie1

In my view you'd only have any possible comeback against the solicitor if they had been specifically informed of the existence of the extension and had either a) failed to make proper enquiries, or b) made appropriate enquiries and proceeded without the documentation [edit: without specific [STRIKE]on[/STRIKE]] instructions from you.

What did the survey say about the extension? What did the property information form from your seller in 2009 say? You should have a copy of both these documents.

Idiophreak

TBagpuss wrote: »

Solicitors (even reputable one!) are only human. Sometimes mistakes are made.

Sure...but who should pay for those mistakes? OP, or the solicitor?

Really, if your whole job is attention to detail and giving advice, if you miss a detail and your advice is consequently off the mark, you're kind of at fault, right...I assume solicitors are insured against this kind of claim, anyway?

Obviously I don't know the specifics of OPs case, but if the solicitor was at fault, I don't see it as being as simple as "mistakes happen"...because you pay solicitors explicitly to ensure mistakes don't happen.

TBagpuss

Sure. That part was really in response to the'why did this happen?' and 'where does this leave the process of conveyancing'
Like any other process, most of the time it works, most of the time people involved do everything they are supposed to do, sometimes, someone makes a mistake.

If the mistake was made by the solicitor, they would potentially be liable.

but the answer to 'why did it happen' is probably still "someone made a mistake"

Halle71

The extension is on the survey and it informs our solicitor to check all the proper permissions have been gained (solicitor did have report).
Our current solicitor actually holds the old file because they needed the Fensa agreement and its bound together but this is how it came to light - they asked for the building regs cert and I said I thought it should be in the pack. The told me it wasn't but there is reference to it (presumably in the sellers info) which would suffice for now and to send it if I could find it.

I called the council and lo and behold, no sign off.

The money is a nuisance - could have been my birthday night out tomorrow that we can't afford - but it's the delay that's the worst thing. We're in a very hot area of London and the property we are buying is vacant so there is little incentive for the vendor to sell to us if we delay and prices rise.

CKhalvashi

As above, I'd just advise to pay for the cert, as if everything else is above board, you'll have a house you obviously like.

CK

PasturesNew

Bottom line is that the cost of investigating if your solicitor was at fault and successfully suing them for compensation is FAR greater than simply paying to correct it now and moving on with your life.

Yorkie1

Halle71 wrote: »

I called the council and lo and behold, no sign off.

Now that you have called the council, you will be unable to get an indemnity insurance policy. You will need to square it through the council B Regs / Fensa sign off instead, unfortunately. I think that's what you're doing, but thought I'd spell it out for other readers in case they see this thread in the future.