No completion certificate

andrew17

Hi looking for some advice myself and my wife are just about to complete on a house we’ve only just been informed by our solicitor that the garage that was built onto the side of the house had planning permission but no completion certificate it was built in 2004 we had planned to convert the garage into a living space as we have a large family we don’t know what to do now we’ve tried our local authority building control in Glasgow but there not taking phone calls due to the corona virus any help or advice would be greatly appreciated 

Misslayed

Move requested

ambioni

We had an almost identical situation when we bought our house in 2015 (also in Scotland). The upstairs en-suite was missing the completion certificate. It had been built in 1996 so was 19 years old at the time we were buying the house. Our solicitor did search around for the paperwork but could not locate it (apparently this is quite common with extensions). However, they told us not to worry because after 20 years any such building work is considered "historic" and you won't find yourself being pursued by council due to lack of planning permissions or completion. In terms of building safety and integrity, your surveyor should take care of this for you (don't just rely on the basic survey provided in the home buyer's pack, get an independent survey too).