Would you buy a house without Building Regs?

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I've name changed as a lot of my friends know I am in this situation and I do not want to be linked to other threads.

Our situation is we want to buy a house that was built in 1965 and was extended in 2010. It had 1 planning application approved and 1 declined (back and then side) and how the extension was built, it is hard to tell if it was the back or side that was declined. However, Solicitor says due to the length of time since it was built this is not an issue.

The issue they have identified is although there was BR approval to start, there is no record of BR completion certificate. Our Sol has requested the sellers apply for retrospective, but they have been told to bugger off by the sellers solicitors.

Sol has advised next steps would be to get an indemnity policy, but does say the issue will crop up when we come to sell. I assume we would do the same and offer an indemnity only?

We had a level 2 survey which did not raise any issues with the structure, it is sound etc.

Is this a 'don't touch it with a bargepole' situation or is the Sol being super cautious (they are advising the indemnity wouldn't be enough, and if we proceed we would do that against their instructions and we would have to put it in writing that we were doing so).

We are not using a mortgage, so don't have them to state their position, so this actually makes me super nervous!

An indemnity will only indemnify you against future legal costs, not the cost of putting things right in the event they are wrong. It's really up to you, but AFAIK a level 2 survey isn't enough to assess structural issues.

And if any of you have alerted building control you won't be able to get an indemnity!

Yes I would, if a full structural survey said it was ok. Depending on the age of the house and what your plans are (renovate or just move in etc), I would spend money on getting an electrical test done, unless you plan to rewire. Also if any walls have been knocked down/through I would get a structural engineer to look at them. Spend the money on reports for yourself rather than paying the solicitor to chase something the vendors have said they will not provide.

As others have said, if there has been contact with the authorities then an indeminity policy is not possible.

The length of time means any enforcement against lack of building regs has passed.

Finally, a certificate would only provide sign off for the buildings regs at the time of the work, so none of the work will meet todays standards anyway so in reality it is just a bit of paper.

Yes, I'd buy it. As PP says, the extension won't meet the building regs of today as they change so much.

We bought our current house in 2009, and we had no paperwork at all relating to two extensions, both in the 1980s. We just made sure we had a good survey.

I would be put off by the sellers being uncooperative here! They should be willing to acknowledge that the very expensive thing they are selling is problematic.

I would consider whether you could live with the worst case scenario that could arise due to not having Building Regs.

I believe the worst would be the local authority forcing you to take down the extension or make expensive modifications to bring it up to standard.

The local authority can't take action against a lack of building regs sign off more than a year after the work was completed. The biggest risk is that it becomes an issue when the house is sold on.

No, have backed away from two houses due to this. There's plenty on the market atm so why take the risk?

No, too difficult to sell on. And as PP said, I’d be completely put off by the vendor being so unhelpful.

Yeah, I have done.

Surely the worst would be that it’s actually shoddily built in some way and failure causes structural problems to the rest of the house which are expensive to fix? Indemnity policies don’t pay out the cost of remedial works, only the legal costs involved in sorting it out.

As long as survey was okay, I would. I know of many houses local to me with extensions/works not having sign off and have sold fine. It's a lot more common than people think.

Thanks for the replies, it's a probate property in a popular area, being sold by relatives. I think this is why they can't help answer why it never got signed off.

I should imagine the two issues would be when you come to sell it and possible works caused to the property or your family if the extension is unsafe.
If you are not worried about the above (has the survey confirmed structurally sound?) you could possibly go back with a lower price but factor in that it might be an issue again when you come to sell.

I bought mine without Building Regs a few months ago. Vendors took indemnity policy as time was of the essence and no one wanted to delay the chain waiting for the council to do BR. BR hadn't been obtained due to confusion on the vendors part when they had the extension done. They had building regs done with the garage conversion however. Just not the extension.
It's a long term purchase for me. No issues with the mortgage company, or survey.

So the vendors want it gone quickly and don't want to do the work to get the required sign off. They will sell it, but they'll have to drop their price, a lot. They're selling house with one less bedroom than they think they are, for a start.

Does the risk become more attractive to you if the price is significantly reduced?