Seeking Advice on Property Purchase: Various Concerns

Lets_fly

I'm currently in the process of buying my first home, and I've encountered a few concerns that I'd greatly appreciate some advice on. I apologize in advance for the lengthy post, but I want to provide as much context as possible.

1) Kitchen Extension and Garage Conversion: The property I'm interested in has undergone a kitchen extension and garage conversion in 2019. However, I've discovered that there are no planning or building regulation certificates for either of these modifications. The Garage is converted in 2019 to a room with built-in wall and door behind the garage door 

  Should I be worried about the lack of certificate , and how significant are these omissions in terms of potential future issues? Seller has agreed to provide the Indemnity Insurance. Will this issue has problem me selling in future and getting insurance?

2)When I spoke to Next door neighbour they pointed that kitchen was extended and built over the drains . They said When they extended they moved the drains to garden and built. But searches show no public sever on the property . Is this a big concern?

3)When asked about boiler service papers ,Seller says "The heating system was serviced by British Gas during the seller’s ownership. The seller has no paperwork and as above has now moved to out of contry and has no documentation relating to the property ." . So should I ask the seller to service it( I doubt will agree ) or ask for a reduction on the sale price ( but how much?)

We really like the house and its in our budget but seeing these many issue we are so much worried and not sure what to do as it might be difficult to sell the house. How concerned or worried I should be to proceed with buying and if i decide to go ahead, how much reduction on price (£560000) I should be asking for all these issues (To give context , Same property next to next house without kitchen extension and garage conversation was sold for £550000 a few months back. 

Or its a big red flag and walk away 

Roger-D

Not a red flag, necessarily. What does your solicitor say?

Planning permission - may not be needed, depending upon size. Building regs - bit more of a concern as things need to be safe. Mmm, have you asked the council? May be able to get something signed-off retrospectively. What was the vendor's reason for not having these?

Boiler - how old is it? Can you contact BG to confirm that it was serviced and as frequently as stated? Again, may not be an issue but, could be.

Vendor going abroad is usual speak for not being interested or not contactable.

I'd look into the above if you can first. Do sone research into monetary implication of each.
How does sale cost compare with market value? You may find that they've already reduced it due to these issues.

Two things when buying a house (conflicting but valid)...
Don't be overly over-run with and controlled by your emotions. Keep things in perspective and;
Don't fight over the pennies. A £5k or £10k difference, pales into insignificance over the duration. It'll soon be forgotten.

jonnydeppiwish!

If you contact the council, you won’t be able to get an indemnity policy.

Also, if you want the gas or electrics tested, you’ll need to pay for it.

user1977

Easier for everyone if you keep to one thread rather than start a new one about the same thing (since people have already given you advice about much of this):

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6499682/please-help-extension-done-over-private-drains#latest

Bigphil1474

We had our boiler serviced recently as we have sold STC, not a lot of money so not worth worrying about - we got a gas safe certificate, boiler service, new tap fitted (not supplied), and ball co c k replaced in water tank, all for £210, so the service would have been roughly £50. 

Building Control don't seem interested in garage conversions unless it becomes sleeping accommodation. If the extension was permitted development, there should still be some paperwork from building control for that (Certificate of lawful development?). Have you had a Level 3 survey done and what does that say?

gwynlas

EA would have valued the house with the extension and conversion being compliant. Considering just five years old your lender might have an issue with lack of certification/

gazfocus

As above, if you contact the council about the extension, you won't be able to get an indemnity policy, so I'd strongly advise against contacting them (your solicitor will likely advise the same). 

In terms of planning permission, a lot of extensions fall under permitted development so don't need planning permission. Without knowing the details, it's hard to say whether this particular extension falls under that but either way, as it's been up for more than 4 years, planning permission is irrelevant now.

Have a look at the structure (or even consider getting a structural engineer to take a look) and see if there's been any movement with the extension and to see if it seems well enough built.

Boiler - depending on its age, I'd always budget for replacing it in a year or so anyway and you can get a new boiler fitted for as little as £1,000 where I am (ok, only a cheap Logic boiler but still), so not being serviced wouldn't necessarily concern me.

I don't really think anything you've mentioned would justify a price reduction, especially if a house two doors down is only £10k less without the extension, but ultimately, you need to be happy with the purchase and the price you're paying.

Lets_fly

Roger-D said:

Not a red flag, necessarily. What does your solicitor say?

Planning permission - may not be needed, depending upon size. Building regs - bit more of a concern as things need to be safe. Mmm, have you asked the council? May be able to get something signed-off retrospectively. What was the vendor's reason for not having these?

Boiler - how old is it? Can you contact BG to confirm that it was serviced and as frequently as stated? Again, may not be an issue but, could be.

Vendor going abroad is usual speak for not being interested or not contactable.

I'd look into the above if you can first. Do sone research into monetary implication of each.
How does sale cost compare with market value? You may find that they've already reduced it due to these issues.

Two things when buying a house (conflicting but valid)...
Don't be overly over-run with and controlled by your emotions. Keep things in perspective and;
Don't fight over the pennies. A £5k or £10k difference, pales into insignificance over the duration. It'll soon be forgotten.

- Solicitor response - 'You will note that the sellers solicitors have provided indemnity policies for the majority of enquiries. As I mentioned, this is fine from a legal point of view however I recall you stating that you would prefer to see the actual certificates. From the sellers answers it does not seem as though they are going to be providing these. Before I write back to the sellers solicitors, please confirm your instructions in this respect and whether you are happy to go ahead without the relevant building regulations/planning permissions, and rely on the indemnity policy instead' Not much help from solictor as they happy to follow insurnce route - The kitchen extenstion is definetly not under permitted development. But it need atleast building reg certificate as the next house have done same extenstion and they got approval from council My concern is without these certificate will i get house Insurnce ? and selling in future will it be a problem

Lets_fly

user1977 said:

Easier for everyone if you keep to one thread rather than start a new one about the same thing (since people have already given you advice about much of this):

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6499682/please-help-extension-done-over-private-drains#latest

Sorry , I found out new information so could not edit the old post.

Lets_fly

Bigphil1474 said:

We had our boiler serviced recently as we have sold STC, not a lot of money so not worth worrying about - we got a gas safe certificate, boiler service, new tap fitted (not supplied), and ball co c k replaced in water tank, all for £210, so the service would have been roughly £50. 

Building Control don't seem interested in garage conversions unless it becomes sleeping accommodation. If the extension was permitted development, there should still be some paperwork from building control for that (Certificate of lawful development?). Have you had a Level 3 survey done and what does that say?

I am waiting for the mortgage to be approved before spending money for level 2 survey and these boiler services and gas certificates. Do you suggest going for level 3 survey ? the house is build in 1978 and looks in good condition.

EssexHebridean

You can certainly ask if the seller is willing to sort out getting the boiler serviced. They may say no though. We have recently bought with no boiler service paperwork and we did exactly what someone else has suggested - assumed that it might need replacing and budgeted accordingly. In fact having now had it serviced it's old (probably around 17 - 20 years) but it's still in perfect working order - the only thing our heating engineer said was that because of its age, if it does go wrong he'd probably advise a straight replacement rather than starting to mess around with replacing odds and ends as it often then leads to more bits breaking on a boiler of this age.