Seller won't provide planning permission from 1998

[atomicyoghurt]

I'm buying a house and the seller's solicitor is refusing to provide planning permission and building regs from 1998 'in view of their age'. Is this normal? 1998 doesn't seem that long ago to me?

They may well not have had a certificate or regulations have changed since and was not required at the time. The work would probably predate online records. You should be able to get an indemnity policy against retrospective enforcement as long as you don't approach the council direct.

Comtact the local council yourself and ask to see them?

We know they exist from the searches shop is not a case of them missing. I just find it strange they won't provide them.
How much would it cost to get a copy

Your solicitor should be doing this btw .

My solicitor is doing this of course! They've asked me if I want to pay to get a copy because the seller won't provide them

but not told you how much ? ! Ask vendor to pay .

You could ask the council for a Letter Of Comfort. In fact, we all should- it sounds so lovely

We had this a few years ago. It turned out the extension on the house deviated significantly from planning permission given, including the fact they had knocked down a load bearing wall. Funnily enough we walked away and bought a different house.

Ugh Magrat, that sounds really hairy.

OP, given magrat's experience, I think you might need to bite the bullet... Did they say how much it would cost? I take it you've paid for surveys already? Otherwise I think I'd be saying "provide the documents or find another buyer". That way it would probably be clearer whether they're trying to avoid the cost, or whether they have something to hide.

This happened to us, they couldn't provide it because they didn't have it (or building regs approval). The application had to be done retrospectively but yes should all be dealt with by the solicitor at the vendor's cost. They can't sell without it.

Yeah it's weird though it looks like the b hold was done in 1980 but pp and br in 1998. blimmin annoying I'm waiting for my solicitor to get back to me. I've phoned to agent who is a complete arse and tools them this is the delay perhaps they could inform the seller just in case their own solicitor hasn't told them.
Previous experience is that solicitors just love to talk back and forward for ages without talking to the people involved.

If it was just a car is an indemnity is buy it, but I just can't help but feel there is something fishy considering it's not that long ago...

They didn't have computer records in 1998?!

we walked away from a house because the seller was cagey about the details, and it was at a much earlier stage than you are at.

ultimatum - seller pays to provide the details or you walk. Because this is a sign that there is a problem.

atomic they maybe didnt have records back in '98 however they have loaded all the relevent information onto their web sites. our council have put all records from 1960 up to present onto their planning web site so its easy tyo see what has changed.

I also thought that once a development had taken place if more than 20yrs had passed the planning permission was irrelevent as you cannot be made to take the development down.

I had something similar when buying the place I'm in now. From what I remember it was a simple case of buying some inexpensive insurance to cover the lack of PP. I think. sorry it's vague