Buying a house without Building Regs on Internal Wall

CharMcc86

Hey All 

I am looking for some advice - First-time buyers here & we are at the final stages of buying our first house. Our solicitor has highlighted to us that an Internal wall does not have building regs since being taken out 10 years ago. 

- We have a Structural Engineer going to look at it to check it's safe
- I have spoken to Buildings insurance providers who don't seem that bothered by it
- We have indemnity Insurance in place

Are we missing anything else? 

We didn't get a full structural report (possibly a big mistake) but now its too late or it will delay the move - which we don't want as we are in a rental & our contract ends shortly. 

I just want to check there is nothing else anyone who's been through this might suggest doing or covering? 

user1977

CharMcc86 said:

- I have spoken to Buildings insurance providers who don't seem that bothered by it

Are we missing anything else? 
 

There's no need to flag it up to insurers. You just need to answer the questions they ask you (which aren't going to include this).

But bear in mind that a standard buildings policy isn't going to insure you against problems caused by the work having been done poorly.

eddddy

It sounds like you've taken all the reasonable steps.

To be honest, the structural engineer might not be able to tell you very much. Without hacking off plaster (or maybe lifting floorboards upstairs), he/she won't be able to see whether a suitable joist was used. And the seller almost certainly won't allow that kind of intrusive work.

The normal result of an undersized joist (or inadequate support) is movement and cracking. So the SE will look for cracks, or signs that previous cracking has been 'covered up'. That may show up as lines which aren't truly horizontal or vertical, or are a bit wavy.

I guess it's a slightly higher risk if the room has been recently redecorated. A dodgy seller might have done that to hide cracks.

But I guess the SE can give you an opinion on whether there's sufficient lateral support with the wall removed. (i.e. internal walls can provide support for external walls. You could say that an internal wall can be used to stop an external wall 'falling inwards or outwards' - so taking away an internal wall could be a problem.)