Lack of building regulations and future planned building work

Calleja

Hi,

I have requested some advice from our surveyor and solicitor on this, but they've not got back to me yet.

House we are looking to purchase had an extension built on to the kitchen in 2008. No building regulation approvals were sought. It's a probate sale, so vendors were not actually living in the property themselves.

Our solicitor has offered us an indemnity policy for protection from financial loss should the LA discover the work and impose enforcement action on us. This is obviously only an option to us as the LA is not currently aware of the work.

Our plan is to extend the house again ourselves, next to and into the current extension (i.e. square off the back of the house which is currently L-shaped due to the current extension) and knock through to create one big room. In seeking planning permission for this, we will of course be alerting the LA to the current extension and lack of approvals.

In my head, this won't be a problem. Although it will invalidate the indemnity policy, given that any build we plan to do is likely to incorporate the current extension to a certain extent, any work needed to bring it up to scratch will have to be undertaken anyway (and if I understand correctly, this is what the LA would enforce - bring the build up to current standards, or remove).

Is it as simple as this, or am I missing something?

Given that it has been up for 14 years and our full building survey did not highlight any obvious structural issues (although I appreciate that only a structural survey would provide complete reassurance of this), is there anything that the builders of the current extension could have done which would make our plans to extend further impossible?

Appreciate any advice on this!

FreeBear

Too late for the council to issue any enforcement notices - That should have been done within four years (I believe) of the extension being built. So I wouldn't worry about that. Incorporate the old extension in to your plans, and follow the guidance/advice from Building Control to bring that part up to current spec.

You may need to dig out any concrete floor to upgrade the insulation which will not be cheap. Extra insulation may be needed on the walls and in the roof. Again, not cheap, but no where near as expensive as knocking down and starting from scratch. Foundations may be the only bug bear...

Tinker1961

You can apply to the council for retrospective Building Regulations approval -its called a Regularisation application. They will assess compliance with the Regulations in force when the extension was built. This means that you will not have insulate your 2008 extension to 2022 standards. The council may require work to be uncovered to check compliance with the Regulations.

eddddy

To be clear - you will not be required to do anything to the current extension (unless, for example, it's in a dangerous condition).

i.e. You can leave the current part of the kitchen exactly as it is, but make sure that the new part that you build meets building regs.

That might mean, for example, the current part of the kitchen is poorly insulated, and the new part is well insulated to 2022 standards - but that's your choice, if you want to do that. (But the rest of the house probably won't be insulated to 2022 standards either.) 


On a more extreme level, I guess it's possible that the current kitchen extension has inadequate foundations, but the new bit of kitchen that you build has 'proper' foundations - so they might 'settle' at different rates. That could cause problems later on.

But tbh, if the current kitchen extension has inadequate foundations, it's likely to cause problems even if you don't build another extension.

Niv

Tinker1961 said:

You can apply to the council for retrospective Building Regulations approval -its called a Regularisation application. They will assess compliance with the Regulations in force when the extension was built. This means that you will not have insulate your 2008 extension to 2022 standards. The council may require work to be uncovered to check compliance with the Regulations.

Why would someone bother to do this? (genuine question)

user1977

Niv said:

Tinker1961 said:

You can apply to the council for retrospective Building Regulations approval -its called a Regularisation application. They will assess compliance with the Regulations in force when the extension was built. This means that you will not have insulate your 2008 extension to 2022 standards. The council may require work to be uncovered to check compliance with the Regulations.

Why would someone bother to do this? (genuine question)

To avoid future buyers demanding that you do it when you're in the middle of a sale, or just flouncing off because they have concerns about the lack of paperwork.

eddddy

Niv said:

Tinker1961 said:

You can apply to the council for retrospective Building Regulations approval -its called a Regularisation application. They will assess compliance with the Regulations in force when the extension was built. This means that you will not have insulate your 2008 extension to 2022 standards. The council may require work to be uncovered to check compliance with the Regulations.

Why would someone bother to do this? (genuine question)

Before doing that - I would ask a surveyor and structural engineer for their opinion on the work required (and costs) to get building regs regularisation. In an extreme case, it might be demolish and rebuild.


If the cost is going to be prohibitive, it's probably better to make no regularisation application at all, than have a failed regularisation application on file.