Buying first house, extension doesn't have planning permission

Kesteral

Hi,

I need some advice on what to do with my house purchase.

My girlfriend and I have found a nice house and we've had an offer accepted for a good price. We've got to the point now where we're close to exchanging but we've just found out that there's no planning permission or building regulation approval for the kitchen extension at the back. I'm certain it was built before 1999 (definitely 2004) however as it's in old aerial photographs I've found online.

The survey said there were some walls which had been removed in the kitchen and minor cracking, but nothing else. The current owners have indemnity insurance and are looking to pass this onto us, but I'm worried about buying the house and there being some major defect to the walls that we will have to repair. Or worse, the whole extension falls down.

It's not our dream house but it is our first house purchase potentially and we really like it. For the money I don't think we could get much better in the area but I'm worried about resale and potential costs for repair.

Any advice?

Thanks

PField

Get a structural survey if you are worried. Presence or lack of building control documents won't tell you if it's about to fall down. I bet you don't have a planning permission or building control certificate for the main house either afterall.

lessonlearned

Walk away, you will be buying a pig in a poke.

G_M

If it was going to fall down it probably would have by now.

You've had a survey done which has not (apparantly) thrown up any major concerns. 'minor cracking' is common and.... errr... a minor issue.

My house has no planning permission at all - not for the original house, or any of the 3 extensions.

robatwork

G_M wrote: »

My house has no planning permission at all - not for the original house, or any of the 3 extensions.

Surely you call them wings? vis

G_M is posting today from the East Wing....

AylesburyDuck

lessonlearned wrote: »

Walk away, you will be buying a pig in a poke.

Overreaction
Being sensible, A/ get a survey done on it, or B/ The solicitor will probably want some form of indemnity insurance organised by the vendors.
Or to be sure both.

davidmcn

AylesburyDuck wrote: »

Overreaction
Being sensible, A/ get a survey done on it, or B/ The solicitor will probably want some form of indemnity insurance organised by the vendors.
Or to be sure both.

According to the OP they've already got both!

Kesteral

We haven't had a structural survey done, but we did get a building survey. Not sure what that really means as the building survey was pretty basic however.

We won't have time to get a structural survey done as they want us to exchange on Monday. So we just need to evaluate whether it's worth going for or not.

Is it worth asking for some money off the agreed price?

Mojisola

Kesteral wrote: »

We haven't had a structural survey done, but we did get a building survey. Not sure what that really means as the building survey was pretty basic however.

We won't have time to get a structural survey done as they want us to exchange on Monday. So we just need to evaluate whether it's worth going for or not.

They might want it but you don't have to do it.

davidmcn

Kesteral wrote: »

Is it worth asking for some money off the agreed price?

Unless and until you've actually found something wrong with it, no. If your first surveyor hasn't suggested that it's worthwhile investigating further then I'm not sure why you're so concerned about it? If there were fundamental structural problems, they'd have made themselves known at some point over the last 18+ years.