Experience of selling a house without planning permission...

[Mycaracas]

I have inherited a property, a terraced house that has had a loft conversion without any planning permission. A small extension too but I think that comes under permitted development.
I've had five estate agents for valuation, four said to just market it as a four bed with converted loft rather than a five and it wouldn't be an issue.
The final one said it might be a problem if a solicitor was 'picky' and I might need to get indemnity insurance.

My other option would be to put my head in the sand and rent it out but I really don't want the hassle and would rather have a lump sum.

Has anyone had any experience of this, TIA

Just get the indemnity insurance; it’s not a lot of money.

Is it really as simple as that then? I've heard conflicting 'advice' from people in RL

Agree with PotteringAlong it really is very cheap in the scheme of things. Our house had an extension without planning permission and we bought the indemnity for about £50

My indemnity insurance was totally financially irrelevant too. Less than £50. It's totally irrelevant, when you consider the solicitor costs.

Thanks, I've heard so much negativity.
A few saying I'll never sell it and others saying it could cost me thousands. I was worried it could end up being a bit of a millstone.

Put it on as 4 bed. Loft is useful and accessible storage.

Will the problem with the conversion not manifest themselves once someone wants to buy it but then needs to get a mortgage on it?
Is it not that you won't necessarily have a problem finding a buyer but that their mortgage company may be "difficult".?
I don't know the answer to these questions OP, but own a house with the same issue and it has always put me off selling.
Good luck.

A loft conversion may not need planning consent.
Possibly more important is building regulation sign off, do you know if that exists? Or roughly when conversion was carried out? That has a bearing too.

*not that you WILL have a problem finding a buyer....

No building regs sign off unfortunately. The work has been done for about 9 years I think.
I don't know whether to just put it up as a four bed at a low price and hope for the best.

It will sell if priced as a four bed. It’s a very common situation.

We had to get indemnity insurance when we sold our house when getting divorced as my now XH had put in access to the lower ground floor without getting planning permission and it wouldn't have passed building regs.
The indemnity was really cheap (c. £100) and we wouldn't have been able to sell it without the indemnity - our buyer's solicitor (quite rightly) insisted on it.
(backstory - we'd disagreed on whether to do the work or not - I came home one day and he'd decided to go ahead anyway and cut a hole in the floor.......)

You can apply for retrospective planning. Do you know if it met building control when it was converted? This will cost you a few hundred but may be worth it if you can then sell it as a five bed.
But check the price differential between four and five beds. There’s a big leap between two and three and three and four but maybe not so much between four and five.
Anyway it is not uncommon for people to sell with a converted loft that has no permission. You just can say it’s a bonus room.

Thanks, apparently the work was done to meet building regs but obviously I have no proof without ripping it apart which I can't afford to do.

A friend has suggested I put it up for auction. I don't know though, I'd like to get a decent price for it if I can. Maybe I should reconsider renting.
I'm finding it quite stressful.

Does it have proper stairs? Most of the illegal loft conversations have a fancy ladder that doesn't qualify as a staircase, and that's why you can't get building regs.

If you can get building refs then that's worth doing. Otherwise sell it as a 4 bed.

Depends on what they've done (usually with the windows - dorma vs velux) - a straight forward loft conversion doesn't necessarily need planning permission only building regs.

There was £15,000 between my lowest and highest valuations for selling as a four bed. A nearby property advertised as a five bed sold for the same as my highest valuation.

It has a proper stair case and velux windows. As I said according to people I've spoken to it was done to meet building regs but never got a certificate, the work was never inspected as my relation believed they should have applied for planning.

We have recently bought a house that the estate agent and vendor tried to tell us was a 3 bed as the loft was converted. However, it didn't have a proper staircase with a fire door on all upstairs bedrooms, and therefore could not be counted as a bedroom. We on,y wanted 2 plus an office space so this was fine. We got indemnity insurance for about £40 to satisfy the mortgage company. It was priced too high for a 2 bed but they accepted our lower more realistic offer.
OP, at the end of the day, you've inherited this property so whatever you sell it for is a bonus.

Might you run into problems also, if renting it?
Would it not have to meet building regs from a safety point of view?
Don't you have to have all sorts of certificates for houses that are used as rentals?
Not trying to be a harbinger of doom here OP but I am interested in this too.

This does have a proper staircase and a fire door to the loft. I know what you mean about it being a bonus whatever it sells for and it is, I do want to make the most of it though as there will not be another opportunity for me in this way. I've been out of work for 18 years of the past 20 years my earning potential is low and my pension will give me £200 a year.

I maybe naively thought I could just rent it as a four bedroom property and block off the loft. I know someone who does similar but he's pretty unscrupulous, not registered as a landlord even though it's required here.

We happily bought a 3 bed with 2 converted loft rooms with no building regs sign off. There were no problems with solicitors at all as it was marketed as a 3 bed not 5 bed. For us the loft rooms were a great office/storage space and only occasionally used as a guest room.

Market it as a 4 bed and get an indemnity policy. My friends purchase nearly fell apart in similar circumstances, but the vendor dropped the price and paid for the purchase and they went ahead with it.

You could try for retro planning, you might get it.

Purchase of insurance.....

It’s not just the loft door that needs to be a fire door.