Help required - purchasing house with no building work certification

Bendy_House

Building Control are fully aware of this - I think that's good. If this situation is as the vendor says - the work was inspected at some key stages - then the documents will (should) have a record of this.

ID the actual BCO involved, assuming they still work there. Even if the actual officer involved isn't still there, the dept should have a record of the visits undertaken, and - in a bungalow loft extension - the earliest visits are likely to be the most important ones, involving anything 'structural', such as beams and new floors. The next main visit is often to do with 'insulation', and everything after that is usually very minor  (stuff like electrics, plumbing, ventilation, stair bannisters...)

So, if you can get confirmation of which stages have been checked (and passed), and if these include the structure and insulation, I'd say you are on pretty safe ground, and only a churlish vendor would feel otherwise. Everything else is easy to check and test.

Have you had that info from BC? What records do they have of visits, and at what was checked?

(We had our loft converted around 15 years ago, and the BCO came out for all the important stages, leaving only the '2nd fix', wallboarding, leccy & plumbing, fitting-out of bathroom, finishing, etc. which I was doing myself. I was meant to contact the BCO when it was completed and before using the space, but time rolled on, and I finished it off whilst using it (main bedroom) over the next year or so. It was years afterwards (two years ago) before I realised that I hadn't had it signed off, and emailed very apologetically to the new BCO (the previous fellow having retired). The guy was great, laughed it off, checked the work, told me to stick in an extractor in the en-suite, came back to check I did..., and signed it off.)

martindow

Revolverocelot said:

An indemnity policy is not an option as the local council are already aware as a result of checks done by our conveyancing solicitor. They have placed a contravention notice on the property. 

The likelihood of any enforcement action is zero as the building work is 15 years old. 

However our main issue is that our solicitor is saying that he cannot confirm to the lender that their security is not affected by this issue. And therefore he is saying upon his advice to them, that they won’t give us our mortgage. 

What can we do?

Your solicitor's actions in informing the LA seem very remiss as they appear to have scuppered the possibility of the indemnity policy that is the normal resolution of this problem. 

If this prevents your purchase, I would invoke the complaints procedure of your solicitors.  Wait though in case the lenders do eventually advance the money and the sale goes through. 

Revolverocelot

martindow said:

Revolverocelot said:

An indemnity policy is not an option as the local council are already aware as a result of checks done by our conveyancing solicitor. They have placed a contravention notice on the property. 

The likelihood of any enforcement action is zero as the building work is 15 years old. 

However our main issue is that our solicitor is saying that he cannot confirm to the lender that their security is not affected by this issue. And therefore he is saying upon his advice to them, that they won’t give us our mortgage. 

What can we do?

Your solicitor's actions in informing the LA seem very remiss as they appear to have scuppered the possibility of the indemnity policy that is the normal resolution of this problem. 

If this prevents your purchase, I would invoke the complaints procedure of your solicitors.  Wait though in case the lenders do eventually advance the money and the sale goes through. 

I believe they were alerted as we had a survey completed which made mention of the extension. 

We instructed out solicitor to ask the sellers to produce certification. They said that they didn’t have it. 

Without our instruction I believe our solicitor has taken it upon himself to contact the council to enquire about obtaining the certificate and this has led to them placing on the contravention notice. 

We did not instruct him to do this. 

babyblade41

Revolverocelot said:

martindow said:

Revolverocelot said:

An indemnity policy is not an option as the local council are already aware as a result of checks done by our conveyancing solicitor. They have placed a contravention notice on the property. 

The likelihood of any enforcement action is zero as the building work is 15 years old. 

However our main issue is that our solicitor is saying that he cannot confirm to the lender that their security is not affected by this issue. And therefore he is saying upon his advice to them, that they won’t give us our mortgage. 

What can we do?

Your solicitor's actions in informing the LA seem very remiss as they appear to have scuppered the possibility of the indemnity policy that is the normal resolution of this problem. 

If this prevents your purchase, I would invoke the complaints procedure of your solicitors.  Wait though in case the lenders do eventually advance the money and the sale goes through. 

I believe they were alerted as we had a survey completed which made mention of the extension. 

We instructed out solicitor to ask the sellers to produce certification. They said that they didn’t have it. 

Without our instruction I believe our solicitor has taken it upon himself to contact the council to enquire about obtaining the certificate and this has led to them placing on the contravention notice. 

We did not instruct him to do this. 

I think your solicitor has made a bit of a !!!!!! up here , I would wait to see what the lender concludes as an indemnity policy is not not a viable option 

Slithery

Revolverocelot said:

An indemnity policy is not an option as the local council are already aware as a result of checks done by our conveyancing solicitor. They have placed a contravention notice on the property.

Revolverocelot said:

I believe they were alerted as we had a survey completed which made mention of the extension. 

We instructed out solicitor to ask the sellers to produce certification. They said that they didn’t have it. 

