Buying a house with old extension and no planning permission or building regs

elveera

Hi

I am buying a house and almost ready to exchange. It has come to light that the 2 storey rear extension does not have planning permission or building regs and my solicitor says this is because it was built over 4 years ago so this is not needed. The current owners say it was built before they moved in 10+ years ago.

Ok so I know that no enforcement can be taken against us for the extension but it offers me no reassurance that the extension was built to any sort of standard/safety!

I had a middle survey done so not the full structural survey.

Is this risky to proceed with?!

Thanks for any advice!

phill99

You need to investigate with building control if there is a file still open on the house. It may well be that building regs were applied for but simply never got finalised and 'signed off'.

If thete were any major problems, even your HomeBuyers report would have pocked them up.

Amphion

Whatever you do don't ignore this. It's not a huge problem but it needs to be addresses.
Extensions and alterations with out the appropriate consents are more common than you think.

If it has no planning but was built over 10 years ago then don't panicking as it is now unenforceable by the local authority.

On the other hand Building regulations approval could be a bit more difficult to obtain. Contact your local building control office and enquire if there is an outstanding file on the extension. If not you can apply for retrospective permission by filling out a regularisation application. As long as the extension conforms with the building regulations at the time of construction it should be signed off but if it doesn't you may have to allow intrusive inspections to check.

If you want to put your mind at rest ask a structural engineer to inspect the extension. But again it's possible that intrusive inspections will be needed.

Good luck

elveera

The extension was built in 1973. The homebuyers report did not pick up on anything visually. Considering if a full structural survey will add anything...it's lasted this long...

davidmcn

elveera wrote: »

The extension was built in 1973.

In which case I wouldn't bother investigating further. It's historic enough for nobody to bother with consents, and if a normal survey hasn't flagged up actual problems with it then it's probably fine.