Selling house - regularise works carried over by previous owner (planning in place)

ReX

Hello,

I am looking for some advice regarding an issue I’ve discovered while preparing to sell my house. To my surprise, I found out that there was no final inspection for the works carried out by the previous owner, which include a loft extension and a kitchen extension.

The planning permission is in place and approved, and there is an initial notice under building control, but no recorded completion date. On my council portal, the details show:

• Application Type: Initial Notice

• Decision Status: Historic Transfer5

In comparison, for another structural work I carried out myself in the same house, the Application Type is also "Initial Notice," but the Decision Status is "Valid" with both a Completion Date and a Decision Date populated.

Unfortunately, the solicitor I used for the purchase back in April 2017 didn’t flag this issue. I had a terrible experience with that solicitor overall, and as it was my first house purchase in the UK, I wasn’t aware of these processes at the time.

I’d appreciate advice on a couple of points:

1. Do I have any grounds to claim against the solicitor for not raising this during the purchase process? Was it their responsibility to ensure the proper documentation was in place?

2. What is the best path to regularize the situation? I’d prefer to avoid creating openings or removing plasterboards for inspection, if possible, though I understand this might be necessary.

3. Additionally, I doubt I’ll be able to obtain any calculation documents for the beams installed - what do I do about this?

Thanks for your help... I feel a bit like an idiot now, so trying my best to save the situation.

Albermarle

This situation crops up regularly on the forum. 
Here is a link to a recent thread.
Thinking of buying house but owner didn’t play by the rules with planning permission - ok or not ok? — MoneySavingExpert Forum

perizadah

Has the council/your solicitor confirmed what ‘historic transfer5’ means?

ReX

Albermarle said:

This situation crops up regularly on the forum. 
Here is a link to a recent thread.
Thinking of buying house but owner didn’t play by the rules with planning permission - ok or not ok? — MoneySavingExpert Forum

Thanks, I was going through the thread but it is a slighly different situation, as my house has the planning permission, everything was built according to plans, but there was no final inspection.

perizadah said:

Has the council/your solicitor confirmed what ‘historic transfer5’ means?

I am not in touch with the solicitor, since I want to understand first if I can expect anything from them. In other words: should I ask them as a favour to help me or should I pretend they sort this mess?

I haven't asked the Council yet as I am afriad this could raise a red flag.

Green_hopeful

Slightly different situation but when we built our old house we didn’t get the final certificate. We had done everything to the requirements but not got the certificate. The council building regulations inspector came out and signed it off. It was probably 7 years after we had moved in. He checked it against the regs at the time of completion because they had changed in the interim. He was mostly concerned with extractor fans. It was missed because we had a bit of trouble with our builder at the end so we were focused on that. Looking back now I can’t even remember what the issue was. Anyway it wasn’t too tricky to resolve. 

FreeBear

ReX said: I haven't asked the Council yet as I am afriad this could raise a red flag.

Since the council are already aware of the works because of the planning application, it is unlikely you would get indemnity insurance. So contacting the council will not raise flags of any colour.

user1977

FreeBear said:

ReX said: I haven't asked the Council yet as I am afriad this could raise a red flag.

Since the council are already aware of the works because of the planning application, it is unlikely you would get indemnity insurance. So contacting the council will not raise flags of any colour.

The OP hasn’t said anything about a recent planning application. Insurers will only be interested in any contact within the last two years.

OP, how old are the works (other than some time before April 2017)?

silvercar

If the works are over 8 years old, I would suspect that telling the buyer to rely on their own survey would carry more weight than it would on works completed in the last year.

Bigphil1474

OP, it might be something as simple as the BC Inspector just not issuing the correct piece of paper. The house we bought last year had an extension built about 10 years ago. All proper PP sought and approved, BC papers were all there, but although the works were done around 2015, the final sign off wasn't done until 2023. I asked a friend who worked there and he said that particular original Inspector was notorious for not finishing jobs properly and had left the council and any jobs they had been dealing with had to be signed off by someone else. Personally, I'd speak to BC. 

user1977

Bigphil1474 said:

Personally, I'd speak to BC. 

I wouldn't speak to anyone at the council unless the OP is absolutely certain they are ruling out using an indemnity policy as a solution. And if they're planning to recover the costs from their previous solicitor, they'll be expected to mitigate their loss - and (from what we've been told) it sound like the sort of scenario where a buyer is likely to accept an indemnity policy, rather than inviting more costly remedial work and delays.

ReX

The initial notice of these works was given on December 2015. I think the works concluded sometime in 2016.

I bought the house in April 2017.

I have done other structural works in 2018, for which I can see completion date of March 2019, on the BC website.

There has been no issue with the house so far (no structural movements, no cracks, no damages, etc.) and we have done some major redocorations since the purchase, that didn't unveil anything concerning.

But I remain very concerned about what to do next. What are my options?

Shall I ask the solicitor to help? Are they supposed to fix this?