Garage converted to playroom with no permissions/building regs

Bryony84

We are close to exchange on contracts on our purchase of a property build in 2000, we have received our purchase pack and contracts and our solicitor has noted that the garage conversation to a habitable room (currently a playroom) does not have the necessary planning permissions or building regs. The original garage door is still in situ, but it has been boarded on the other side in order to create a room and a window has been added to the side elevation. Our original intention upon buying the property was to reinstate the garage function for the front portion of this room for storage purposes and erect a partition down the middle to create a utility room at the back (putting in an external door where the current window is). 

The conversion requires planning permission because the original permission for the construction of the houses by the developer states that garages and driveways must remain as parking spaces unless permission is given by the council therefore it does not fall under permitted development.

Our solicitor has suggest that either the seller must apply for retrospective permission which is a lengthy process and may be unsuccessful, or they can purchase an indemnity policy but I'm not sure how the latter would affect our ability to carry out the work we planned to or whether there are any other issues 

AdrianC

Having a window in a garage isn't a bad thing.

Just remove the boarding from inside the door, and nobody will ever be any the wiser that it was ever anything but a garage.

Mickey666

"garages . . .  must remain as parking spaces "

Really?  I wonder how many domestic garages across the country could accomodate a car right now?  Lawn mowers, bicycles, holiday stuff used just a few times each year, workbench, tools, spare bits of wood 'just in case', etc . . . all that sort of stuff and more is why most cars are not garaged these days.  Anyway, who actually goes around looking inside people's garages to confirm they have enough room for a car?

The whole thing sounds ludicrous.  I get that the garage has not got permission to be converted, in which case the seller should not really be offering it as a playroom.  If they were to just call it a garage then what's the problem?   Any potential buyer will see it for what it is anyway.  Presumably the current owners have lived with their garage/playroom without problems and presumably any future owners could do the same.  If they don't want want to, fine, find another house to buy.

I had a similar thing with a previous house where I had converted the attic into a room.  It had no planning consent so when I sold it was just described as a 'fully boarded attic with lights and power' rather than as an additional bedroom.  Potential purchasers could see the 'space' for what it was and there was no problem when I sold.

Solicitors will advise all manner of things but their advice is not (usually) law and people can make their own decisions and instruct their solicitor accordingly.

Bryony84

We knew when we viewed that we wouldn't keep it as a playroom, I'm just wondering if it will cause us any problems when we put in our planning for the utility room (which will be part of a larger plan which includes knocking through between the kitchen and dining room and adding a small extension to the dining area). I'm inclined to go for the indemnity policy option but just wondered if anyone could see any potential issues with this. I agree with the comment about cars being kept in garages, very rare these days and I drive a Ford S-max so I doubt it would fit in a standard size garage anyway!

anselld

Indemnity is fairly pointless.  It protects you against the cost of enforcement action but since the garage door still exists the remedy for enforcement action (ie returning it to being a garage) would have negligible cost anyway.

Indemnity will not ensure that the current use can continue, nor will it help with your subsequent planning application.  Furthermore any action you take (such as a planning application) which alerts the Council to the existing breach would negate the policy anyway.

As with any planning application outside of PD you cannot be certain it will be granted and you should therefore not purchase unless you accept that you may not be able to modify as you wish.

Mickey666

Not sure why a new planning application should alert the council to the existing non-approved conversion.  Drawings only need to show the outlines of rooms, not their contents, and since the garage door is still in place I’d be surprised if there was any problem.  Basically, who will ever know?
I applied for planning permission to add a pitched roof to an outbuilding that had a poorly constructed flat roof and it was granted with no problem.  No-one twigged that the outbuilding itself had been built without planning permission. So I now have an outbuilding with implied consent  

FaceHead

As above, the indemnity is a waste of the vendors money. You'd be better off chipping a bit off the price on the basis that there's a risk of enforcement/it not being up to spec etc.

If you're actually going to put it back to being a garage, it's no issue and you'll be quids in. The seller knowingly or otherwise probably saved themselves a bundle not getting planning, building regs etc, it's right you should get some of that saving when the house passes along.