Noticed something in the legal pack from the sellers solicitor where they’ve declared that there’s no building regs for some work done internally. They have included the engineers report on structural load calculations. Work was to take space from the sitting room and expand the kitchen to make a kitchen/diner that is now the full width of the house.
Realise this will be an issue for buildings insurance but does anyone have experience of similar?
Can I just submit an application for building regs or is this going to be a galactic PITA for me?
Have asked the solicitor to look into it and respond but you can never have too much advice
You can submit an application for retrospective BR approval and assuming the structural engineer’s calc’s are correct, it shouldn’t be anything like a PITA.
The only way it would be an issue for buildings insurance is if you don’t get it approved.
Found the process to apply for retrospective “regularisation of regs” application but the mortgage company want buildings insurance in place before they will release funds.
Concerned that If I take out insurance knowing regs aren’t there its fraud and going to cause me pain. Can’t see any company giving me insurance if I declare work that doesn’t have approvals
May see if the seller can do the regs application pronto but it had that magic phrase “local council” that means slow and bullshit
How will it come up when you take out insurance? I can’t see that it would? They don’t ask you if the house has been extended?
It’s not really fraud, it’s failing to disclose (if you are specifically asked). Uberrimae Fidei.
If the house fell down, and the insurer knew you knew it didnt have building regs, they wouldn’t pay. Firstly, it won’t fall down and secondly, by the time it does, you’ll have building regs.
The Seller will experience similar difficulty from any prospective buyer purchasing via mortgage arrangement - Really they (Seller) needs to pay and push for the regs to be signed off. If, for example, the builders who undertook the works deviated from the engineers spec, (Used lesser steels etc) shit could get costly to put right in order to meet regs. Even if you push on and the buy goes through should you wish to sell you would likely be in the position of this issue flagging in any protective buyers searches.
The structural calculations would have recommended an appropriate RSJ or steel beam. As long as the builder didn’t then install something under spec’d or made of cheese, you should be OK.
Yep have the report/proposal and looks legitimate, its a structural engineering company with a 10 page report with load calculations for beam and brickwork, lots of complicated looking maths and graphs
Yeah no mention of the builder anywhere, that’s worrying me a bit.
It was a rental so concerned it may have been some cash in hand off the book job, there’s a building reg cert in there for a consumer unit that was replaced in 2021 but not this.
All depends on how much you want the property and how much interest there is in it. We had all sorts of issues when we bought the current house. But there was a queue of about ten people behind us keen to buy it so either we took the risk and bought it or missed out. We took the risk and 7 years later it’s been fine. Needed some additional indemnity but I pretty sure that was less than £200 for lifetime.
There were a couple of items in my place (not an extension) that needed provision.
My solicitor got the seller to provide indemnity insurance. It wasn’t a big deal.
We tried to strongarm the seller into providing the permissions and the proper deeds or the insurance. Their solicitor basically told us to fck off we have twelve people wanting to buy this property so if you aren’t willing to deal with it then we will go to another bidder. My solicitor advised me it was all admin. Pay for the indemnity and you will be fine, we decided to take that advice and no regrets yet.
