House doesn’t have Building Regs - Can I reduce the price?

Nausing

I’m buying a house and we are very close to Exchange when my solicitor noticed building regs for the kitchen extension has been given.

The vendor has purchased Indemnity Insurance to cover the property without consulting us. We aren’t happy with the fact that the extension doesn’t have regs and aren’t comfortable purchasing without it.

Question is: do we have a leg to stand on to ask for money off the purchase price because of this? Maybe 40k to remove and rebuild the extension? The surveyor did note structural movement with the kitchen but it isn’t progressive according to him.

Have you been in a similar position and how did you deal with it?

Thanks.

hazyjo

Do you know when the extension was built?

Nausing

hazyjo wrote: »

Do you know when the extension was built?

Approx 15 years ago.

pinklady21

You can certainly ask for a price reduction, but the seller may say no.

RedFraggle

What does you valuation value the property at?
At 15 years the indemnity is pointless as the planning department can't take action.
What you need to establish is whether there is a risk of future movement as that is the only thing likely to give you grounds for haggling.

eddddy

You can certainly reduce your offer by £40k, but I think it's unlikely that a vendor would accept it.

They'll probably hope that somebody else will come along and offer more, or they might just decide not to sell at all at that price.


(Incidentally, has a surveyor told you that the extension needs to be knocked down and re-built. If not, why have you come to that conclusion?)

Although, FWIW, I once reduced an offer by £60k following a survey. Then the seller put the property back on the market for 8 months, before very grudgingly accepting my reduced offer.

Nausing

RedFraggle wrote: »

What does you valuation value the property at?
At 15 years the indemnity is pointless as the planning department can't take action.
What you need to establish is whether there is a risk of future movement as that is the only thing likely to give you grounds for haggling.

400k.
The survey says there is no progressive movement on that side of the building but that is only from a visual inspection.

Do you know if lack of a cert can affect building insurance?

ACG

You can ask for whatever you like, but if you did that to me as a vendor I would tell the agents to put it back on the market.

This is a complete none issue and if you are really so concerned by it, you may as well pull out now as they are not going to accept a £40k reduction when anyone else could get a Mortgage on the property.

eddddy

Nausing wrote: »

Do you know if lack of a cert can affect building insurance?

It doesn't affect it directly. But insurance won't cover any claims resulting from poor workmanship.

e.g. If the extension falls down because it was badly built, you can't claim on buildings insurance.

But a surveyor will tell you about the risk of that happening.

Typhoon2000

After 15yrs, building regs are going to be meaningless. If you want to know if the extension and main house is sound, get a structural survey.
Any building 15 yrs old will fail current building regs. I guess the main house does not have building regs either, and you don't seem concerned.

jbainbridge

Nothing can be done after 15 years. Assuming the survey was ok just buy it!