No planning permission for extension

[mitfordsisters]

We are in the process of buying a 3 bed terrace, with a ground floor extension. Just getting ready to exchange and it is just becoming apparent that the owners did not have the proper planning permission for the extension. They had permission to add another storey ( which they did not do), but no permission for the rear extension.

What do we do now? I haven't had the solicitors opinion yet. Should we delay the purchase until they have got retrospective planning permission?

It was all going swimmingly to this point! Interested to hear your views.

Would they have needed permission for it since Oct 2008 (when rules became more relaxed in most ways), or beforehand? There's quite a generous amount allowed if there haven't been any other extensions.

Was it done more than 4 years ago - this should mean you can't be made to take it down, but check.

Does it meet building regs (if it doesn't meet the latest ones don't panic, as they keep making them stricter so no building will meet current regs)?

Talk to the solicitor to establish if you could be made to take it down.

Ground floor rear extensions often don't need planning permission, even pre Oct 2008 if they're under a certain size relative to the size of the house.

Hi your Solicitor should be asking the Seller's Solicitors to provide a Lack of Planning Permission Indemnity Insurance Policy, payable by the Sellers. In my experience, obtaining retrospective PP from a Local Authority can be a protracted process. It may also be necessary to obtain a Lack of Building Regulations Policy.

Info here

Thanks chaps; all really useful. Obviously we don't want to exchange until we have assurance that we can't be made to remove it, but we could be waiting months for the local authority to grant retrospective PP. Sounds like an insurance policy might be the answer.

Make sure that it pays for the building costs of putting things right, as well as just the legal / administrative costs.

In my case, it got complicated but was eventually confirmed by the council that we couldn't be made to take the extension down, even though no policies could be obtained (got more complicated when we did a loft conversion and the builder lied that planning perm had been sorted before doing a runner - but after a couple scary inspections (the building regs guys aren't the same as the planning guys, so we thought all had been approved and then found out the planners had only just found out about us), the council have now suggested we simply get the final buildings regs approval and then live here for 4 more years.

So there are ways around most things especially in a pragmatic borough where they're mostly just wanting to avoid yet more substandard flat conversions!