No Building Regs just an Indemnity-HELP

Yorkie1

davidmcn wrote: »

It should tell you whether or not there are actually any problems with the conversion. Bear in mind that a certificate from the council only shows that they thought it complied with building regulations at the time - it isn't a guarantee of it being good quality, or of what condition it is in now.

If the survey is clear and you have the indemnity then (in most people's eyes) everything is fine.

The issue you've overlooked is that the surveyor cannot tell whether the conversion has been done to a safe standard just from looking at it. In the absence of B Regs sign off there is no evidence that the joists have been strengthened or insulation etc dealt with properly, electrics capable of taking the extra loads that might be put on them.

The only way to tell this is through intrusive inspections, which will not happen.

Therefore the surveyor cannot give it a clean bill of health, and the indemnity policy does not counteract it. The surveyor will simply say whether there are any surface level concerns and tell you to check the B Regs sign off.

OP, if there are no B Regs then it should not be counted as a bedroom and should not be advertised as a formal room / included in the number of bedrooms.

As for how much it will cost to regularise with the council, could be £00's, could be £000's. You will not know unless and until you a) buy the house, b) get a surveyor out to check compliance with all aspects current B Regs, and c) get quotes to determine the cost.

Richard_Webster

Another question would be when was the loft conversion done? It is my understanding that before 1990 things were a little different in regard to planning permissions and permitted development.

Loft conversions as such do not generally require Planning Permission. After a certain time ( 4 or 10 years) breaches of Planning Law become legally immune from enforcement anyway.

Building Regulations are totally different and are about safety, fire risk, thermal insulation etc, etc. Whilst in practice it is rare for anything to be done by a Council in respect of old work, there is no formal immunity period.

RohanSix

I would check with your lender on whether or not they will take indemnity insurance in the absence of building regs completion. I have a similar problem at the moment, and in my experience thus far, the answer would be no.

kaya

If there are no building regs in place for the loft conversion then for financial reasons it doesn't exist, renegotiate the price you offered as if the loft conversion wasn't there in the first place or insist that the vendor gets building do services in to retrospectively inspect and certify the work( they aren't going to do this )

RohanSix

kaya wrote: »

If there are no building regs in place for the loft conversion then for financial reasons it doesn't exist, renegotiate the price you offered as if the loft conversion wasn't there in the first place or insist that the vendor gets building do services in to retrospectively inspect and certify the work( they aren't going to do this )

For the property to be renegotiated, would you need to commission another survey to value the property less the unregulated extra room?

silvercar

kaya wrote: »

If there are no building regs in place for the loft conversion then for financial reasons it doesn't exist, renegotiate the price you offered as if the loft conversion wasn't there in the first place or insist that the vendor gets building do services in to retrospectively inspect and certify the work( they aren't going to do this )

That isn't going to work as the price difference will be too great and the fact is the loft conversion is there.

You need to ask the surveyor if it is safe and decide whether the indemnity policy is enough to satisfy you and your lender. When you come to sell, the loft conversion will be even older than now, so the chance of the council taking any action becomes more remote and the chances of any structural effects from shoddy workmanship are more likely to be evident.

silvercar

RohanSix wrote: »

For the property to be renegotiated, would you need to commission another survey to value the property less the unregulated extra room?

You could use co parables from similar properties sold. Websites such as zoopla are good for this, though take any urgent valuations based on historical data with a pinch of salt. The fact is that the loft conversion is there, so you need to factor this in. I suspect that a loft conversion with only an indemnity policy is worth only slightly less than one with full building regs consent, providing that a surveyor is satisfied that the structure is sound.

hivoodoodoll

Thanks everyone this is really useful. I received my building survey back today, it was done earlier than expected and I'm pleased to say nothing major came up in it. Of course what it didn't tell me with anything else to do with the loft conversion and I didn't really think it would.

I also received the report from my lender it stated and valued the house as two bedrooms with an attic room. It mentions the lack of building regs for the loft and said this would have to be looked into and when I spoke to my solicitor she said she would inform them that there are no building regs and just an indemnity policy. As long as they accept the indemnity policy I should be okay as they only cited two bedrooms.

I guess my decision now is whether or not I go forward with the purchase. I don't actually need the lift room to be a dedicated bedroom but my offer was for a three bedroom house which I am not now getting. I'm thinking of reducing my offer slightly and at the moment and trying to work out by how much.

I do have one question. If anything did happen to the bedroom and say the ceiling fell down would I be covered by normal building insurance or is there any other kind of insurance I could take out??

davidmcn

hivoodoodoll wrote: »

If anything did happen to the bedroom and say the ceiling fell down would I be covered by normal building insurance

No insurance policy covers you for "anything", only for specific risks.

If a part of the house fails because it's old or was never built properly, that's generally your own problem, and not something which a normal buildings policy would cover.

hivoodoodoll

That's what I thought