Building Regulations Indemnity for groundfloor toilet

kalyanmarp

hello, I need some help in understanding the Building Regulations Indemnity Insurance that my vendor has offered to put in place for my purchase. Vendor installed a toilet and wash basin (sink) on the ground-floor under the stairs. They claim that Building Regulations consent was not required. The council website is quite vague on whether or not that is the case. The installation occurred 1-2 years ago. Vendor is not willing to go for a retrospective consent since that would take a long time.


- is building regulations consent really needed for a toilet/washing basin? or is my surveyor just being conservative?
- if I go ahead with the purchase, what is my worst case scenario? I guess the council could potentially get me to rip out the toilet. Would there be an accompanying potential penalty/fine levied be in such a scenario? If yes, would it be in the hundreds of £ OR thousands of £ (ballpark)?
- I got a survey done which suggested getting the retrospective consent application. Would this invalidate the Indemnity Insurance anyway?


Any opinions on how I should proceed would be greatly appreciated.


Thank you very much!

Doozergirl

It does require it but presuming it's connected onto the existing soil pipe, I would really put it at the very lowest end of things that require consent.

If you put in a loo it requires a handbasin, which you have. It also requires an extractor fan although no one is really going to creating much steam in a downstairs loo.

It's the sort of thing that would be very easy to gain consent for and also the least likely thing to ever have enforcement action taken for it. If they took action, it would be incredibly easy to comply. You'd just call in an electrician.

In fact, making it comply would cost less than an indemnity policy.

lincroft1710

Building Regs are needed for a toilet, because of the plumbing and sewerage connections. If the council don't know about the toilet, it follows that they won't do anything

davidmcn

If you're buying with a mortgage, you'll need whatever your solicitor tells the lender they need. Which is likely to be at least the indemnity policy.

eddddy

I guess there's the risk that if the builder/plumber didn't apply for building regs, they may have taken other shortcuts as well.

Like, for example, not doing the drains properly. If the drain is badly laid, the toilet may be prone to blocking. So it might be worth getting a drain survey.

I guess that the nightmare scenario might be that the drain is badly laid by a cowboy and leaking and washing away the soil - so it eventually causes subsidence.

Some lawyers warn that insurance companies might reject claims like that - because it's faulty workmanship, which might have been highlighted in advance, if a building control inspection had taken place. (But that really is an extreme scenario.)


Anyway, the local authority can only take enforcement action for up to 2 years. If they do, the indemnity policy would probably pay the cost of altering/removing the toilet, and might also compensate you for the loss in the house's value.

stator

If you go for the indemnity policy you must not contact the council about the toilet in any way. This includes apply for retrospective consent/signoff.

The worst that could happen is that you have to remove it.

martinsurrey

Doozergirl wrote: »

It does require it but presuming it's connected onto the existing soil pipe, I would really put it at the very lowest end of things that require consent.

If you put in a loo it requires a handbasin, which you have. It also requires an extractor fan although no one is really going to creating much steam in a downstairs loo.

It's the sort of thing that would be very easy to gain consent for and also the least likely thing to ever have enforcement action taken for it. If they took action, it would be incredibly easy to comply. You'd just call in an electrician.

In fact, making it comply would cost less than an indemnity policy.

I put a WC downstairs (under the stairs as well) and the key points the inspector was looking for were

1) Ventilation - while steam isn't a problem in a WC, odor can be...
2) Sound proofing - linked to the above
3) Drainage - getting the correct drainage to avoid blockages, and correct water traps.
3) Hand basin - needs both hot and cold water.
4) Electrical, I used a macerator and needed it wired correctly

nothing too bad.