To consider pulling out of a house purchase...

[SoftlyCatchyMonkey1]

Our solicitors have only just told us that the vendors have not got building regulations approval for the conservatory extension they built. We've just been finalising all the paperwork before exchanging and have discovered this. They offered indemnity insurance which I'm not comfortable with.

I'm really upset. I love that house but i feel that we can't take the risk in buying something that may be a risk and may not be compliant, so we'll have problems selling it on. The conservatory is the real selling point of the house.

I think building regs are only needed for a conservatory where the original external doors are removed, making it part of the house. Yours is like this but they may have been removed after the conservatory was built, so weren't required at the time it was added. Lots of people do that as they don't need building regs when the conservatory is built, just if they open it up to the house later, when of course nobody notices until the house is sold.

An indemnity policy is very common and deals with the issue in perpetuity, so nothing to worry about, imo.

So there might not be building regs approval, and approaching the council might not be a good idea as someone said earlier, once they are notified of a breach any indemnity policy is void. I think.

The difficulty is that there is not the same as having the consents
It is a very good solution in most cases
But it can not be guaranteed that a subsequent purchaser will accept it

Indemnity Insurance is not

I'm sure the LA could provide a copy of any existing sign off, probably for a lower cost than the Indemnity. Obviously it would have to exist in the first place for this to be possible.

Vendors do seem a bit shifty, not getting building regs, lying about being unable to find certificate. Does make you wonder what else they've chanced it with.

Will they accept a reduction in your offer if the survey says there's a lot of work required to get it up to regs standard?

SoftlyCatchyMonkey1

"Is it really common? I'm a FTB so this is all new to me."

I've seen thousands of property purchase/selling files, indemnity policies or similar are in the majority of them.

The indemnity insurance was a one off payment and very cheap, also much quicker than faffing around for ever with legal niceties