Expanding on work the previous owner completed without a warrant

terrapinx

Based in Scotland. My house has a toilet + sink upstairs, and I want to expand the room to include a shower.

A local builder confirmed the stud wall I'm moving is non-structural, so as far as I can tell under Scottish regs the work would be a permitted development not requiring a warrant.

Problem is, the toilet was added by the previous owner 20+ years ago without the required permissions. At the sale, they took out an indemnity policy to cover it. My local council provides an advice service on warrants and permitted developments etc, but just informing them about the toilet will void that policy.

How do I proceed? I'm not worried about getting caught so much as having things in order for if I sell the house in future.

silvercar

Two ways forward:
1. You now make sure the toilet and your new shower complies and have it all certified
2. You put in a shower and have that certified and keep the indemnity policy for the toilet.

In practice, I suspect that when you sell, you would supply the certificate for the shower and your buyer would assume it covers the whole room.

terrapinx

Thanks Silvercar - when you say "certified" do you mean by a plumber rather than the council? 

My worry was that adding the shower as a permitted development wouldn't result in any paperwork, but that's a good point - if I get someone qualified to do any plumbing they can self-certify and I'll at least have that.

DB1904

terrapinx said:

Thanks Silvercar - when you say "certified" do you mean by a plumber rather than the council? 

My worry was that adding the shower as a permitted development wouldn't result in any paperwork, but that's a good point - if I get someone qualified to do any plumbing they can self-certify and I'll at least have that.

Why not do it all again correctly? Surely you're no thinking of matching a new shower to a 20 years old toilet and basin. 

FreeBear

terrapinx said: A local builder confirmed the stud wall I'm moving is non-structural, so as far as I can tell under Scottish regs the work would be a permitted development not requiring a warrant.

A builder is not qualified to say for certain that a wall is not structural. The wall could be providing support for joists (either above or below) or even bracing an external wall. Whilst it is possible that the builder has worked on identical buildings in the past where a structural engineer has passed judgement, I would be wary of taking a builder's word for it.