Without our instruction I believe our solicitor has taken it upon himself to contact the council to enquire about obtaining the certificate and this has led to them placing on the contravention notice. 

We did not instruct him to do this. 

Your solicitor has messed up big time here and I'm not sure if there will be a solution for this particular property now that there is a contravention notice in place.

TheJP

Revolverocelot said:

martindow said:

Revolverocelot said:

An indemnity policy is not an option as the local council are already aware as a result of checks done by our conveyancing solicitor. They have placed a contravention notice on the property. 

The likelihood of any enforcement action is zero as the building work is 15 years old. 

However our main issue is that our solicitor is saying that he cannot confirm to the lender that their security is not affected by this issue. And therefore he is saying upon his advice to them, that they won’t give us our mortgage. 

What can we do?

Your solicitor's actions in informing the LA seem very remiss as they appear to have scuppered the possibility of the indemnity policy that is the normal resolution of this problem. 

If this prevents your purchase, I would invoke the complaints procedure of your solicitors.  Wait though in case the lenders do eventually advance the money and the sale goes through. 

I believe they were alerted as we had a survey completed which made mention of the extension. 

We instructed out solicitor to ask the sellers to produce certification. They said that they didn’t have it. 

Without our instruction I believe our solicitor has taken it upon himself to contact the council to enquire about obtaining the certificate and this has led to them placing on the contravention notice. 

We did not instruct him to do this. 

A surveyor wouldn't alert the council about an extension.

user1977

Slithery said:

Revolverocelot said:

An indemnity policy is not an option as the local council are already aware as a result of checks done by our conveyancing solicitor. They have placed a contravention notice on the property.

Revolverocelot said:

I believe they were alerted as we had a survey completed which made mention of the extension. 

We instructed out solicitor to ask the sellers to produce certification. They said that they didn’t have it. 

Without our instruction I believe our solicitor has taken it upon himself to contact the council to enquire about obtaining the certificate and this has led to them placing on the contravention notice. 

We did not instruct him to do this. 

Your solicitor has messed up big time here and I'm not sure if there will be a solution for this particular property now that there is a contravention notice in place.

The only real solution is to take the pragmatic view that the council can't/won't do anything about a 15 year old extension which doesn't actually have anything wrong with it. If the solicitor has any sense they should be recommending to the lender that they go ahead, rather than have to deal with the OP's complaint for mucking up the whole transaction.

Revolverocelot

TheJP said:

Revolverocelot said:

martindow said:

Revolverocelot said:

An indemnity policy is not an option as the local council are already aware as a result of checks done by our conveyancing solicitor. They have placed a contravention notice on the property. 

The likelihood of any enforcement action is zero as the building work is 15 years old. 

However our main issue is that our solicitor is saying that he cannot confirm to the lender that their security is not affected by this issue. And therefore he is saying upon his advice to them, that they won’t give us our mortgage. 

What can we do?

Your solicitor's actions in informing the LA seem very remiss as they appear to have scuppered the possibility of the indemnity policy that is the normal resolution of this problem. 

If this prevents your purchase, I would invoke the complaints procedure of your solicitors.  Wait though in case the lenders do eventually advance the money and the sale goes through. 

I believe they were alerted as we had a survey completed which made mention of the extension. 

We instructed out solicitor to ask the sellers to produce certification. They said that they didn’t have it. 

Without our instruction I believe our solicitor has taken it upon himself to contact the council to enquire about obtaining the certificate and this has led to them placing on the contravention notice. 

We did not instruct him to do this. 

A surveyor wouldn't alert the council about an extension.

They didn’t. Our conveyancing solicitor did by testing to obtain it when we had t asked him to

TheJP

I believe they were alerted as we had a survey completed which made mention of the extension.

We instructed out solicitor to ask the sellers to produce certification. They said that they didn’t have it. 

Without our instruction I believe our solicitor has taken it upon himself to contact the council to enquire about obtaining the certificate and this has led to them placing on the contravention notice. 

We did not instruct him to do this. 

A surveyor wouldn't alert the council about an extension.

They didn’t. Our conveyancing solicitor did by testing to obtain it when we had t asked him to

I believe they were alerted as we had a survey completed which made mention of the extension. 

Your solicitor has really messed up here if he has shared this with the local authority without your instruction.

Revolverocelot

Further help required - 

inspection has taken place today by the local authority. Luckily the seller agreed to have this done. 

Of course, we’ve been unlucky and they have refused to certify the works. 

Apparently the extension required some new windows, a fire door and a wired in smoke alarm. 

What happens next as I cannot see the seller getting all of this work done before selling to us. Nor would I expect them to. 

These are minor issues that would never in a million years affect the re-sale of this property in the future. So I cannot see how the mortgage company’s lending to us would be at risk. 

But I just know that our solicitor will tell them it is without this certificate. 

Beyond frustrated