House with illegal extension?

louisera

Hi all,

I went to view a house yesterday which I really liked, in a great location and at a good price.

However - the agent told me that a small two storey extension on the back (creating a third bedroom) does not have planning permission. He explained breezily that i would just need indemnity insurance to cover any problems.

My concern is that online I can see permission was granted for this work in 1996 with conditions - so why would they be telling me it hasn't got permission?

What are the risks of moving forward on something like this? I'm going to ask the agent for more info and why retrospective permission / certificate of lawfulness has not been obtained - anything else to think about?


Thanks!

Doozergirl

A lack of Building Control Approval, if it has planning permission. The agent doesn't know what they're talking about, probably.

There's no such thing as an 'illegal' extension. Unlawful, perhaps.

You need to be sure that it is structurally sound - by having a survey!

AdrianC

louisera wrote: »

However - the agent told me that a small two storey extension on the back (creating a third bedroom) does not have planning permission. He explained breezily that i would just need indemnity insurance to cover any problems.

My concern is that online I can see permission was granted for this work in 1996 with conditions - so why would they be telling me it hasn't got permission?

Because the work didn't meet those conditions.

However, if it was done that long ago, then there's no point in an indemnity - because no enforcement action can be taken against it anyway.

Doozergirl

AdrianC wrote: »

Because the work didn't meet those conditions.

However, if it was done that long ago, then there's no point in an indemnity - because no enforcement action can be taken against it anyway.

No one checks on planning permissions after they're granted. If it didn't meet the conditions and that was known, then the planning department would have taken enforcement action at the time and asked them to submit for sign-off on the conditions, if necessary.

We have 8 planning conditions on our self build and none of them need subsequent approval.

If there is permission for a two storey extension then I think this is Building Control.