No planning or building approvals- should I proceed

[apoorna]

Hello All,

We have been in the process of purchasing a house for the last 3 months almost and 2 weeks ago the searches came back saying there are no planning or building regulations completion certificates for a kitchen extension and a garage conversion. The current vendor refused to get a retrospective consent and said these extensions were not carried out during his stay there in the last 10 years. The surveyor did not raise any alarm and the bank is ready to progress with the mortgage as long as there is an indemnity insurance which the seller agreed to purchase.

I am emotionally invested in the house but would you go for a house which is potentially hard to resell?

Thanks

I would with insurance from the seller. You could also ask him to provide a statement to your solicitor confirming that the works haven't been done in the last 10 years.

For resale you can apply for a certificate of lawful development which confirms that no planning permission is needed.

For building control, if you've had a full survey plus indemnities, I wouldn't be too worried.

I would - it's no big deal.

You can probably find photos from the last sale online and satisfy yourselves the current vendor didn't do the work.

Thanks. Do you think this would stand in the way of any further extensions I may want to carry out in terms of planning approvals?

I'd go ahead. It's not a big deal. You can get the works. Regularised if you want later, but anything over ten years is not an issue legally

If it's been more than 4 years the council can't do anything, as far as I'm aware. I'd take the indemnity insurance for sure though.

We bought our place in 92, and there were no building regulation completion certificates for work done in the 1970s (our house was built in 1835, and there have evidently been alterations over the 182 years of its existence!).

A surveyor picked this up when we remortgaged, and the Council very kindly sent me copies of the permissions granted in the 70s for a fee, after digging around for the paperwork.

Given the length of time that has elapsed, I had no worries, and you should find the same.