Garage conversion with no building regs certificate

Doozergirl

Kyrae said:

Thanks for the replies everyone, unfortunately for the house to work for us we'd have to use the converted garage as the dining room / somewhere to keep our books (it was described as a dining room on the estate agent listing) as it's a small house and there's nowhere else to put them! When I contacted the insurance company I didn't give any personal details etc it was just a casual call to customer services so no can of worms opened there fortunately  

Think we'll remain cautious, see if the sellers are willing to do regularisation through the council to get it signed off now, and if not will have to do a lot of thinking over whether we are happy to buy it and pay to get it regularised ourselves once we move in and potentially have to get it converted again and properly this time. 

By 'regularising' something, you are assuming that it has been done correctly and just needs signing off after a bit of a nose about.  

Do you have a link for this house? 

user1977

Kyrae said:

Think we'll remain cautious, see if the sellers are willing to do regularisation through the council to get it signed off now, and if not will have to do a lot of thinking over whether we are happy to buy it and pay to get it regularised ourselves once we move in and potentially have to get it converted again and properly this time. 

As explained above, there's no need to get it signed off by the council - so whether you might want to take steps to improve the insulation etc is really a separate question.

Kyrae

Hoping that they've either done everything properly and it will get signed off by the council, so we know it's fine and we won't have any paperwork problems when we come to sell it one day. Or if it doesn't pass they can at least let us know why it failed and what work will be needed and we can decide whether it's something we're happy to do or not.

Rather not post photos or a link etc to keep things anonymous

MaiTai

Please bear in mind that your conveyancer is also acting on behalf of your lender (in addition to yourselves) and as such is duty bound to report the lack of building regulations certification to them.

Whoever contacted building control has now negated the possibility of indemnity insurance and potentially opened a huge can of worms.

Drawingaline

Doozergirl said:

Drawingaline said:

We bought a house with a garage conversion and no paperwork. However it is an integral garage and has a bit left for storage so no windows. The doors are fire doors and it didn't feel or smell damp (house was empty) we agreed to indemnity insurance and went for it.

We are using it for our teen daughters bedroom. She has two electric heaters and although it can get quite cold there has been no damp at all. She is happy to have a nice big bedroom away from everyone else. 

Only you can decide if you want to take the risk.

You have your teenage daughter in a room with no windows?!  

In a room where the electrics haven't been tested, presumably, and two plug in heaters? 

We got the electrics tested when we moved in so we know they are all fine. She has to be in the room for the heaters to be on, cannot leave them on overnight or when she isn't in there. There is a door into the hallway and one into the storage bit at the front which then has the garage door our onto the driveway, this can be opened from inside. So she has two escape routes and a smoke alarm just outside. Therefore we are happy with using it as a bedroom. 

user1977

Kyrae said:

Hoping that they've either done everything properly and it will get signed off by the council, so we know it's fine and we won't have any paperwork problems when we come to sell it one day. 

You don't even have paperwork problems now, due to the passage of time - the works will be even more historic by the time you sell. It's really just a practical question of what improvements you might want to make, I'm not sure why you're still fretting about the council.

paulrcarter

Regrettably, this will present significant issues during a sale.

The floor, walls, and ceiling would need to be insulated to current levels, and any work done would need to be exposed for inspection.

The partition between the wall and the garage would have to be fireproof, which usually means two layers of 15mm fireline plasterboard with staggered joints at a minimum.

There is an opinion that if the time limit for building laws compliance has passed, a buyer may take an indemnity insurance plan instead. However, this primarily depends on what a lender says about the scenario.