If planning breaches aren't enforceable after 4 years why do solicitors get so hung up on work done years ago?

[donteatthehedgehogs]

We are selling a house that was carved out of a large detached house sometime in the 70's. We have no paperwork or details about the work carried out. The previous owners to us then removed a set of sliding glass doors, the fact that they changed this appears to be an issue because although they offered no fire protection, they should have been replaced with fire doors not removed altogether, aesthetically its very hard to fit fire doors into the space so we've left as it is. The buyers surveyor quizzed me on the history of this part of the house as its quite unusual.

Then we added a side window for which apparently planning should have been sought. We genuinely had no idea planning was required as it overlooks our own side garden and a neighbours blank wall, we can't see into anyone else's garden from it. There were no comments from the neighbours other than the fact that it was a good idea!

We are getting endless repetitive questions from the buyers solicitor but we've given every bit of info we have. I have no idea of the when the chimney breasts were removed etc. We have willingly agreed to pay whatever indemnities are required re the door removal and according to our solicitor the planning issue with the window is completely unenforceable due to the passage of time (9 years).

Its a character property with lots of quirks. Am happy to remarket as we haven't had an offer accepted yet but worried that all buyers are going to be similarly concerned. The only issue I can really see is the fire regs stuff, although it seems a bit daft as the doors removed would have shattered in the event of a fire. The cumulative effect of the solicitors badgering makes it seem huge to our buyers.

Does anyone know about this kind of thing.

Sounds mainly more 'building regs' rather than planning. However, if anyone's getting worked up about anything planning wise you can always apply for a certificate of lawful development - you just need to be able to prove when the work was carried out (roughly).

I dont think its the things that have been done without approval - but the fact things have been done without bldg regs and thus may affect safety. A nervous buyer is told there are no fire doors, then be told there's a window that shouldnt be there, then chimney breasts removed and wonder if its all been done properly/safely, solicitors wind up people with this sort of nonsense too.

Not sure about this issue but I know when moving the solicitors argued over £100 and it delayed moving by a week. Found out both us and the a sellers both said we weren't bothered by the £100 and either of us would pay. Personally I think they wanted the extra money costing us both over £100 in fees and other costs from the delay to exchange.

We pulled out of a house purchase years ago after the survey indicated lots of worrying issues ie subsidence, altered boundaries and a few other things that I can't remember now.

The key issue for us was that we didn't love the house - we were happy to walk away. If we had loved it, we would have assessed these issues in terms of hassle/cost to address when we moved in, rather than barriers to a purchase iyswim.

Do you think your buyers are wavering or being cautious?

Maybe a bit of both. We also walked away from a house for a minor issue which threw the spotlight on the fact that we were both had cold feet. I don't really blame the vendors, its a massive decision, just wish the solicitor would just tell them like it is rather than going on and on sending the same questions over.

The only difference between when we bought and now is the window and I suppose I don't really see the point of the 4 year planning rule if solicitors still don't trust it. We can fill the window in and totally make good for about £1,500 but as there's supposed to be no planning issue anymore, not sure whether we should do that. Its lovely!

I think Christina has hit the nail on the head. We looked at the house we are in now and the surveyor and solicitor brought up loads of questions about changes/building regs and how this that and the next thing didn't comply. We didn't care as we loved the house and were prepared to overlook these small things. Some of The things we were told about was the height of the ceiling above the stairs was not 2m, it was short of this height by 10mm, and wouldn't meet building regs - the house is 150yrs old and the roof and stairs have never changed in that time... What do they expect? They also said carport roof wasn't fixed correctly to the garage and might blow off - it's been like that for 22 years - if it was going to blow off it would have done it by now surely? The surveyor said maybe that's true but you never know... The garage doesn't have planning permission - again it had already been up 22 year does it really matter it doesn't have it after 22 yrs? No because nothing can be done about it now.

Most of the time they just mention all this stuff as an arse covering exercise so it can't come back and bite them

I think in your position, I would give them a realistic time frame eg one week to decide whether they want to proceed or whether they want to walk away and you put it back on the market.

We dithered for a while, which didn't matter as our vendor was overseas and not in a desperate hurry to sell, but an ultimation would have focused our thoughts.

Good luck.