no building regs on extension built in 1980

salt1

hello all, I am looking for a bit of advice/ sharing similar experiences. I am well into a purchase of a house, survey and searches all done. it is a cash purchase from my late husbands life insurance settlement. the house has an extension built in 1980 but no building reg certificate. I have emailed my solicitor with my concerns and am waiting to hear back, but wondered if this could be an issue. there are no problems on the survey but could it cause a problem when I want to sell. be grateful for any info

martinsurrey

salt1 wrote: »

hello all, I am looking for a bit of advice/ sharing similar experiences. I am well into a purchase of a house, survey and searches all done. it is a cash purchase from my late husbands life insurance settlement. the house has an extension built in 1980 but no building reg certificate. I have emailed my solicitor with my concerns and am waiting to hear back, but wondered if this could be an issue. there are no problems on the survey but could it cause a problem when I want to sell. be grateful for any info

How do you know there are no building reg's? Council records don't go back that far and completion certificates were not issued until the late 80's.

treat it like a Victorian house (for which there are also no building reg's), if it looks fine, surveys fine, its fine.

ambioni

I had something similar with my recent purchase: dining room extension, conservatory and upstair ensuite all had no completion certificates....however, they were all done 20 years ago and anything over 20 years is considered "historic". In other words there is no way a council would ask for them to be removed and as long as they are structurally sound (which if they've stood for 20+ years they should be) then I wouldn't worry

DRP

As others say, don't worry abut BR for an 80s build.

I would be more concerned about the quality of the insulation, construction etc

ie. will you be freezing in winter, paying over the odds in heating, and suffering condensation/mould?

stator

As long as the building surveyor thinks it's okay I wouldn't worry about it.

Dird

Would a surveyor risk saying it's okay though? That could make them liable.
The house I'm looking at had a load-bearing wall & chimney breast removed, apparently around 1990 (think she said late 80s). The homebuyers report says "Your legal adviser should confirm that the removal of a load-bearing wall and chimney breast were carried out with local authority Building Control approval."

Apparently this can take up to 5 weeks if they don't already have it =(