Selling house without letter of comfort

Stubabuba

Hi all,

I'm process of having my house out on the market and I'm concerned about building work I had carried out. I had a wall removed between kitchen and dining room, work was carried out by builders with drawings done by architect and structural engineer. Spoke with architect and we have copies of the drawings, he said we can have a supporting letter from structural engineer and apply for a letter of comfort?

Does anyone have any guidance r. e. Timescales? Will this totally stop me selling the house or will it become a matter for soliciters at time of exchange etc?

I stupidly never obtained relevant authority at the time due to timescales for moving into new house.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

[Deleted User]

Stubabuba wrote: »

Hi all,

I'm process of having my house out on the market and I'm concerned about building work I had carried out. I had a wall removed between kitchen and dining room, work was carried out by builders with drawings done by architect and structural engineer. Spoke with architect and we have copies of the drawings, he said we can have a supporting letter from structural engineer and apply for a letter of comfort?

Does anyone have any guidance r. e. Timescales? Will this totally stop me selling the house or will it become a matter for soliciters at time of exchange etc?

I stupidly never obtained relevant authority at the time due to timescales for moving into new house.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

You say letter of comfort so I'm assuming this is Scotland meaning there is no exchange.

It is something that is likely to be picked up prior to the conclusion of missives. My solicitor certainly clocked that there was no planning permission for the dormer extensions on the property I bought so the vendor had to get a letter of comfort. I think they only cost a couple of hundred pounds. Most councils endeavour to inspect within 10 working days and then take about a week to issue the letter, providing the inspection was satisfactory of course.

AdrianC

Stubabuba wrote: »

Spoke with architect and we have copies of the drawings, he said we can have a supporting letter from structural engineer

Migawd, how thick is the paper that's being printed on...?

davidmcn

When was the work done?

Stubabuba

The work was carried out in 2016 . Like I say, I have all the drawings etc and would hope it wouldn't be a problem however I'm concerned about it delaying at sale as well have an offer accepted on a new house. We are putting out house on the market the start of January.

I'm waiting for confirmation of exactly what I've to apply for before progressing.

davidmcn

Does your council provide letters of comfort for work done that recently? You'll almost certainly be asked by a buyer to provide something - the risk of contacting the council is that you're then precluded from covering it with indemnity insurance. You might want to have a chat with your solicitor before doing anything.

Stubabuba

Just had a look online there and as you say a letter of comfort is for work carried out before 2005. It's a certificate if completion I need apparently! I'll get reading up on that and see what I can find

Stubabuba

Advice I was given at the time due to timescales was have work done and say work was carried out before we arrived as vast majority of homes in the street have the same modification and work will be carried out to sufficient standards. In the says of right move I know that won't wash as pictures of the house before renovation.

My question now is am I better to proceed towards selling the house and provide buyer all reassurance in terms of letter from structural engineer and possible insurance, or apply for retrospective completion certificate which could delay my sale and risk me losing the new property. I still have the relevant drawings and calculation done at the time but understand a buyer may be concerned.

Nebulous2

Nobody knows. You will be safer with a completion certificate. It will depend on your buyer or prospective buyer, but it’s not impossible that they will demand one anyway. I’d want a completion certificate for work done that recently, to provide some reassurance of the standard of work. Alterations with plans and structural engineers reports without a completion certificate would concern me that the owner hadn’t had it signed off because they didn’t think it would pass.

On the other hand a cash buyer may well be more relaxed about it and prepared to chance it.