Listed building consent help

[listedhelp]

Namechanged as in the very unlikely event the buyer is reading this I don't want to be linked to posting history.

We are selling our Grade II listed house, for which we've obtained Listed Building Consent on several occasions. The buyer's solicitor has asked if the work has been checked, which it hasn't, because as far as I'm aware there's no requirement for it to be checked. We think she is looking for something along the lines of building regulations certificates but they don't exist for LBC, do they?! I can't find anything online suggesting they do but I'm having a sudden panic. I'm only panicking about certification - the work was done entirely in line with the LBC.

No they don't exist. You can't prove a negative! Tell the buyers solicitor everything is on record at the local authority and send through the building regs certificates if you have them.

There will be a record , in the Planning/ Conservation Dept. of council( and probably therefore searchable online), of Listed Building Consents. This confirms the work has been given permission.

Checking them? In the sense of looking at the work done, to check its in line with the permission given? Round here, that usually only happens if there's major works going on; for a major renovation, the Conservation Officer may well visit when Building control visits.

Otoh ,If there's a particular concern, about either a building, or tbh, the owner, a Cons Off may visit when they're in the area.
Routine work, minor work such as putting an aerial up, or interior work to houses below grade 2 star, no inspection is likely. Depends to a certain extent on the Cons Off, and the view they take. Round here, they're very hot on people using appropriate bricks when repairs are done, so any brickwork repair, they might well take a look at. Routine like for like replacement of windows, no way.

So I'd ring the Conservation Officer at local council, who can probably confirm their inspection guidelines. But I'd check with my own solicitor before opening that can of worms. A reply of " no inspection requested by Council" might be safer.

Thank you! The not proving a negative is my exact problem, I've been trying to google for confirmation they don't exist. They already have building regs certs where appropriate so I'm not sure what else she's hoping for but I just needed to confirm that I'm not going mad!

I'm afraid that building regs apply to listed buildings in exactly the same way as a non-listed property.

LBC and building regs are two separate things. LBC is approval from the local authority conservation office that you are allowed to make the changes you wish, and building regs confirm that a building inspector has visited and is happy the work has been done to the required standard.

Cross posted Evidence, the LBC itself doesn't appear to be being questioned - we've provided copies of the permission and of course it will come up in the searches and can be accessed by anyone willing to look online - but yes, we deduce that the solicitor is asking for a completion inspection certificate, which obviously doesn't exist and the conservation officer has never shown any interest in visiting - she declined a visit at the start of the year when we wanted to discuss the work.

I think I'll go with something along the lines of there being no certification in the way that building regulations provides for certificates of compliance, only the LBC, and no requests by the council to ever check the works, does that sound OK? It's hard enough to get a response from the conservation officer as it is and like you said I don't want to open a can of worms by asking her if she wants to inspect work she's never shown any interest in previously.

Thank you @Mildura but I know that. There are certificates of compliance (i.e building regs certs) for all works that require them (such as the new consumer unit), all of which were issued by professionals entitled to provide them rather than a council building regs inspector. There is also LBC for those things requiring building regs, as well as for some things that don't require building regs. What the solicitor appears to be requesting is confirmation that the LBC works were 'checked' which of course they weren't, because if the council personally inspected everything for which LBC was granted they'd never get anything else done.

So to clarify they want:

Building regs certificates
LBC
Something showing the works done under LBC have been 'checked'

As far as I'm aware only 2 of those 3 things are possible, as per Evidencebased's post, routine work done under LBC is not inspected.

I guess my reply to them would be:
There is no certification scheme to demonstrate that LBC works comply with the LBC.
All works have been carried out as specified in the LBC.
Any post work Inspection is at the discretion of the Conservation Officer, who has not requested an inspection in this case.

So yeah, what you said.