List of requests/issues from our buyers solicitor, what to do?

[ATisketATasket]

Hello, hoping for a bit of advice. It may be a bit of a storm in a teacup, so not getting overly stressed at the moment, but would be interested to hear anyone's wisdom or experience.
We are selling our house that we have been in for nearly 5 years. We haven't done anything to the house other than a complete cosmetic overhall. However previous owners have done a small extension to the kitchen, double glazing, brick driveway, cavity wall insulation and an ensuite. The only issue flagged when we purchased was that the ensuite had not got building regs approval (they just didn't bother by the sounds of it) but and indemnity policy was arranged (at vendors expense).
Fast forward to now and our buyers solicitor is asking for evidence of building regs/planning consent and guarantees etc. for everything. And we have nothing! No paperwork was handed over relating to any of this.
So i suppose i am asking whether this is our fault, our previous conveyancer's fault and whether we are now likely to have to pay for indemnities on work that was nothing to do with us?
I will be speaking to our conveyancer about it, but its the weekend so i thought i would defer to mumsnet first

evidence of building regs/planning consent

You may be able to get this directly from the council. Do the solicitors acting the purchase still hold any documents?

Guarantees may be expired or non-transferable in any case but you could liaise with the builders who completed the work.

Just say you don't have it. I panicked over similar issues when selling my flat, and it turned out they just wanted a yes or no answer and there was no issue or fall out.

You got an indemnity policy bought for you when you purchased. Why should you not have to give one when you sell ?

In any event, all of this can be looked up easily online on the council’s website. So presumably the people who sold to you never bothered to get planning permission etc. in the first place and everybody already knows that.

The only way out of the cost of an indemnity is to apply for retrospective planning permission etc. That’s not particularly difficult or expensive but if you don’t get it the Council might enforce these laws you have ignored against you.

If you don’t get retrospective pp the council can make you tear it down.

If you don’t get building regs approval the council can either make you tear it down or put it right. Either could be expensive.

Your conveyancer doesn't sound like they were very thorough when you bought, but equally now you don't have these things, it's just another case of you paying fir indemnity for your buyers, I guess. Doesn't sound like a deal breaker.

Your previous conveyancer's should have a copy of the indemnity policy, it should be with the deeds package. Just ask them for it.
Or get a new indemnity policy. Don't approach the council though, as that could invalidate the policy.

Dont worry about this. When you bought the place, your sol asked the same and when they said no, you had an indeminity policy.

This will just happen again.

I think the short answer is yes, you will need to pay for indemnities.

However I thought that if no enforcement action had been taken after 4 years it was deemed permitted? Unless it's a listed building. Could be worth arguing the toss but indemnities seem to be the way forward.

What does your purchase summary from your previous conveyancer say? The document where they set out all the basic facts about what you are buying, what they have investigated, searches done and their results etc.

Thanks for your speedy replies.
We can see that building regs for the kitchen were granted, so perhaps the extension fell under permitted development so it wasn't needed?
We have the indemnity for the ensuite; it is transferable and wasn't a lot of money, so that is not the issue. It just seems a bit unfair we may have to pay for others that were nothing to do with us!
We don't seem to have a purchase summary, and my dh is fairly meticulous about filing. We are using the same company (although different conveyancer) so we may be able to chase these things more easily.

Do not contact the council over any of this or you won't be able to get an indemnity to cover the building regs. The extension is out of time now anyway, even if planning permission was required as it's been up for more than four years.

So you solicitor wasn't as diligent as your purchaser's or you weren't bothered about things they are bothered about, just tell them you don't have the docs and see what they come back with.

The planning permission is a red-herring now as ^pp said. You will still need a building regs indemnity though [disclaimer: I know very little and am not an expert] because these are about safety, quality of build etc.

And a buyer could potentially try to reduce the offer because if an extension doesn't have either planning or building they could argue that it's not a 2-bathroom house for example, or that it doesn't really have a utililty because it's not approved.