Building Regs/No Planning On extension..

poppysarah

steelercaz13 wrote: »

Ahhhh..... I do have the HIP, but all that's in there is a bunch of seperate pdfs - Water & Drainage thing + maps, Index of Supplied Documents, Sale Statement, Local Authority searches, title deeds and register - definitely no questionairre. Hmmmm, wonder if they're withholding that bit...!!

It's a newer thing - not sure if everyone has to have one or just those recently on the market ...


http://www.hipsworld.com/DownloadDocument.aspx/?token=A597A6DB-EF29-40C0-87EC-F180E19CA1D9

does that link work?
There's one in there.

Most of them I've seen have been filled out badly. Deliberately so imo.

russc73

Hello,

I've read a number of posts about planning permission and indemnity policies but i haven't managed to find an exact answer to our current problem, so please could someone advise?

We are currently buying a house and have discovered that the seller has an indemnity policy on it for an extension and car port conversion to a dining room. We dont know for sure when the work was done but am guessing somewhere in the region of late 70's/early 80's.

Now, despite being extremely frustrated by the farcical catch 22 position people like us are put in i.e. tell the council and hope it comes good or continue with the great indemnity cover up, we're not sure which way to play it.
I realise that in order for the purchase to go through we just have to accept the indemnity policy covering lack of PP and BRegs and get on with it but the dilemna we have is what to do once we have the purchased the property, as we have plans for it.

There is no doubt that the extensions were carried out a long time ago and therefore exempt from any enforcement issues that may arise from the council finding out, but what happens if we need to apply for planning permission in the future?. We want to replace a lot of the windows with new floor to ceiling glass, maybe open out the kitchen replacing the existing window with patio doors, potentially knock down a partition, put some decking around the place etc etc . None of which probably would require planning permission but we would preferably like to do everything above board and ask the necessry questions, seek the necessary PP/building regs or lawful certificate of development etc..

But, by having a place with two extensions that were carried out without the necessary approvals, does this stop us (or make our lives difficult) undertaking any future work we want to do which needs planning approval?. Are the council likely to be difficult? Is it best for us to just come clean once we move in and tell the council and hope that they write it off the previous works, or is this approach going to work against us when we come to sell if we dont have an indemnity policy?

any help would be really appreciated

thanks!

Doozergirl

They won't even mention the previous work. They will be concerned with what you are doing now.

You don't know when the work was done, they don't know either. The house when it was built would never have had Building Control Approval either. They've got so much else to do that try and make a conversion comply with the regs of the time it was done is pointless. The regs would be so far out of date, they don't know which date or even what the regs were at the time - what you plan to do is upgrade it simply because what you want to do has to comply with current regs. They will be happy with that.

We have never ever been asked to upgrade anything that we weren't planning to upgrade. You will see yourself that if you find something you're not happy with, you will want to change it anyway.

If it was dangerous they would say something but it's been there for 30 years - it's not dangerous.

Richard_Webster

They won't even mention the previous work. They will be concerned with what you are doing now.

You don't know when the work was done, they don't know either. The house when it was built would never have had Building Control Approval either. They've got so much else to do that try and make a conversion comply with the regs of the time it was done is pointless. The regs would be so far out of date, they don't know which date or even what the regs were at the time - what you plan to do is upgrade it simply because what you want to do has to comply with current regs. They will be happy with that.

We have never ever been asked to upgrade anything that we weren't planning to upgrade. You will see yourself that if you find something you're not happy with, you will want to change it anyway.

If it was dangerous they would say something but it's been there for 30 years - it's not dangerous.

Agree.

Also as far as Planning Law is concerned there are formal periods for immunity. So if work is more than 4 yaers old in most cases (and 10 yaers old insome situations) no emnforcement action can be taken and you could if necessary apply for a certificate of lawful development - so the Plannners will not be at all concerned.

The "problem" arises from the fact that there is no formal period after whcih Building Control cannot apply for an inunction to have the work undone and reinstarted to its previous state. Nobody seems to have told the judge in the Cottingham case that local authorities almost never use the remedy of an injunction so we are all in this silly nonsense situation with building regulations and indemnity policies because of it.

russc73

Thanks both for your advice.

So would the best approach be to continue with the current indemnity covering the past extension work but when we come to plan any new changes, just go through the usual approval channels with the council?. And by doing this the council will be unlikely to be interested in any previous lack of planning permission becuase it was so long ago?.

I'm just trying to get it clear in my head if any new planning or development on the property will invalidate the existing indemnity?. Also, whats the likely outcome if we decide to make changes to the extensions which were built without planning?, like replacing a rear wall/window with full glass panels....would the work we want to carry out then have to include bringing the rest of it up to current building regs?

thanks again, great to have good advice on tap

musicmaker29

in planning terms they just wont care at all if it's mroe than 4 years old. Even if they wanted to care, the law says they can't do anything about it.

for building regs, I would suggest that they wont even know which bits were constructed after the original house - again, they won't care. Interestingly, you don't HAVE to get your building regs from the Council, private companies can now offer this service.

in terms of indemnities - I believe they indemnify you against Council enforcement action. You will need to read the specific wording of the document to see what invalidates it (probably telling the council yourself about the extensions I imagine).

You don't need planning to put in windows and I should think that building regs will look at the work you are doing now and not the rest of the property.

as you can see I'm a bit hazy on building regs but I can tell you for definate that any development on a house (that involves building works) is completely immune from enforcment action after 4 years from substantial completion.