No certificate of completion on 10 year old flat

sienna312

Flat we're buying has no certificate of completion from building control. It's just over 10 years old and has been sold twice already since it was built.

Solicitor has spoken to local authority and they have confirmed that they do not hold any building control certificates for the development of the property due to the age of the property and the fact that they did not issue certificates at this time.

Is this going to make it really difficult to sell further down the line? NHBC have confirmed the warranty that was on the plot before it expired was only a warranty and did not cover a compliance check.

AdrianC

It's massively unlikely to be an issue from any kind of enforcement angle. Given that the building is a decade old, any inherent construction flaws would probably have come to light by now.

So it's just a question of whether any putative buyer (or their lender) will be scared off by the lack of paperwork. Forget an indemnity, now that the LA have been consulted. There are regular threads here from buyers who are scared off in similar situations. But you only need one buyer...

davidmcn

sienna312 wrote: »

Solicitor has spoken to local authority and they have confirmed that they do not hold any building control certificates for the development of the property due to the age of the property and the fact that they did not issue certificates at this time.

Is this going to make it really difficult to sell further down the line?

What's your solicitor's advice? Any other purchaser/lender is likely to receive similar advice. Not sure how anyone can expect a certificate if it wasn't the council's practice to issue certificates.

sienna312

Solicitor hasn't yet given further advice on what else can be done or why it might not be necessary to have this (unhelpful).

Does it make any difference that the flat is part of a much larger development that comprises detached / semis / terraces as well as small blocks of flats? The planning permission would have been a 'full plan' for the entire development.

The survey itself has come back all good to go. There is nothing actually wrong with the place, it's just this bit of paperwork.

Is this documentation massively important / are we getting way too involved / should we run?

ReadingTim

sienna312 wrote: »

It's just over 10 years old and has been sold twice already since it was built.

...

Is this going to make it really difficult to sell further down the line?

Based on the fact that it's been sold on 2 occasions previously, no.

Doozergirl

If the plans are under one large application, the building regs are likely to be the same.

This comes up over and again. Many new builds on large developments are not issued individual certifiactes but NHBC would not issue a guarantee without the building being signed off somewhere. It will have been certified.

sienna312

Thanks for this.

Rang up NHBC after reading this. They've said that when they issue a warranty, in the event that the building control checks aren't done by them, they then instead issue the warranty based purely on their own guidelines. They don't necessarily need to see the building control checks if they have been done by the local authority or another idependent body. Thinking about it now, I imagine the guidelines they use for warranty may be the same as what they would use for their own building control checks, but this is just speculation.

I guess the best thing would be to go to a few lenders and explain the situation with the caveats and ask what they think before they run full credit checks?

Solicitors have now contacted local authority so an indemnity might not be a possibility. Aarghh.

davidmcn

sienna312 wrote: »

I guess the best thing would be to go to a few lenders and explain the situation with the caveats and ask what they think

They won't have a clue. They rely on the solicitor signing it off. So the best thing would be to go along with what your solicitor advises. Future buyers/lenders can get indemnity policies if they want, they don't need to know that you've spoken to the council.