Extension with no building regs

loubel

You say he got consent to extend from the freeholder. Have you seen this? Did the Lease have to be varied? Usually it is a condition of any freeholder consent to alter the structure of a building (which usually belongs to the freeholder not the leaseholder) that it is done so with all necessary statutory consents so if he doesn't have these then he likely breached the consent as well. Given how recent the works were I think you should listen to your solicitor and walk away if he won't get retrospective consents.

Doozergirl

No way would I be buying from those people.   

There is no permitted development on flats, it needed planning permission. 

It's obscene that someone buys to make profit and pays no heed to the building regulations either. 

They have outright lied to you.  

What else is hidden?  

They don't deserve to sell to you.  

FreeBear

Doozergirl said: They don't deserve to sell to you.  

No.

They don't deserve to sell to anyone - The next owner buys in to all the problems the flipper has created and have to foot the bill.

mi-key

Are you sure the planning for the extension they asked the freeholder for applies to the current small extension? It could be it was there when they bought it ( maybe try searching rightmove old listings to see if you can find photos of it ) and they applied for a new larger one?

You can generally tell from looking at an extension if it has been done in the last year or if it has been there 20 years

eddddy

R583 said:

The vendor is denying they did the extension, but we know they are lying as we asked the neighbour (the vendor doesn’t know this) and  vendor asked the freeholder for permission for a rear extension about a year ago. 

Just to clarify - as above, did the neighbour say the existing extension was built within the last year?

Or did the neighbour just say that the vendor asked permission for an extension?  i.e, permission for a further extension, which has never been built.


(And more generally, is there a reason why you are trusting the 'story' that the neighbour is telling, more than the 'story' the vendor is telling?

How would the neighbour know what discussions the vendor has had with the freeholder about consents?  Might the neighbour just be reporting a bit of gossip they heard over the garden fence? Or even just making stuff up for their own amusement?)

R583 said:

They only bought it last June (it was an investment purchase that they flipped and are trying to resell) 

So you might be able to find photos and a floor plan from last June on Rightmove's property history. That might tell you if the existing extension was already there before the current vendor bought. 

EssexHebridean

Try Zoopla’s old listings archive too.