House buy advise - no building regulations / safety certificates

Orchid96

Hi All,

Please advise us as we are really concerned about the lack of the Building Regulations Compliance Certificates and mainly Gas/Electricity Safety Certificates .

The house (built in 2001) we are buying, had following work done in the past,  but don't have the Building Regulations Compliance Certificates: -

1. The installation of replacement doors in 2019

2. Garage conversion in 2007 (under the previous ownership)

3. Conservatory addition under current ownership.

Also vendors are not ready to provide us with Gas/Electricity Safety Certificates, even though they have done the following work: -

1. Kitchen gas cooker replaced by Induction cooker. 

2. Conservatory addition with electrical points and underfloor heating

3. Electric car charge point

The vendors are refusing to provide these certificates but are ready to provide an indemnity insurance to cover all these.

What are our next options? We are worried about the gas/electricity issues.

Doozergirl

Get yourself gas and electrical inspections. 

Having certificates for those, whenever work was done, is no guarantee of current condition at all.   The certificates only covered a moment in time, some time ago.  

Every survey recommends you have inspections, not just certificates.  

Conservatories are mostly exempt from building control.  You shouldn't expect a certificate unless it is open to the house, without doors.  Don't expect it to be built to the standard of a proper extension.  

The garage conversion probably
doesn't include any structural work that could be considered dangerous.  It is mainly the addition of insulation and having a decent fire escape route.  

Replacement doors is a matter of checking that there is safety glass in the doors.  That is on a stamp on the glass - it can probably be googled!  

The electric car point almost certainly has sign off somewhere.  It's a specialist job, but you can get this covered under your inspections. 

There's nothing particularly frightening there.   Yes, most should have some sort of sign off, but there's nothing that can't be checked.  

Orchid96

Many thanks for your detailed reply. Garage conversion was done with an additional wall, leaving 1/3rd of the space as garage itself. The survey came back with lack of ventilation in the converted utility room, but the vendors mentioned surveyor didn't see the fan behind the fridge freezer.