Buying a house - no building regs / planning permissions

Goldust

Hi,


I'm in the process of buying a house. It is a house that is empty as the previous occupants part-exchanged it for a new build and it is now owned by the new build company.


The searches have come back and they show a rejected planning permission for the loft conversion from around 10 years ago for this. However, amongst the documentation which has been provided there is a "certificate of completion of work" from the council dated around 3 or 4 months after the rejection. However the search does not show any of this or a subsequent acceptance of planning permission.


Also:

• The house has a porch at the front but the entire house front has been moved forward so it's effectively not a porch but a bigger hallway
• The conservatory central heating runs off the overall central heating mains for the whole house
• The garage has been part converted so it's a smaller garage at the front with a downstairs bathroom and utility room comprising the remainder of the rear of the house

As far as I know, all of the above needs building regs / planning permission.


Everything looks to have been done correctly and to a high standard but clearly I don't want to purchase without this being resolved as it will make the house difficult to sell in the future. The work appears to have been done around 10 years ago but I can't be sure of exact dates of these except for the loft conversion and porch (as I have the expired warranty for the front door!).


My solicitor had already picked up on all of this and queried it on Friday and I have now put the homebuyers report survey on hold until this is resolved.



So the question is... what should I be asking for? Ideally I guess I want building regs checked on all of the work done. I think they could idemnify the work but then that doesn't help me if I come to sell at a later date as I presume I would then have to become the "idemnifier"?


As a side note, it looks like the property developers did not carry out searches themselves when they acquired the property.

davidmcn

Goldust wrote: »

amongst the documentation which has been provided there is a "certificate of completion of work" from the council dated around 3 or 4 months after the rejection. However the search does not show any of this or a subsequent acceptance of planning permission.

If you've got the certificate then it obviously exists. Does it matter whether the search shows it? The search may well only go back a certain length of time.

Work 10 years old is now out of time for the planners to complain about, so the lack of planning (to the extent planning would even have been required for the works) isn't a major concern.

I would wait to see what response your solicitors get and take it from there.

Goldust

davidmcn wrote: »

If you've got the certificate then it obviously exists. Does it matter whether the search shows it? The search may well only go back a certain length of time.

Work 10 years old is now out of time for the planners to complain about, so the lack of planning (to the extent planning would even have been required for the works) isn't a major concern.

I would wait to see what response your solicitors get and take it from there.

Thanks! I agree I just thought it was odd that the search only showed the rejection and nothing else.


My issue isn't really with the quality of the work, rather the fact that any future sale would create the same queries so it seems sensible to try to handle it now.

G_M

The rejection was for Planning consent - now too late for enforcement.


The certificate is (almost certainly) for Building Regulation compliance - completely different.


If BRegs signed it off that's a prety good guarantee of quality

Goldust

G_M wrote: »

The rejection was for Planning consent - now too late for enforcement.


The certificate is (almost certainly) for Building Regulation compliance - completely different.


If BRegs signed it off that's a prety good guarantee of quality

I don't understand why it would be rejected or why they would proceed anyway... is that a regular thing (or was it 10 years ago)


As there are multiple potential issues in terms of planning / regs it feels like a red flag unless they get the council to sign it all off which would seem unlikely... or am I overreacting?

davidmcn

Goldust wrote: »

I don't understand why it would be rejected or why they would proceed anyway... is that a regular thing (or was it 10 years ago)

As there are multiple potential issues in terms of planning / regs it feels like a red flag unless they get the council to sign it all off which would seem unlikely... or am I overreacting?

Yes, you are overreacting. Like we've said, it's out of time for planning enforcement.

Are you sure that what was rejected was what they ended up building anyway?

G_M

Goldust wrote: »

I don't understand why it would be rejected
there are a multitude of reasons why Planning applicatios get rejected. It's impossible for us to tell you why this one was!

or why they would proceed anyway
Perhaps
* they did not build as per the rejected perimsion, but built something lesser that fell within 'Permitted Developement' (no Planning consent required)
* they thought they could get away wth it (they have!)

... is that a regular thing (or was it 10 years ago)
is what a regular thing? Ignoring planning? Not unknown!

As there are multiple potential issues in terms of planning / regs it feels like a red flag unless they get the council to sign it all off which would seem unlikely... or am I overreacting?

What are the "multiple potential issues in terms of planning"? I can think of none. It's outside the limit for enforcement.

What are the "multiple potential issues in terms of Building Regs? Since it seems there is a certificate, there's no problem.


Just to also clarify:

there is a "certificate of completion of work" from the council dated around 3 or 4 months after the rejection. However the search does not show any of this or a subsequent acceptance of planning permission.

If you are searching the Planning records, the Building Regs certificate will not show up. It's nothing to do with Planning!