. . . to consider pulling out?

[RedPandaFluff]

DH and I are buying a house. The survey came back advising that the structural alterations to the loft (a bathroom and dressing/storage area) aren't completed to building regs standard and sure enough, the vendors can't provide certificates.

Our solicitor seems to think that if the vendors buy indemnity insurance, then all our problems are solved. I have two concerns though:

1. If the roof leaked, won't our buildings insurance be void, given that we can't prove the alterations were done to a satisfactory standard without the certificates?

2. If we go to sell the house in future years, potential buyers might be put off by this, in the same way we are.

What should we do? I'm worried sick.

I paid indemnity insurance as disabled conversion was done to bungalow by council but seller had 'lost certificate, was told indemnity could be passed on if I sold it. I would want to know exactly what was not up to standard as it may be really bad or hardly need any work

Shouldn't they fix it or drop the asking price by the amount a builder says it will cost to fix?
How does your mortgage lender feel about it?

I ask because a friend buying a house aa couple of years ago had a problem with an item on the survey and the lender specifically asked for it to be fixed by the vendor or my friend and the price would reflect this.

The surveyor reckons it will cost around £5k to bring it up to standard, but the sellers are not prepared to do the work or drop the price. Also, if they did the work and then tried to get retrospective certificates, they might not get the certs anyway as the alterations have to be inspected at certain points during construction . . . And if they've told the local authority that they didn't get certs at the time, they can't get indemnity insurance!

Oh and the mortgage lender hasn't raised it as an issue, as far as I am aware.

Cut your losses. Especially if vendors aren't willing to drop the price at all. Cheeky buggers

They do the work or price gets dropped. No negotiation. Unless you're getting a bargain and you're prepared to to the work when you move in then move on.

My concerns aren't necessarily about the cost of the work - it's about getting the certificates. Even if they do the work, they might not get the certs. And my question is then, well, does that mean buildings insurance is invalid?

If the roof leaks, it wouldn't be covered by buildings insurance anyway? Maybe have a chat with an insurance broker that specialises in buildings and contents insurance? I have a house with loft room that didn't come with any paperwork, the solicitor was happy to sell me an insurance policy for it. it wouldn't be a deal breaker for me if it was the house I wanted, but totally understand what a nerve wracking time house buying is.

I wouldn’t touch that house with a 100ft barge pole.

It won't be to do with the roof leaking, it will either be structural changes i.e they've take out a chimney somewhere and not supported the stack properly or not upgraded the joists to suit live loads or it's fire regs so no proper escape routes or perhaps the insulation isn't up to current standards. Does the surveyor explain what doesn't comply? It might be something really simple to put right.

I would ring a few b&c insurers and find out.
We sold our previous house with an indemnity for a converted loft, and from what I remember we just had a regular b&c insurance. When we did have a leak in the roof and claimed, they certainly didn't ask to check our building regs certificate.

We added an en suite in our old house but didn't get a building regs certificate because we didn't realise you needed one! Was easily dealt with when we came to sell by us paying for indemnity insurance for our buyers. When I looked into it the main potential for problems regarding bathrooms was adequate ventilation (i.e. window or extractor, and if we'd put in a bath as opposed to a shower (i.e. was the floor underneath the bath able to support its weight when it was full of water?).

Does your survey actually say that there are specific problems with the lost or just that it's not been certified?

The surveyor noted a couple of things that wouldn't meet the standard for certification - ventilation and insulation, primarily. He didn't raise any concerns about the structure of the conversion itself. So, it's most likely soundly built, it's just the implications in the OP I'm worried about.

I guess I need to find out if insurers ask to see building regs certs during a claim, and if non-production of these renders the policy void.

I think it highly unlikely insurers would reject a claim due to build regs issues - there would be a flip of a lot unpaid claims if they did. I have been out of the industry a long time though so probably best to check.

I would leave this one. There are other houses

It's quite common and wouldn't bother me as long as they paid for an indemnity

How long ago was it done? It may have met regs at the time. Did it need pp?

A loft conversion with no building regs. All the indemnity policy does it cover the cost of the council coming along and saying"this conversion doesn't comply with building regs, please take it back to how it was." Something which is highly unlikely.

The main issue is the quality of the work, or rather proving it has been carried out to the appropriate standard. It is something which does frequently worry buyers. I would be pushing very hard for some sort of reduction in the price to cover the cost of getting things up to an acceptable standard. Don't let the vendor do any work.

Ventilation and insulation are easy to add in the grand scheme of things, if the structure and fire safety is all good I would be less worried. As a PP said, it also depends on when the conversion was carried out. the regs change all the time and something built ten years ago would not necessarily comply with today's regs.

What Midura said!

We were told that if a house didn't have building regs for the loft conversion then the extra bedroom in the roof shouldn't count as a bedroom when the house is sold, it should just be classed as a storage room. So if the loft room is the third bedroom without building regs it should be sold as a two bedroomed house and priced as such.

Yes that was my exprience mando12345, our old house was marketed/priced as a 3 bed despite having an additional loft conversion. We saw the loft as something to give us an edge over other 3 beds rather than asking extra for it.

So, the vendors are refusing to pay for the indemnity insurance, even though we're only talking about £200.

On point of principle, it makes me want to require the regularisation certificate, which means they'd have to do the remedial work on the ventilation and insulation!