no planning permission for extension

Joeread

Hi

My girlfriend and I are in the process of buying a house and the paperwork and searches has flagged up that there is no paperwork for the extension and therefore there may not have been any planning permission or passed building regulations. but the extension was done in approximately 1980s. What was the law back then? Did you have to comply with certain regulations? Where do we stand if we move in? it was built many years ago so are we safe from the council flagging anything up? The solicitor has recommended a structural engineer to come round and check it. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Comms69

It's been too long for the council to now enforce.


I agree that an engineer would be a good option to ensure it meets all relevant standards (though a surveyor would be able to do this also)


The main reason is that you don't want to have issues when it comes to selling

davidmcn

It's ancient history as far as consents are concerned. Yes, it's a good idea to check what condition it's in, but what reassurance do you have that the rest of the house doesn't need looked at?

Joeread

the house is 1930's built. The surveyor has been round and done a full structural survey and all is satisfactory apart from a chimney breast in the loft that needs some extra support - we have been advised we need to put a steel beam in

Cakeguts

It sounds as if the house has had a bit of DIY work done on it by someone who didn't know what they were doing judging by the unsupported chimney. Wonder how they built the extension?

davidmcn

Joeread wrote: »

the house is 1930's built. The surveyor has been round and done a full structural survey and all is satisfactory apart from a chimney breast in the loft that needs some extra support - we have been advised we need to put a steel beam in

On what basis does your solicitor feel qualified to recommend a structural engineer if the surveyor didn't flag up any concern?

Wobblydeb

Cakeguts wrote: »

It sounds as if the house has had a bit of DIY work done on it by someone who didn't know what they were doing judging by the unsupported chimney. Wonder how they built the extension?

My thoughts exactly.

Having lived in a house with bodged plumbing and electrics by the previous owner, I would never touch one like that again, unless I factored in ripping it all out to start again.

Joeread

well the surveyor hasn't flagged up any problems apart from the chimney breast. We will proceed with the sale as long as this can be rectified and as long as we get a qualified builder or structural engineer in to make sure they are happy with the standard of the extension. We are going to ask the seller for money off the purchase price - why should we have to pay for it!

ciderboy2009

You're going to need a structural engineer to do all of the calculations etc for the chimney so it might be worth getting them to look at it all at the same time.

From memory, when we had to have ours done a few years back the engineer cost about £400. The actual work was just over £1500 (but this includes some other things we had the builder do at the same time).

eddddy

Joeread wrote: »

The surveyor has been round and done a full structural survey and all is satisfactory apart from a chimney breast in the loft that needs some extra support - we have been advised we need to put a steel beam in

Joeread wrote: »

well the surveyor hasn't flagged up any problems apart from the chimney breast. We will proceed with the sale as long as this can be rectified and as long as we get a qualified builder or structural engineer in to make sure they are happy with the standard of the extension.

If you've had a structural survey from a qualified surveyor, it doesn't make sense to ask a builder for a second opinion.

A surveyor is a specialist - it's unlikely that a builder will have the same level of expert knowledge as a surveyor.


If the surveyor found a problem, you might want to ask a structural engineer to report and advise on it (e.g. to calculate the size of steel support required for the chimney breast).

But if the surveyor couldn't see any other problems, it's unlikely that a structural engineer will notice anything that the surveyor missed.