Retrospective Building Regs?

[SmiledWithTheRisingSun]

Midway through buying a property with a loft extension that we find has no building regs.

Has anyone been through this? or persuaded a vendor to cover costs for getting this sorted before exchange?

😳

First of all, when was the work carried out?

Not a loft, but our last house didn’t have building regs for work they’d done in the kitchen/downstairs layout.

Things to think about:

• When was it done, how long has it been standing for?
• What did your survey say, anything of concern about the work? You could potentially get a further structural engineer to look at it if you are worried, but that is further costs.

Be aware that if you ask the vendor to regularise the work, or approach the council yourself to alert them to the work, you will normally lose the option of proceeding with an indemnity policy (indemnity against the council taking action). Indemnity insurance doesn’t guarantee the work is safe, but will often be necessary for the mortgage lender anyway (if you have one).

Forgot to say, in our case we went ahead after knocking a chunk of our offer, on the basis we were planning to do future work and redo anything that turned out to be dodgy anyway (but had no real concerns given the age/condition of the work).

Be aware that is is unlawful for the seller and estate agent to market describing a loft conversion as a bedroom when it doesn't have building regs

You can also have serious mortgage issues.

The sellers need to look at getting retrospective consent is possible otherwise you could take a financial hit when you sell

Be aware that is is unlawful for the seller and estate agent to market describing a loft conversion as a bedroom when it doesn't have building regs

Not quite, it really depends on when the conversion was done.

You can also have serious mortgage issues

Such as?

A colleague had a not dissimilar situation. The conversion hadn't required planning but the seller hadn't got building regs. The loft was shown as a bedroom but when the building regs were discovered her solicitor said it should never been advertised as such as is misleading and shouldn't be used as a bedroom. As it happened, the conversion was fairly decent but she was warning unless she had significant equity the valuation may be a problem and also the lender may raise an objection based on the security of the property. As a result she couldn't be hassled with the grief and pulled out

The point being, do you want to risk having a property that when you come to sell has issues such as this or the valuation is affected?

At the moment it is the seller 's problem be careful not to make it your 's
Your solicitor should give you the options
I would need retrospective consents
Some people would go ahead on the basis of an indemnity but I wouldn't

Current property didnt have the building regs signed off when it was sold from new - builder didnt get round to it. I spoke to the planners who confirmed that all the stage agreements had been done and were fine just the final signoff was the issue. Agreed the vendors would pay the costs as necessary. Went ahead fine. Building Regs asked for a fan in the internal (not in the original plans) bathroom, vendors paid, certificates issued, all good.

It really does depend on the specific situation but it's not necessarily a catastrophe.

When was the loft extended? This entire discussion could be of no relevance to the OP's purchase at all.

Look at similar houses without an unapproved loft conversion, and compare prices.

An unapproved conversion adds negative value to a house, because you have to allow for the cost of ripping it all out and then doing it again properly.

For example if the roof slopes are not correctly insulated, you have to pull all the ceilings down before insulating and building new. If the floor has not been reinforced you have to pull it up and put in new timbers or steels.

My view is that nobody decides to build to proper standards but not to have it inspected. They don't have work inspected if it is shoddy and cheap.

@PurpleWithRed it's years old. Before the vendor bought the house apparently. Thinking we will ask them to apply for retrospective building regs report.
Feels quite catastrophic right now to be honest

@BobTheDuvet that is reassuring thank you!

Years ago as in 7 or 8 years?
The current vendor really should have made the person they bought from resolve the situation, now it's their problem to sort.

Years ago as in 30 to 35?
Really not worth losing any sleep over and your surveyor's comments will be far more valuable.

As Wowfudge has already highlighted, unless you know roughly when the conversion was carried out it's difficult to accurately advise how to proceed.

But even if it was 30 years ago, then the fact it is still an issue should be warning enough. Being a loft conversion would be even more tricky given the issues that @PigletJohn mentioned

If it was 30 years ago I'm not sure why it would still be an issue.

Prior to mid/late 1980's completions certificates weren't issued, so there would be no documentation to confirm it met the regs in place at the time.

Does it really matter if a 1980's loft conversion doesn't have sufficient insulation? The regulations today require far more insulation than would have been the case then.

If the floor was not adequately reinforced then any decent surveyor would be able to spot evidence of that after such a period of time and advise accordingly.

The further back in time you go the less relevant planning consent/building regs sign off become.

But the building regs standards from 35 years ago will be somewhat different to the regs in force today.

So, a loft converted 35 years ago will not be compliant to today's regs.

That's why it is important to understand when the loft conversion in the case of the OP was carried out.

The current vendors may say "it was like that when we bought it"

But are they telling the truth?

A copy of the sales particulars, or survey report from when they bought should confirm. (I accept not everyone keeps these)

It's possible to look up historic Rightmove listings for the last 15 years too.

Often it's the case that there is no completions cert as the final inspection never took place, but earlier inspections were carried out, and therefore it's relatively easy to resolve.

Building regs constantly change and upgrade , ido not get fobbed off with indemnity insurance as it's not worth the paper it's written on and won't stop the roof collapsing around your ears

@flouncyfanny

What's your view on a loft conversions carried out before 1985?

A property being sold today that had the loft converted in 1978 for example, won't have any documentation to confirm whether it complied with the regs in place at the time. But that isn't to say that loft conversion isn't habitable accommodation.