No building regulation approval on our extension built 13 years ago

dani_robbo

Can anyone advise? We are currently in the process of selling our property (via part exchange so no buyer yet- we are buying a new build). We bought the house in 2014 & the previous owners built an extension in 2005. When we bought it the solicitor never mentioned anything to me about building regs for the extension and therefore I (niavely) assumed all documents were in place otherwise the solicitor would have raised this with me. Skip forward 5 years and we are now selling on. I gave our current solicitor all the documents the previous owners left us relating to the extension. Within those documents was a building regs approval document which I had always assumed related to the full extension. However when the builders solicitors have looked at all the paperwork we submitted they have realised that this building regs approval was only for a 1 story extension. There is no building regs approval certificate for a 2 story extension which is what was built. I have an application form that was sent to the council for the 2 story building regulations approval but then I don’t have any response or certificate. It looks like initially the previous owners were just going to build a single story extension and then 5 months later they changed to a 2 story extension. I have all the drawings etc for both.
I looked on the online council portal and they were definitely given planning permission to build the 2 story and given that I had the application form that they sent in for building regs approval I assumed this must have been granted aswell and I contacted the council for a copy of this certificate. This was the councils response:

“In regards to your building regulations application, a certificate was never issued because the application was written off.
In order to obtain the certificate, you would need to pay the remaining £310.00 balance and arrange a final inspection with the surveyor for your area”

Obviously the £310 isn’t a huge amount of money but it really frustrates me that this was not picked up by our solicitor when we bought the house. I have a few questions with regards to all this that I wonder if any of you can help with:

1. Does anyone know what is meant by ‘the application was written off’? Does this just mean the final money was never paid and a certificate was not issued or does it mean the council wrote off the application as it was deemed unsafe/did not meet regulations? I have asked the council to clarify but have yet to receive a response.

2. What is the likelihood of an extension built in 2005 passing current building regulations & being signed off and given the certificate? I am now panicking that the house won’t meet current regs and we have now opened a can of worms and will need to spend £££ to bring it up to standard. I have tried to look at current building regs online & can find a few bits of information & it seems our house would meet the criteria I have read so far. The main one that concerns me is this statement I have found: ‘If new windows are in an upper-floor side elevation they must be obscure-glazed and either non opening or more than 1.7 metres above the floor level.’ Is this just referring to any windows which look out the side of the house and not windows which are at the front of the house, eg above the front door & looking into the back garden? Or should all of our windows in the extension open more than 1.7 metres above the floor?

3. Do we have any comeback against the solicitor we used to buy the house who didn’t pick all of this up/mention it to us?

4. Now that I have contacted the council I realise we would not be able to get indemnity insurance. Is this correct?

5. At the moment my solicitor is just responding to the builders solicitor to let them know we don’t have this document. Any chance they will just be happy with the planning permission & a survey report (surveyor for the builders came out yesterday and was very impressed with the extension but he was obviously not checking it against current building regs I am guessing as we only found out yesterday afternoon that the previous owners didn’t get full approval)? Or could we ask the builders to pay this £310 for the building regs certificate if they want that or is it really our responsibility?

Given that it is now the weekend I am panicking about all of this and expect we won’t get a quick response from the builders solicitor so any advice would be appreciated especially if you can help reassure me that we aren’t going to have to pay thousands for an extension we never even built!!

Doozergirl

If there is a certificate for a single storey that is dated around the right time then perhaps the initial application was converted to the larger project. It's what I would do. There's no way there would be a Building Control Approval certificate for an extension that never took place. It's produced at the end.

I would go to the council and view the file for the approved project. It may well be both storeys but they haven't changed the initial title of the application - which is what goes on the final certificate. I think it's more likely to be an admin error. Where 'one' should be 'two'.

You comments about window placements are planning issues. That is not building control at all.

dani_robbo

Doozergirl - many thanks for your reply. It is confusing as the approval certificate we have is dated 2004 but the extension wasn’t built until 2005. So it looks as though approval was given for a single story and then they changed their mind and built a 2 story instead. I have the drawings for the single story and then a few months later the 2 story. But that is interesting that building regs approval isn’t done until after the build. I assumed building regs are approved on the plans that are submitted and then a separate completion certificate is what is issued at the end. I will speak to the council again on Monday.
That is reassuring about the windows. So if we know there was definitely planning permission this should not be an issue hopefully.
Many thanks for your help.

dani_robbo

I have checked the building control approval notice we have and it is definitely something that was issued before the extension was built as it says the following:

‘The plans submitted have been examined and passed by the authority as complying with the building regulations subject to the conditions listed below. This approval is for the purposes of the requirements of building regulations only. Under the requirements of building regulations you are required to notify the authority at certain stages during the execution of the work. If work is not commenced within 3 years of submitting the plans the authority may declare the application void under the provisions of the building act.’

So this definitely suggests this was issued before the build & was for the single story only as it just specifies the garage and kitchen extension. Maybe the application to change this to 2 story was never changed however. I will contact the council again.

robatwork

Presumably the buyer has raised with their solicitor that you have a 2 storey extension.

How would your previous solicitor know it was a 2 storey extension - did you mention it to them?

Doozergirl

Okay, what you have isn't a completion certificate. Your solicitor was negligent, IMO.

I change my advice. The council talks of a final inspection which suggests that there were some inspections that took place. Can you ask them to confirm that?

The £310 fee is a bit concerning though. I'm guessing that's the actual inspection fee that either wasn't paid or was refunded when no inspections took place.

It sounds like your vendors didn't understand what Building Control actually do and thought that the permission is gained beforehand, like with planning permission. The builders didn't enlighten them.

Were there any electrical certs with the BC certificate?

Your only option may well be to invite them in and pay the £310 because yes, indemnity insurance is an issue now.

You hope they're nice or that they'll issue you a letter of comfort saying that they won't take action. Which they won't, but you'll want it in writing.

dani_robbo

Robatwork - there isn’t a buyer yet. We are part exchanging through Taylor Wimpey and it is Taylor wimpeys solicitors that have raised this just as we were about to exchange. And yes when I bought the house the solicitor was very aware it had a 2 story extension. This was listed in all the information about the house.


Doozergirl - so do I ask the council to put in writing that they won’t take action before they come out and inspect it? I am so worried when they inspect it they will say it doesn’t live up to current standards and we will have to spend thousands to get it up to standard and have to pull out of the current sale & loose our new build. We do have a building control application form that the previous owners sent to the council 11 months after the approval notice for a single story extension. So there does seem to be evidence that they did apply for approval of the 2 story extension, we just don’t know what happened after that. Maybe it was just merged into the file for a single story extension...

Doozergirl

It needs to meet 2005 standards, because there was an application detailing what was planned. No one is expecting it to meet today's.

You want it to be approved. I'd expect maybe a couple of small issues at final inspection that might be easy to sort.

Failing that, grovel

dani_robbo

Doozergirl - oh thanks so much, that is so reassuring! I have been reading that it would need to meet today’s standards but that must be if there wasn’t any planning permission etc? Thanks so much, you have been so helpful!