Selling house no building regs

[YourBoldFox]

Hi All,

I didn’t know what category to pick so I’m sorry if I got it wrong. I have a made a bit of mistake with home renovations. Basically we added a small (permitted development) extension to the side of our house in 2021, we had friends in the trade complete the works none of which mentioned the need for building regs. This included a load bearing wall knock through and RSJ fitted. Fast forward to now we are hoping to sell our house (offer accepted) however filling out the conveyancing paperwork it has become apparent this is going to be in issue. We don’t want to go down the retrospective building regs route as we understand this will likely incur issues and costs. Has anyone been in a similar situation and managed to sell/buy a house with no building regs? What was the resolution.

I know this is our complete mess up, and I know what we should have done but hoping there is some solution for us.

thanks

Thank you for your helpful response. I’m confident I have taken full responsibility for this stupid mistake in my previous comments and have acknowledged this was totally an error on our part (and quite frankly this would have probably happened at any age). Honestly, I’m proud of you though for being so clued up at such a young age I’m sure this will serve you well with offering constructive and useful advice on forums in the future. Until then piping up with unnecessary opinions will have to do.

My last house had an attic conversion with no building regs.

I bought it and took out indemnity insurance, had no issues with the mortgage company etc.

I sold it a couple of years ago, the buyer also took out indemnity insurance, again no problems whatsoever and it all went through absolutely fine.

Not sure why this couldn’t be exactly the same.

Lots of people do indemnity insurance, did it on my old house that I bought originally then sold a few years ago with no issues at all.

It depends on the buyer , if they see the indemnity as a means to and end it might not be an issue. I'd want to see that it is compliant with BR. The insurance doesn't show that and is largely useless for the structure itself. I can't imagine they are ever claimed against. Certainly a nice money earner for insurance companies.

Speak to your solicitor first before you go to bulls control - you may get away with indemnity insurance being accepted, one option would be to ask your solicitor to be upfront and sent a draft indemnity policy with the forms when they issue them to the buyer solicitor. If they are accepted then point resolved. If not and the buyers solicitor pushes the point then you go to build control and hope they will sign off and if not you resolve whatever works you need to get the sign off.

Problem with going to build control first is that if they say no you are then blocked for getting an indemnity policy.

Houses are sold every day using indemnity policies for lack of building regs, it is very very normal. But whether a buyer will accept it depends on how big a breach it is and how recent the works are.

Hi,

we’re not necessarily against it however the other predicament we have is we actually have new planning permission to extend further in to the area in which the current (unregulated) extension stands. This permission includes the demolishing of current extension to make room for a larger extension. This being the case the new extension would be built correctly with all certification in place. So for us we are reluctant to have inspection holes/plaster knocked of/ possible issues to rectify if ultimately us or new owner could be rebuilding from scratch anyway. I know that’s a lot of ifs and buts but if our sale falls through for this reason or another, the new extension will be built. And if the new owners plan to act on the new planning permission, the delays for building regs, and intrusive inspections will be for nothing.

thank you for responding I appreciate your personal insight

Planning permission and building regs are two different things. Not all extensions/improvements need planning permission but all developments need building regs approval.
Op, if you’re going to go down the indemnity policy route (which may/may not work depending on how thorough the solicitors and mortgage companies involved are), then DO NOT speak to the council about it. If they are aware of it any indemnity policy would be invalid.

I sold a house in 2017 where a load bearing wall had been removed by us, and we had got building reg compliance paperwork. Like you, I was honest on the property information form. The issue was raised in enquiries. We got an indemnity policy and all was good.

If you can get evidence of the steel that went in and a description of the works and photos it’s unlikely they’ll chip anything off! Just been through the same process £250 and it’s all sorted after a short meeting with someone and receipts of materials and a couple of photos we took as it was done.

I wouldn't buy a property where Building Regulations haven't been signed off, and id you do you may have a similar problem in the future if you sell it.

Indemity insurance only covers the costs against any potential enforcement action – not any remedial work.

Not if it's done of a size to be within owt tired development. That's what it means, no planning permission. Building Regulations is different.

Because the work is relatively recent, I'm not convinced that indemnity insurance would be acceptable to all lenders, and in practical terms most buyers would want to see evidence of compliance anyway.
Just do what you need to get the indemnity insurance.

I once was asked for building regs for knocking through lounge/diner when it hadn't been done. The previous owners had added in a 1980s arch halfway down the room.
Luckily it was on an estate with about 300 similar houses. I had to send a photo of the neighbours lounge!

Also, take no notice of the snotty comments from those people who always knew everything!

Thank you for this.

we have photos of bricks going up and steel going in (and receipts) but that’s all, none of the footings, or insulation etc. do you think that would be acceptable or do they need pictures and invoices from the get go?

as mentioned each stage was done by different friends in trades so although we’re confident it was all completed above board and correctly we have no proof. I guess the fear is if one stage wasn’t quite to regs it will be our job to obviously fix which in all honesty with the new planning permission we wouldn’t bother to do as we’d rather demolish and rebuild then potentially pay out £100’s/£1000’s on remedial works, when a new owner may then choose to demolish and rebuild.

Obviously this is all going to come down to the buyer I think as it seems our best option is an indemnity insurance, it’s just whether that’ll be acceptable to them and what their future plans for the property are.

many Thanks

Thank you ☺️ at a stressful time, opinions with no useful advice are not particularly helpful

Surely you’d check both? Age isn’t an excuse because people regret what they’ve done at different ages.

We bought our first house using a cheap conveyancer rather than a solicitor. They didn't pick up bits that then got picked up when we sold our house and the buyers solicitor was more on the ball. It all went through in the end but looked like they'd pull out for a while. We were young and inexperienced, nowadays I'd have looked it all up online, but we didn't live quite so much through the internet back then

An indemnity insurance is not worth the paper it’s written and no sensible buyer would accept this.

The only route to take is to regularise the extension with your local authority. They will ask you to dig a small trial hole to assess the depths of the foundations. The fact that you have a photograph of the steel is useful but you will need supporting calculations from a structural engineer to justify it. It’s quite likely you’ll be expected to expose or give evidence of the subfloor construction and insulation as well as the insulation to the walls and the roof as well as elements of the roof carcass.

Just out of curiosity what was the outcome. Did you managed to sell through?

So did you check with the council that this was Permitted Development at the time? Not all Properties benefit from Permitted Development Rights.

Dont speak to the council before you have spoken to the solicitor. Cannot stress this enough. We had to buy an indemity policy which was £60. Its really quite common. However this solution will be based on whether your buyer agrees to this. They might take fright or want proper BR done before they buy but honestly - just speak to your solicitor FIRST

We were the buyer in this situation. The vendors had knocked two rooms together and added an RSJ. Building control were quite pragmatic and agreed the regularisation based on some calculations and photos that the vendor produced, no breaking out needed.
An indemnity is one thing where it's just a technicality but as a buyer I would want some comfort that a recent structural alteration was safe.