Should I exchange without building regs?

BongoW

Hi, I’m new to all this, but I hope I can make sense...
I’m soon due to exchange on a property I’m purchasing. I’m a cash buyer, have had both a full building survey and an electrical safety check completed and have negotiated a discount in the asking price, as I will be rewiring the property on completion (the current wiring is about 30/40 years old and the electrician said it will need doing again soon as it is dated/not all to the same standard and there were a couple of safety breaches).
The vendor stated on the paperwork that there have been no extensions or renovations to the property. I questioned this with my solicitor, as I knew there had been an extension at the back to form a kitchen (the house is an early 1900’s house and the extension looks to have been done a very long time ago) and the downstairs bathroom had been moved upstairs, leaving a living room area in its’ place. It turns out that the bathroom conversion was done in 2011, but there are no building regulations approvals in place for any work on the house. My solicitor has suggested asking the vendor to provide indemnity insurance, with the obvious proviso of not contacting the council regarding any of those previous works. My dilemma is that, on completion of sale, my plan has always been to turn that small living area (previously the downstairs bathroom) into a utility and guest WC (the plumbing would obviously already be in place). As I will obviously have to contact the council to get building regs for this new work, will that a) instantly invalidate the indemnity insurance and b) leave me open to being legally and financially liable to correct any previous work not done to standard? I’m relying on my solicitor helping me through this, but I’m educating myself as much as I can online, as I don’t know anything about this and am and discovering all sorts of rules. For example, am I covered by the 12 month limit that the council had to enforce action against the unregulated work? Will new building regulations approval override the previous lack of?
I’m a little confused/worried as to how much extra I may or may not end up paying out because someone else didn’t get the relevant approvals. If I wasn’t doing any work on the house after completion, I wouldn’t be as concerned because hopefully I wouldn’t come to the attention of the council anyway and would have the indemnity insurance in place. I was hoping for a relatively smooth move, being a cash buyer, but now with the rewiring and the prospect of all manner of unknowns, is it worth hanging in there? It’s a good property, in a very good location, but if it’s going to cost me even more in the long run, is it worth it? Would I also have problems reselling in the future, is it mortgageable etc.? It may be that the work done was all correct, just no relevant approvals, but these unknowns are troubling me and I don’t want to make a very expensive mistake.
Many thanks for reading my long post

chunkytfg

Wow thats a lot of words. Could you try breaking it into paragraphs to give people a better chance of not looking at it and going 'Nah i'm good' and hit the back button

searchlight123

chunkytfg wrote: »

Wow thats a lot of words. Could you try breaking it into paragraphs to give people a better chance of not looking at it and going 'Nah i'm good' and hit the back button

like i've just done!!........

ReadingTim

tonygold wrote: »

like i've just done!!........

And I'm about to do....

System

BongoW wrote: »

I’m a little confused/worried as to how much extra I may or may not end up paying out because someone else didn’t get the relevant approvals.

If the seller gets indemnity insurance against it, nothing because you just claim on the insurance. Only thing you would pay is the cost of any remedial works to bring it up to standard if it hadn't been put up properly but you'd want to do that any way when you do the work to it.

Its a common problem, can't say I've ever heard of anyone who has had anything happen other than the solicitors mentioning it.

Funniest thing was I was in the same boat with a conservatory. I had to get planning permission for the conservatory because of how close it was to a road that runs up the back of the houses so even though the conservatory had planning permission which I could prove, when I sold the house because there wasn't buildings regs I had to pay for indemnity insurance. Work that one out.

Surrey_EA

BongoW wrote: »

Hi, I’m new to all this, but I hope I can make sense...

I’m soon due to exchange on a property I’m purchasing. I’m a cash buyer, have had both a full building survey and an electrical safety check completed and have negotiated a discount in the asking price, as I will be rewiring the property on completion (the current wiring is about 30/40 years old and the electrician said it will need doing again soon as it is dated/not all to the same standard and there were a couple of safety breaches).

The vendor stated on the paperwork that there have been no extensions or renovations to the property. I questioned this with my solicitor, as I knew there had been an extension at the back to form a kitchen (the house is an early 1900’s house and the extension looks to have been done a very long time ago) and the downstairs bathroom had been moved upstairs, leaving a living room area in its’ place.

It turns out that the bathroom conversion was done in 2011, but there are no building regulations approvals in place for any work on the house. My solicitor has suggested asking the vendor to provide indemnity insurance, with the obvious proviso of not contacting the council regarding any of those previous works.

