Repossessed Property - No Completion Certificate

Krav

Looking at a potential purchase - a repossessed property has had a loft extension, side extension and a double story rear extension (all submitted under a single planning application which was approved).

Works were carried out in 2009 and a final inspection made in 2010. The council did not issue a completion certificate because only a single rear extension was made (not a double one as specified in the plans). What they can do is issue a letter to confirm that the works that were carried out were satisfactory.

Would this cause me problems later if I try and sell? Am I walking into lots of problems?

davidmcn

No, that's fine. Better than some of the alternative outcomes anyway.

Krav

Thanks for the reply. The fact that it still isn't a proper certificate causes a worry.

silvercar

We had similar, bought a house with only half the size extension built than were in plans. Our solicitor said it wasn't a problem.

Hoploz

They could visit the property and inspect the work done, and issue a completion certificate for what has been done. They would then delete what hasn't been done from the record. That's what my local building inspector did when we decided not to do part of our work.

However, in your case the current owner won't be interested in getting I's dotted and T's crossed, they will only want to flog it as easily as possible.

It could cause a query when you come to sell, or indeed with your mortgage lender if you have one. The normal way this is resolved is with an indemnity policy against future prosecution from the council, which never happens but it's become the norm at the moment legally. Either the seller or the buyer can pay for this.

Krav

silvercar wrote: »

We had similar, bought a house with only half the size extension built than were in plans. Our solicitor said it wasn't a problem.

Did your solicitor not ask for certs from the vendor? What did they end up providing?

Hoploz

Just to clarify, it's the building regulations which should be signed off at the end with the completion certificate.

Plans which have Planning Dept approval do not have to be implemented in full, or even in part.

Building Control is completely separate to Planning. They are responsible for ensuring that work is done safely and to certain standards, and this is what the certificate is for.

Planning Depts don't issue any kind of certificate of completion, and unless there is a complaint they won't normally pay any attention to whether the work goes ahead or not.

silvercar

Krav wrote: »

Did your solicitor not ask for certs from the vendor? What did they end up providing?

They definitely had to get some certificates, because they were required to put an extra beam in somewhere. So they must have got sign off on the work they had done from the council building regs people.

bris

Just get your solicitor to deal with it, buying a repossession is buyer beware. If building control are willing to provide a letter of comfort though then you have no problems.

davidmcn

Hoploz wrote: »

It could cause a query when you come to sell, or indeed with your mortgage lender if you have one. The normal way this is resolved is with an indemnity policy against future prosecution from the council, which never happens but it's become the norm at the moment legally. Either the seller or the buyer can pay for this.

But a letter of comfort is generally regarded as better than an indemnity policy, as it means the council has inspected and is happy enough with what's there. Also, indemnity policy isn't an option if the council have already been tipped off (which it sounds like they have).

Krav

It gets more complex.

The property also has a detached garage in the rear garden which had separate plans approved in 2000 (I viewed them) with a pitched tiled roof, but it was built with a felt roof. It was also built with no metal shutter as specified in the plans (this is an end of terrace house). Building Control have no record of doing any inspections on this and unaware of it being built, therefore never approved it. It is over 30 sq. metres so it would have required approval. Neighboring properties boast a mixture of pitched and flat detached garage roofs (some with metal shutters) but it was specified clearly in each of their plans which they conformed to.

Looks like the previous owner took some shortcuts. I think this may cause a problem as the council never inspected it at all so no letter would work here. It would also require digging to check foundations and of course, a change of the roof and the addition of the metal shutters.