Selling and no building regulation certificate

[sarahc336]

I bought my current home as a ftb in 2012 and had no idea what inwas doing 🤣 the previous owner had put on a conservatory snd knocked through from the kitchen to the conservatory where the original back door would have been (not the full wall more an arch where the door would have been). They didn't have the building regulation certificates and my solicitor said and i quote "it's dead common you just take out an indemnity insurance policy to protect yourself if the council enforce the conservatory to be taken down it's fine" so being a ftb and not knowing much about home renovation etc i though yeah great let's go for it.
All is good but fast forward to now and i now want to sell snd I'm now the one without the certificates 😒 feel so stupid buying the house now but I also do feel it's actually quite a common problem. Just stressing that it'll cause massive problems for us.
Anyway anyone else have any experience of this, I'll just have to be honest and say I don't have the certificates but I'll pay for you to get indemnity insurance to cover it and hope this is ok 😩 x

Just take out indemnity. How longs it been up for?

Have a good look at the indemnity policy you already have: many are written to cover 'sucessors in title', ie. your buyers.

Some buyers fuss about such things, others, like me, are not particularly bothered.
No need to stress about it unless it turns out to be a (minor) problem.

Having no building regs is actually surprisingly common. Our house has the garage converted into a second reception room and when we bought the vendor hadn’t had the regs signed off.

They took out an indemnity policy and it was up to us whether we wanted to proceed with the purchase or not. We spoke to a few friends who said this was common and they’d bought houses under similar circs - and if it was completed years ago and there have been no problems since then there shouldn’t be much to worry about.

Some buyers will be really worried about something like this, but we bought the house anyway. We did have a survey done etc.

The reason there is no building regulations for this sort of work is that in most cases, creating a permanent opening into a conservatory would never normally pass the thermal regulations without a lot of extra work.

We saw lots of these sorts of extensions when looking, but ruled them out as might cost a fortune to keep the house warm.

I'm not sure al buyers would be as fussy, and most would be happy with an indemnity policy (as you were) that is a complete waste of money as totally outside the limit for enforcement action.

I actually think indemnity policies are a bit of a scandal waiting to happen, a good number of people have no idea what they are indemnifying against, and in many cases the policies are pointless as enforcement action cannot happen anyway. Good earner for someone i'm sure.

We had the same with our previous home when we bought it in 2013. Our solicitor at the time gave our vendors a bit of hard time about it but in the end we accepted the indemnity policy. I think at the time, our surveyor just said that we could reinstate the doors if we want to.

We sold summer last year and we did worry that our buyers solicitor or surveyor might also raise the issue but it never came up. We did, however, pass on our indemnity policy as part of a big pack of paperwork/warranties/etc.. to our buyers.

I just had this as a buyer. I wasn't prepared to proceed without the completion document and didn't want the indemnity insurance. My vendors called the council and fort the extension signed off in a day.

If you think it will pass the inspection it is worth doing.

We have this two fold at the moment. Firstly the house we are selling, DH is a builder and removed an internal wall and forgot to get building regs (idiot!) but we've just had them signed off retrospectively as the work was done correctly with engineer calculating steel etc.
House we're buying has had a garage conversion with no building regs or planning but it's structurally sound and doesn't bother us as we'll probably add to it in the future and go through proper planning.
As others have said it massively bothers some people and I agree indemnity policies are a recipe waiting to happen. All they will pay for is to put it back to the way it was if the council insist on it.

I think the important thing would be to be up front with buyers about it.

We were buying a house with no building regs. Our solicitors pushed and pushed for the certificate, which the seller insisted they had. We eventually pulled out because of it.

It wouldnt necessarily put us off again, but it would make us cautious. Firstly we would want to know before putting our offer in. We would also want to look into the quality of the work and how much it would cost to put right if it needed to be improved. Our surveyor said the work was of poor quality, which combined with the lack of certificate, caused us to pull out as they ignored our request to reduce the price (and eventually sold for 20k less...).

I don't know if you could get it retrospectively signed off? Worth asking the council - although some things can be difficult to check without taking it apart. I wouldn't bother with an indemnity certificate though, I would either live with it or fix it, and make my offer accordingly.

No council is going to enforce anything. It's one thing building a house without planning or regs, another doing a knock through that probably doesn't even meet current regs as they change all the time.
I was buying a flat and there was no sign off or listed building consent for a wall being moved. I spoke to a planning lawyer and he said they aren't bothered with building regs after a couple years in terms of enforcement, but the listed building thing was an issue and it should have retrospective permission. I was gobsmacked and wondered why all conveyancers are so insistent on indemnity? And really as for the council inspecting it - unless they have xray vision and can see the footings and joists i wouldn't trust them either - money for old rope.
If it's been fine since you bought it I wouldn't worry.

Thanks guys feel a bit better now and yeah I think the indemnity policy just passes onto the new owner now I've done sone googling on it so I'll just show or off of that.
Yeah I suspect it wasn't signed off due to the heating side of it but tbh it's actually ok.
I guess as a buyer if your not happy you'll pull out or not make an offer, nice to know I'm not the only one with a house without building regs 🤣 xx