Buying new house - Garage conversion and Roof Terrace not signed off to Building Regs UK England

Jeepers_Creepers

"The quality of the build sounds shocking" "the potential worst case scenario you are endangering your family and visitor"

Wow!

This used to be a garage, and I presume had a roof on it. Which didn't fall down. They don't tend to. Can't remember the last time I heard about a garage roof falling down just like that.

And it was redone in 2012 using steels and timber joists? Do you have any details of this work? Ie, was a steel fitted across half-way - say at 3m - with the timber joists suspended from this - I think that's the most likely scenario. Any info on this?

And if it is a single central steel, what do the ends bear on - are there obvious pillars on the wall at these positions, for example?

Thrugelmir

Jeepers_Creepers said:

"The quality of the build sounds shocking" "the potential worst case scenario you are endangering your family and visitor"

Wow!

This used to be a garage, and I presume had a roof on it. Which didn't fall down. They don't tend to. Can't remember the last time I heard about a garage roof falling down just like that.

Do you normally keep your car warm by insulating the floor, walls and roof. Also have windows that allow a safe exit in case the car catches fire while your are in the garage. 

PS. The thread is titled garage conversion. 

ucl1986

Section62 said:

ucl1986 said:

Strange that the solicitor would advise this since it invalidates the indemnity.

I think there is a point at which a competent solicitor shouldn't be recommending a (potentially useless) bit of paper, but instead advising the client to seek professional advice about the safety of the structure they are buying.

Sometimes folks get too focused on the 'getting away with it', and overlook the more important issue (from the buyer's perspective) as to whether there is a risk of the building killing them and/or their family due to the shortcuts someone else has taken.

We don't know whether or not that is the case here, but for a roof terrace built on a shoddily converted garage I would give the solicitor the benefit of the doubt and say they have likely done the right thing.

You can always get the vendor to provide retrospective BC sign off. This would be invasive and probably requires additional work since the original work was done 10 years ago and will not conform to the current BC standards. Generally, solicitors are not bothered by work that old. 

Either that, or walk away. 

user1977

Section62 said:

ucl1986 said:

Strange that the solicitor would advise this since it invalidates the indemnity.

We don't know whether or not that is the case here, but for a roof terrace built on a shoddily converted garage I would give the solicitor the benefit of the doubt and say they have likely done the right thing.

The difficulty is that, even if we assume the buyer is going in with their eyes open, their lender (or the solicitor wearing the lender's solicitor hat) is likely to want the box ticked of "either signed off by BR or has indemnity policy". The latter has now been ruled out as an option, which the OP might find isn't actually helpful to them unless all the necessary work is actually going to be done before completion.