My dilemma is that, on completion of sale, my plan has always been to turn that small living area (previously the downstairs bathroom) into a utility and guest WC (the plumbing would obviously already be in place). As I will obviously have to contact the council to get building regs for this new work, will that a) instantly invalidate the indemnity insurance and b) leave me open to being legally and financially liable to correct any previous work not done to standard?

I’m relying on my solicitor helping me through this, but I’m educating myself as much as I can online, as I don’t know anything about this and am and discovering all sorts of rules. For example, am I covered by the 12 month limit that the council had to enforce action against the unregulated work? Will new building regulations approval override the previous lack of?

I’m a little confused/worried as to how much extra I may or may not end up paying out because someone else didn’t get the relevant approvals. If I wasn’t doing any work on the house after completion, I wouldn’t be as concerned because hopefully I wouldn’t come to the attention of the council anyway and would have the indemnity insurance in place.

I was hoping for a relatively smooth move, being a cash buyer, but now with the rewiring and the prospect of all manner of unknowns, is it worth hanging in there? It’s a good property, in a very good location, but if it’s going to cost me even more in the long run, is it worth it? Would I also have problems reselling in the future, is it mortgageable etc.? It may be that the work done was all correct, just no relevant approvals, but these unknowns are troubling me and I don’t want to make a very expensive mistake.

Many thanks for reading my long post

This might help

AlexMac

I was holding off awaiting an expert on Building Regs, as I was quite interested in the reply... But as none has appeared, here's a totally uninformed response based on nothing more than my having done a couple of similar projects...

I guess you've Googled it to discover that (in the unlikely event) that the original work was so structurally unsound that it seriously breached building regs, it is , in practice, unlikely that Councils would enforce after 10 years, wheich you are approaching (ish)... and that

Building regs are not generally required for bathroom conversions unless you're doing major darinage.sewer work...

So I reckon you'll be OK. Put another way, from my experience of working with MY Council's Building Control officers on a garage conversion including an en-suite toilet/shower room, they are thoroughly realistic and reasonable. My house is a 1980's structure, and all they really worried about was thermal insulation of the floors, ceiling and those bits of wall which were only single skin, plus foundations across the former garage door before I bricked it up; nothing onerous.
http://bfy.tw/LKcC
In fact, I am a bit surprised by your suggestion; "I will obviously have to contact the council to get building regs for this new work,"? Had I been doing the 2011 original changes which seemed mere internal re-arrangement, or planning your new work which is little more than re-instating to the way things were, I would not even consider involving Building Control. Especially in a Victorian house.

And if you do seek Regs approval to be absolutely safe when eventually selling on, I'd hope your Inspector would be as realistic and helpful as mine.

Or, to be totally cynical, engage a Private Building Control Company; a freelance "Approved Inspector" authorised by the Secretary of State to provide building control approval.

They have supplemented the Council guys or, as I would argue, supplanted or subverted them, as they are paid by the client or developer. So their loyalties and accountabilities are to you as client it's in their interests to smooth over problems. I think it's insidious, as the ones who supervised a new-build project opposite me were useless, hardly ever turned up, but presumably covered the developers 47se. That particular company's website promises to "reduce unnecessary bureaucracy, delays and costs" (on behalf of the client!)

Google something like "Private Building Control" or "Approved Inspector" to find one of these Cowboys, or look at https://www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200137/how_to_get_approval/77/where_to_get_approval/3 to see what I mean.

But, back to your original Q; it wouldn't put me off the house. I did much more in terms of moving bathrooms, kitchens and toilets in my last early 20th Century house, and never even thought of getting approval; good luck

BongoW

Thanks so much for your replies and advice. It’s a new situation for me, so of course when buying a house you start fearing the worst as there’s so much to be working out anyway. So it looks like getting the vendors to provide indemnity insurance is the way to go. I’ve never heard of, or even considered private building inspectors, so thank you for that, I’ll look into that also if needed. I also assumed that building regs were needed for new bathroom/waste conversions, even if they’re not major works.
Thanks again!

silvercar

Building regs inspectors only inspect what you are paying them to inspect. They don't look at other work in the property.

New building regs approval will override anything previous only to the extent that you have done more work in that area that meets approval. eg if you rewire the property then a new certificate applies to the current electrics; whether someone bodged something that you replaced is irrelevant.

When you come to sell, you will be asked for certificates for the work you have done.

quotememiserable

Surrey_EA wrote: »

This might help

Good of you to try. Still too much effort for me.