To get cold feet about property purchase

[MrDarcysMa]

first time buyers. for ref we live in a town where most of the properties are very old/ damp/ extended/ converted into flats, etc.

Offered on a property we loved, we have found out that first sale fell though as previous buyers had not offered full asking price then were haggling for too much money off (sellers refused) because loft conversion would not be signed off by todays standards, is legal to live in and rent out now however and seems perfectly comfortable and liveable.

We had a full survey which obvs showed the same story although no damp etc (which is good)

I had a master builder aqquaintance look at it who states its fine, most properties in the area are like this and it won't ever cause us issues even if we wanted to rent it out one day. Not worth doing the work to bring loft up to current building regs as it could cost 10K + and open a can of worms/ turn out to be bigger job than expected.

I love the property but don't want to be in the same position now that current sellers are in, if we want to move on in 10 years time. Presumably all surveys will show the same info in future! I don't want to pull out and feel like a bit of a twat as we were informed of this up front but seeing the building report in black and white has made me nervous about it.

WWYD?

Depends when the building works we’re carried out as there are time limits for when the seller needs to provide the paperwork (eg works carried out more than 20 years ago). If the work was done recently but the seller doesn’t have the appropriate building regulation certification/planning permission then they can provide you with a suitable indemnity policy which will run with the house so when you sell you pass it on to your buyer. Any idea if the works needed building reg certs or planning permission?

Thanks for your reply Lola, all we know is the loft was done over 30 years ago so in the 80s some time, but not sure if it was before the requirements or if it met them and the paperwork no longer exists.
I just know that it would be very unlikely to meet todays regs so not a good idea to apply for sign off now/ de- regularisation.

Can't check with the council as I don't want to alert them!

Do you know how indemnity works - apparently the seller has is so would we have to purchase it too?

I'd definitely be cautious. I know this won't help your decision now but it depends a lot on the attitude of the renter or new buyer you sell to.

We moved into a properly 15 years ago. Perfectly happy, no issues the whole time we were there.

We came to sell it and the buyer was really careful about checking everything up, getting certificate copies of all building works.
There were 2 things that made it difficult: (1) buyer wanted the certificate for the new back door - but there wasn't one as my DH fitted it. Was really surprised as a door (whilst important!) isn't structural as such. (2) One room at the back of the house had been put an as an extention in 1958, we didn't have the paperwork for it. Even though this was 2018 when we were selling it caused all sorts of issues until our very elderly neighbour managed to find the paper planning records (bless her).

Eventually (took a long time) they bought it after some long conversations with the agents. So even though it was outside the time period for having to have certificates and the property had changed hands several times it can still be problematic. Perhaps you'd want to see if you could get it up to modern standards to get the building certificate if you want to re-sell/rent it out.