Selling home - Building Regs

Sillymistake1

I will keep this short and simple. 

House was Re roofed in 2019, didn’t know we had to apply for building regulations. Roofer used is a contractor. He didn’t mention it and neither did I do my research. Silly me. 

I have pictures of the works done, work to me looks good and we’ve had no issues. Tiles were replaced along with batons, felt, ridges, valleys etc

We are due to list the home on the market soon and came across this requirement.  

Would it be better to apply for retrospective building regs or offer a potential buyer an indemnity policy instead? 

I know of 2 other homes on the street who also have not applied for building regulations in our area. Something which they were also unaware of. 

Any advice appreciated. 

FreeBear

What are the insulation levels like in the loft ?

Usual requirement for Building Control sign off is a minimum of 270mm of fibreglass insulation. If you have that, or more, getting retrospective sign off shouldn't be to much of a problem. Will cost quite a bit more than an indemnity policy though.

Sillymistake1

300mm. 100mm base with 200mm top up. It’s a large bungalow circa 1970s built so required it. 

Would it be wise to get the BC retrospect before listing the house or is it something we can do during it being listed? Would an EPC report be sufficient to send to the LA, as it would state the thickness of the insulation and I have pictures of the works?

AdrianC

Since the work was over a year ago, the LA cannot prosecute for lack of sign-off.

Anything more than that is down to what comforts the buyer as to the quality of the work.
Maybe a (pointless) indemnity will do that.
Maybe they'll require retrospective sign-off.
Maybe they'll be happy with the photos.
Maybe they won't care much, since if the work hadn't been done, there would be no issue - and it can only be better than that now...

Sillymistake1

Thanks for the replies. I will have to see how it fairs out. 

I forgot to mention, we also had some of the windows upgraded to upvc. All together there were 6 windows. Again, we weren’t aware that BC needed to be informed. 

As far as I’m aware the glass installer isn’t registered to a crediting body to self certify there work (small glazing/window business). How would I then go about this? Again, the work was done in 2019. 

wilfred30

I would think that the new windows would be as much of a problem as the roof.

I believe there's a question on one of the forms that asks if you've had new windows so it's likely that a buyer (or their solicitor) will require a Fensa certificate for them which, of course, you don't have because you didn't use a registered installer.

Sillymistake1

How would I go about getting a FENSA certificate? I’m assuming retrospective bc is the best way to deal with both these issues then?

Sistergold

Best to leave it all and pay for insurance, trying to get certification will cause problems and delays. 

kungfu_navs

Sillymistake1 said:

As far as I’m aware the glass installer isn’t registered to a crediting body to self certify there work (small glazing/window business). How would I then go about this? Again, the work was done in 2019. 

have a look on:

https://forms.fensa.org.uk/fensa-certificate 

enter your postcode and house number and see if anything comes up, it will tell you if there is one before purchasing

FreeBear

There are other schemes that offer self-certification for a variety of notifiable works - https://www.gov.uk/guidance/competent-person-scheme-current-schemes-and-how-schemes-are-authorised#types-of-building-workFor windows, FENSA and CERTASS are the main ones. None of them will certify someone else's  work. For that, you would need Building Control.

Sillymistake1

Thanks for the advice guys. It’s a bit of a shame I totally missed out on this information but it has only come to light.