Building regs

housebuyer87

So buying a new house and have been informed by solicitor (finally) that the sellers do not have copies of the Planning Permission and Building Regulation approval for the following works but have indemnity insurance. Should I accept this?

A garage conversion which is now a kitchen - completed prior to February 2017
The removal of a load-bearing chimney breast - completed since February 2017

Sorry if this is a dumb question.

davidmcn

You're paying your solicitor to answer your questions, dumb or not. What do they advise?

Ozzuk

garage conversion could be an issue for your mortgage if it wasn't done properly - insulation standards for instance.

Chimney could be a problem if the house fell down - indemnity only protects against action against you I think (could be wrong).

Of course, the work could have been done properly - a surveyor could likely assess if the chimney is okay, less easy for the garage though, roof, foundations, insulation, electrics, gas etc...

supa34

Solicitor is covering his back.

Use it to your advantage and go back to seller and try to get them to pay for a proper survey as it's their fault.

Surveyor would check is there is enough support after chimney removal. Similarly is the conversion meet regulation. If it doesn't then you know you need to go back to the seller and reduce the price to cover cost of rectifying it.

I wouldn't worry too much. Depends if the seller has lived in the house and for how long. They won't cut corners. But if it's a recent conversion of a developer who flips properties then be careful.

housebuyer87

supa34 wrote: »

Solicitor is covering his back.

Use it to your advantage and go back to seller and try to get them to pay for a proper survey as it's their fault.

Surveyor would check is there is enough support after chimney removal. Similarly is the conversion meet regulation. If it doesn't then you know you need to go back to the seller and reduce the price to cover cost of rectifying it.

I wouldn't worry too much. Depends if the seller has lived in the house and for how long. They won't cut corners. But if it's a recent conversion of a developer who flips properties then be careful.

Thanks for this advice. Our solicitor is rubbish.

The garage conversion was done by previous owners quite a while ago. The removal of the chimney breast was done in last two years.

We are going to wait until we see all details on final draft of contracts and then ask seller if they will allow us to do a structural survey of the chimney if they definitely don't have all the regs in place.

If they say no then we will have a decision to make