Garage conversion wasn’t signed off by Building Regulations

Money_Conscious_Mummy

Any advice greatly appreciated!
I’m planning to put my house on the market within the next couple of months but am worried about the garage conversion I had done 8 years ago. 

My house is an end of terrace house built in the 90s, the garage was ‘inside’ the house - i.e. at the rear, directly adjacent to my kitchen and the kitchen of next door. To convert it into a dining room, the floor was raised approximately 1 foot and insulated, the walls were soundproofed and plastered, a radiator installed, 2 plug sockets installed and French doors installed where the garage door was (with brickwork required).

I had contacted the council before the work started to see if I needed planning permission - they said no as it was not an extension.

I assumed the builders would have ensured all of the relevant checks were carried out for building regulations, however I can’t find any evidence of this now! 
The builders really messed me around when completing the work and it went one month over schedule as a result, plus I had just split up with my husband and was going through a very difficult separation at the time (& also had a 2 year old to look after), so wasn’t as ‘on the ball’ as I should have been!

Does anyone know where I stand now? Do I need to get building regulations to do a retrospective inspection?

Can I sell my house without the work having the relevant certificates?

When I remortgaged my house at the end of last year, a surveyor came out but didn’t mention anything about it.

I’ve searched the internet to try and find out more but get conflicting information! I’d rather just know where I stand so I can act accordingly!

Hopefully somebody can shed some light on this for me! 🤞🏼

AdrianC

The local authority cannot take action for failing to get sign-off now - the time window to do that has long passed.

Can you sell it? Depends on if your buyers or their lenders want to make an issue of it.

Can you get it signed off now? Not without having to rip various bits of finish out to see what lies behind, and probably upgrade to current specs.

Whose fault? Ultimately, yours. And there's not a lot you can do about the builders now, except remember never to use them again.

eddddy

When you get 3 or 4 EAs round to do the market appraisals, mention the situation and ask how they would deal with it in their marketing.

• If an EA starts tutting, and talking of doom and gloom about it - don't use them.
• If an EA tells you to keep quiet about it and let a prospective buyer find out during the conveyancing - I'd tend not to use them either.

I'd go for the EA that says that they would mention it to prospective buyers when discussing your house - but not make a big deal of it. And if the prospective buyer expresses concern, tell the buyer that you (the seller) would of course pay for indemnity insurance,  if required. (Probably costing £100 or less).

Jeepers_Creepers

You ain't going to be able to keep quiet about it - there's a section in the Seller's Info Pack that deals with breaches of building regs and stuff like this. It also asks for an explanation. 

However, I also wouldn't worry unduly about this conversion as it almost certainly hasn't involved anything 'structural', requiring lintels and suchlike - the stuff that can cause legitimate concern. That just leaves the 'quality' of the work, and presumably the builders were ok from that aspect? Does it look well finished? Is it like part of the house? Cool.

Be upfront with any viewer - explain that you had it done professionally and to a high standard - insulation in the floor and walls, etc. Explain you'd checked with the LA whether PP was required, and when they said 'Non', you simply got a recommended builder and had the work done - and it's been a great room ever since.

Hopefully you'll have enough interest in the property so you can weed out any that try and make a big deal out of it, 'cos they shouldn't. :-)

ElephantBoy57

Money_Conscious_Mummy said:

I assumed the builders would have ensured all of the relevant checks were carried out for building regulations, however I can’t find any evidence of this now! 

The builders really messed me around when completing the work and it went one month over schedule as a result, plus I had just split up with my husband and was going through a very difficult separation at the time

Maybe the builders did what they were meant to do and the council will have a record of it?

Jeepers_Creepers

ElephantBoy57 said:

Money_Conscious_Mummy said:

I assumed the builders would have ensured all of the relevant checks were carried out for building regulations, however I can’t find any evidence of this now! 

The builders really messed me around when completing the work and it went one month over schedule as a result, plus I had just split up with my husband and was going through a very difficult separation at the time

Maybe the builders did what they were meant to do and the council will have a record of it?

I suspect not. That's the homeowner's responsibility, sometimes delegated to their architect, for example, if used. If the builder were to take on that duty, it would have been made very clear from the off. Also, I believe they would have had to provide Building Control with the specs they were intending to follow in order to conform. Seems unlikely to me. 

But, really, not a major issue. Just be upfront, and take the opportunity to explain to viewers what happened. Make it clear it's a perfectly good room, as good as the rest of the house.