Seller lied on property information form about conservatory

jwalrus9

Hello, we have bought the property but are now looking to update/change the existing utility and conservatory. Having checked through the paperwork several months later, I can see the seller ticked "no" to any extension or conversions and no to the conservatory. Yes we should have double checked this at the time of buying, but equally why would he tick no to this? I suppose my question is, if for whatever reason this then causes us to be out of pocket as it didn't have planning permission, I assume the seller would be liable ? There's no way he could dispute that he didn't know there was a conservatory and utility haha! We had a level 3 RICS survey which Included both utility and conservatory and no issues highlighted. 

Thanks

user1977

I'm not sure what your question is? You obviously knew the conservatory existed, so could have checked for any necessary planning etc? Presumably you discussed this sort of thing with your solicitor at the time - your survey would have highlighted the need to check for consents if you hadn't figured it out for yourself.

Slinky

If the conservatory is separated from the house by external grade doors, and is not connected to the central heating, it probably didn't require planning permission.

jwalrus9

Hi @Slinky, it is separated by doors, whether external grade I would need to check. However it does have gas central heating radiator in it.

GDB2222

What was the specific question that the seller ticked no to?

TheJP

Agree with comments about user1977, they are an ally you want to listen to.

Not all conservatories need planning permission dependent on ground size and if they are separated by a locked door. Do you have any come back if they don't, nope you could clearly see from your own diligence and surveyance that there was a conservatory. 

Petriix

What I'm struggling to understand is what exactly you fear could happen as a consequence of this?
No one is going to be knocking on your door demanding to see the paperwork for the conservatory. Worst case is that it falls down and you need to rebuild it, but that would be the case even if the form had been filled out correctly.

If you want to take legal action, you'll have to prove your material losses. In this case I expect that to be £0.

Soot2006

are now looking to update/change the existing utility and conservatory.

^ in which case, what does the previous build really matter?

Re the radiator - lots of people have them. I viewed a few houses with radiators in the conservatory. In one case the Estate Agent said "obviously this will be removed before the sale" and then snidely added "unless you'd rather it stayed ...." . Likewise, I saw loads with internal grade doors ... all of which can easily be changed back to an external door. In fact, that's exactly what I'm planning to do in the house I bought, for insulation reasons (well, and safety a bit too!) ...

Section62

Petriix said:

What I'm struggling to understand is what exactly you fear could happen as a consequence of this?
No one is going to be knocking on your door demanding to see the paperwork for the conservatory. Worst case is that it falls down and you need to rebuild it, but that would be the case even if the form had been filled out correctly.

It depends what the OP wants to do.

If they want to replace the conservatory with a new one, and that needs planning consent, then they potentially have a tricky situation of applying to replace a conservatory which wasn't lawful in the first place.

So the 'worst case' is actually that the planning authority discover the existing conservatory and want it removed, with nothing built in its place.

However, if you have plans or ambitions to carry out building work on a newly acquired property, one of the key things to do before committing to the purchase is to work out whether the plans you have are likely to be approved and whether there are gotchas such as existing unconsented development.  This is also a case of where indemnity policies are not necessarily worth the money.

jwalrus9

@GDB2222 he ticked no to ' an addition of a conservatory ' and no to 'building works e.g extension,loft ,garage conversion, removal of internal walls' 

user1977

jwalrus9 said:

@GDB2222 he ticked no to ' an addition of a conservatory ' and no to 'building works e.g extension,loft ,garage conversion, removal of internal walls' 

Was it the vendor who did those works?