House potentially knowingly advertised without building regs

saunaboy1975

Regs seem to have appeared this morning, but is a letter from (Leeds) council to say all fine. Doesn't appear to have been a visit due to the timescale.

Does this seem reasonable? There were apparently (according to my sol) no regs available yesterday & that a visit would be needed to regularise, that would take a reasonably long time. Today I have a fax of a letter dated yesterday from Council saying all good. Great news but have to admit to being a bit bemused by it.

Cheers for replies everyone btw.

stator

What exactly does the letter say? They inspected and signed off the original works, or does it say that they won't take enforcement action because it was too long ago?

saunaboy1975

Just a letter with attached very basic council certificate saying 'as far as can be ascertained, all works comply with building regs'.

Lists date when application was submitted (2009) but then strangely lists completion date as the day before letter was signed (so Monday this week). So taken as is, according to the certificate the work started in 2009 & ended a few days ago.

Doesn't say whether any inspection ever took place etc.

Like I say just odd to be told one day from my sols that no regs were there & would take a good while to get sorted, to getting this the next day.

Maybe I'm overthinking it (like I say been burned before) but wasn't what I was expecting to see.

AdrianC

saunaboy1975 wrote: »

Regs seem to have appeared this morning, but is a letter from (Leeds) council to say all fine. Doesn't appear to have been a visit due to the timescale.

Does this seem reasonable? There were apparently (according to my sol) no regs available yesterday & that a visit would be needed to regularise, that would take a reasonably long time. Today I have a fax of a letter dated yesterday from Council saying all good. Great news but have to admit to being a bit bemused by it.

Cheers for replies everyone btw.

One option is as I suggested way up thread...

AdrianC wrote: »

Building control should have been involved from the start of the work, with regular site visits. If that's all been done, and no problems raised, and the only thing missing was the final sign-off, then it should be straightforward.

...and everything was done, but the paperwork was never issued for some reason. It has been now. Job's a good 'un. Minor miracle, but there we go...

The other option is that the letter's not a terribly good fake.

ST1991

Perhaps Regs weren't available yesterday as they were waiting for this letter?
it's not unreasonable to assume they have arranged someone from the council to come and 'sign off' the work, and the letter has now come through?

stator

Phone building control and ask them what inspections were done.

Hoploz

OK well that's fine then. All good.

When I did an extension on my last house the majority of the work was all finished in 2009. BI inspected everything as it went along, all fine and dandy.

However there were a few items which we did not finish straightaway due to finances. I got a list from the BI of what we'd need to get sign off, and he said just get back to me when it's done and he would do the certificate. So over the next couple of years we attended to the items - installed the new bathroom, fitted a fire door on the garage, fitted the extractor to the utility room.

It was only in 2013 when we decided to sell that I actually got back in touch with the council to tell him it was finished. He popped along, quick check of the items on the list and the letter of completion followed a few days later.

All the work was done to a good standard but if we hadn't bothered we could have just got an indemnity policy on selling. This happens all the time.

Hoploz

ST1991 wrote: »

Perhaps Regs weren't available yesterday as they were waiting for this letter?
it's not unreasonable to assume they have arranged someone from the council to come and 'sign off' the work, and the letter has now come through?

Yes this would be typical solicitor talk .... 'It's not available.' But they don't bother adding that it might turn up!

AdrianC

Hoploz wrote: »

...but if we hadn't bothered we could have just got an indemnity policy on selling. This happens all the time.

Yes, solicitors do sell useless indemnity policies to the misinformed all the time.

An indemnity would pay for the costs of any action against the lack of BR sign-off. But, since there couldn't possibly be any action, the policy would never pay anything.

An indemnity policy does absolutely nothing against the work being sub-standard.

lincroft1710

AdrianC wrote: »

An indemnity policy does absolutely nothing against the work being sub-standard.

Repeat and inwardly digest