Building regulations control re extension, conservatory and removal of load bearing wall

GirlManchester

Hey everyone

I am a first time buyer and have found a great four bedroom semi-detached house near a tram stop within 3 miles of Manchester City Centre. The house was advertised at £250,000. The house went up for sale on the Thursday and my offer was accepted on the Monday. The estate agent says that four of us all offered £265,000 and that my offer was chosen, possibly as I have no chain. I love the house and would plan to live there for at least the next five years.

The issue is, there are a number of Building Control issues:

1. Extension

There is a two storey side extension to the side with full plans approved planning permission in 2005. The downstairs is a garage with a WC, the upstairs is a new master bedroom with en suite.

In terms of building regulations, the status is recorded as 'building work started'. I called Building Control to ask about this and they said there were a few visits including checking foundations. I was told it reached the pre-plasterboard stage and something was highlighted. Building Control then did not hear about the extension again. As I am not the owner of the property, Building Control would not give me any more information. I asked if it was possible to get a certificate and they replied that as the property has been habitable for more than three years they would not issue a certificate.

2. Conservatory

I can see that the conservatory has approved planning permission from 2002. It appears to be separated from the house by an external quality door. However, it has a radiator, underfloor heating and a tiled roof with timber frame. There is no record of it having building regulation approval apart from for a 'ELECSA record for New Consumer unit, Conservatory, Ring/radial circuit, Conservatory' in 2006. The Full Plans submitted for the extentsion in 2005 evidence that the conservatory had already been built by then.

3. Older extension

There appears to have been a single storey extension to the rear along with some nice skylights added to the ceiling. This had made a large kitchen dining area. There is no Building Control entry regarding this extension, removal of the load baring wall to open up the space or installation of the skylights (if this was needed).

I can see from the full plans for the side extension in 2005 that this older single storey extension already existed and that the load bearing wall had already been removed - the architect drew on his plans that he believed there was a steel beam across the centre length of the kitchen diner (where the older extension would have started).

Question

This property is incredible and its far better than anything else I have seen on the market within my budget (and beyond to an extent). However, the above issues do concern me. Would you be concerned about the above issues?

Thanks very much. I'm looking forward to hearing about your views and experiences!

davidmcn

GirlManchester said:

Would you be concerned about the above issues?

No. They're all pretty historic. Your surveyor will tell you if there are actually any problems with the works done (or indeed the rest of the house - I note you haven't told us about what consents that had...).

eddddy

Some people might suggest that you don't mention to your solicitor (or anyone else) that you've contacted the council.

Your lender might decide that they want indemnity insurance because of the lack of building regs, and you generally can't get indemnity insurance if you've contacted the council about it. It's sometimes easier to just pay a smallish sum for indemnity insurance, instead of trying to prove that it's not necessary.

GirlManchester

Thanks both. So I am not concerned about council enforcement, I don't think it's likely but your advice is really valuable eddddy. My concern is the risk that this will cost me a lot of money to put right in the future (not re building regs per se, but redoing foundations or whatever could arise), how problematic it will be for building insurance as they often do not cover work without building regs sign off and the extent to which it will put future buyers off when it becomes my time to sell. I appreciate davidmcn believe a surveyor would pick up any problems, but I'm not confident that a look around without the invasive investigations of a structural engineer breaking off plaster to check the size of steel beams etc would tell me much. I'm interested in hearing people's experiences with this sort of thing.

TheProfessional

Hi,
We have just bought our house in Manchester. Had a conservatory that was made part of the kitchen and a dining room knock through. Two load bearing walls removed and zero building regulations. Surveyor said no signs of problems and we got a structural engineer to drill into the wall to see if the beams used were sufficient. They were

I rang the council without telling them my name or address and spoke them about regularisation but the very helpful person said if I was to start regularisation they would have to fully investigate and more than likely still wouldn't get approval as 'conservatory' wouldn't be up to scratch energy efficiency wise due to lack of insulation in walls and floor etc. So if I was happy it was safe, not to worry about it

We are here long term so I think in 20 years the lack of certification will be less of an issue and as we are planning to extend a bit we would probably wrap it all up into one job to get approval

davidmcn

GirlManchester said:

I'm interested in hearing people's experiences with this sort of thing.

There are plenty of previous threads around this topic if you have a look.
If there were significant inherent problems with the work, they'd probably have made themselves known by now.
Buildings insurance is a bit of a red herring - it isn't going to cover sorting out past shoddy workmanship anyway, no matter what paperwork you have for it.
And as I said, you haven't told us about the original construction of the house...

Mickey666

I would ask the seller to obtain a copy of the building control files.  It sounds as if the extension foundations were inspected and confirmation that they were signed off would be useful, even if nothing else was signed off.
The good thing is that the various works all seem to have planning consent, so that’s good.  Building control is supposed to verify that something has been built properly but there are thousands of properties around the country built before building control was a thing that are perfectly sound, so lack of BC doesn’t automatically mean there are problems.  In this case, the extension was built 15 years ago so any serious problems would likely be apparent by now.  Also, does the original house structure itself have BC sign-off?  Probably not unless it’s a new build . . . so it can be inconsistent to worry about an extension without BC sign off when the entire house doesn’t have it either
As for buildings insurance, I can’t remember any policy asking for PP, BC (or any other) documentation.