Let down by solicitor

[Helpmyh0use]

I bought a house in January and my solicitor did not advise me that the single storey extension does not have building regulations. We have found this out due to a leak that has been happening for years was withheld by the seller. It has completely ruined and rotted through the flooring and will. It has come to light that there are no footings, all the external water pipes are within the external wall and countless other issues. We are now facing having to knock it down and rebuild it to correct regulations. Potentially at a cost of 25k. I am looking for any advice if anyone knows if I can take on the solicitor for this. Surely they have massively failed me. There is no way I would have bought this house if I knew the true story
(Picture shows the extent of the rot)

Building integrity should be checked by a survey, did you have one?

It sounds like something that should have been picked up on a survey, what did the survey say?

I had a level 2 survey and they put comments for the solicitor to check for building regs

Your first step should be to check all the communications from your solicitor to check they didn’t flag this for you. Assuming they said nothing, write to them saying what you think they did wrong and set out how you quantify your loss.

If it's within permitted development it doesn't need planning permission, I don't know about building regs & it may be that it's a very old extension & there weren't building regs needed then?
But as others have said I'd go back to your solicitor to find out.

If the leak was a known issue causing structural damage and the sellers did not disclose it in their replies then you may have a claim against the sellers. Don’t jump to blame your solicitor, they may be able to help you claim compensation or even rescind the contract.

With regards to solicitors you have to complain to them first and they have 8 weeks to respond, if they don't or you are not satisfied with their response you can then go to the legal ombudsman.
I did this in a similar situation about ten years ago, it wasn't exactly the same so I don't want to mislead you but I got a very apologetic phone call from the solicitors within a week of complaining to the ombudsman and a full settlement which was for about £12 K.
I'm not saying you are but don't be afraid of taking them on, good luck.

Perhaps he thought he was saving you problems further down the line.

There are two issues that you need to think about separately.

First, the lack of building regs. If the solicitor should have asked / checked for building regs and did not then this is a failure on their part and you would have a valid complaint. However, the lack of building regs doesn’t necessarily mean the extension was shoddily built or even non-compliant, it can just mean they were never requested or signed off and the seller provides an indemnity policy. The solicitor has not automatically caused you not to identify the leak / dodgy build. It doesn’t mean there isn’t fault on their part but it is unlikely it will cover rectification of the issues.

The second issue is the fact there was an ongoing leak the seller didn’t disclose and issues with the foundations. These are not issues the solicitor is responsible for ascertaining, they are responsible for asking the right questions but not for confirming they are truthful or certifying the state of the house. For this the seller is responsible if they lied (and possibly the surveyor, depending on what the scope of their instructions were and what they put in their report).

I would start with relatively calm questions for your solicitors about the building regs, once you’ve confirmed they definitely didn’t check. Also read the surveyor’s report carefully and work out what reliable evidence you have that there was an existing leak and that the sellers knew and lied about it. Then you can work out your best course.