No historic building regulations approval- advice please

[BetsWishes]

Hi - we are currently processing a property, and the survey suggested we should ask for building regs for some downstairs alterations, expansion of bathroom, and chimney breast removal. The seller has lived there 20+ years, and these works did not take place in their occupancy - so they are very old. No building regs or planning documents exist.

Our solicitor is recommending either indemnity insurance for the lack of building regs, or asking the seller to get retrospective consent. The latter course of action could open a can of worms, as this would mean informing the local authority - who in a worst case scenario could ask for a lot of work to be done - and would also mean no indemnity insurance being available. I think it unlikely the seller would agree to this option.

What would you do? It means taking on a property that has some doubts about its re-sell appeal. Should we walk away, ask for a price reduction, or have we missed an easy solution? It's a good size house in a good location...

This is very common, we are actually in the same position, the house we are buying had a load bearing wall and chimney breast removed prior to current owner buying.
We are trying to find out what our sellers solicitor advised/did at the time they bought.
My sellers are getting divorced so are not very interested in the smaller details of the sale, so it’s taking time to find everything out.
It won’t stop us buying, the survey was ok, we wouldn’t ask for them to get building control and probably at most will ask for indemnity but may not even do that.
I realise we will inherit the problem, but may at some point in the future do a loft conversion and if we do we will get the building regs on this older work certified at the same time.
Obviously you need to decide what works for you, but for me it’s not a massive issue, I’d be much more annoyed if it was recent work that hadn’t been certified.

Are you sure building regs and planning approvwl were required at th time of the changes?

Personally I wouldn't make the owners go for retrospective listed building consent. If I was serious about buying I wouldn't want the conservation officer knowing every nook and cranny in the form of a recent plan and photos.
I think some form of indemnity insurance is best. If, all things being equal it's a house you love.
Buying a listed property isn't for the faint hearted (as I've learned!)

Sorry - read the title which said historic building and leapt to the u reasonable assumption that the property was listed! Scrap my answer

This all depends on when the changes were done, approvals and building regs were not always required, you need to try to find out when it was done and the rules at the time. The rules now are not relevant, it’s about what was in place then.

I'd just get a structural engineer to take a look. We bought a house 15 years ago with a chimney breast removed. Must have happened in about the mid-80s and the had no paperwork (not sure if needed then). I've always thought 'I need to make sure it's updated to today's standards for peace of mind' but, as time's gone, on I'm less bothered.

We did get a last minute price reduction though.

As it was done so long ago any problems with it should be visible. A structural engineer does not have X-ray vision, and will only go by what they (and you) can see.
The house itself is not built to current regs. If there has been little movement or cracks since the chimney breast was removed I’d say it’s fine. Indemnity insurance against what? Enforcement from the council? They ain’t interested, I assure you.

Same, as long as it is structurally sound I wouldn’t be asking for anything - was it a full level 3 survey? That should have identified any signs of potential structural issues caused by the alterations, I think.

Our house bought last year was built in 1931 and has had at least 3 major changes made - 2 rooms knocked into one sometime in the 60s/70s we think, then an early 80s rear extension and a new internal wall put up in a different place from where it was originally taken down from. Finally a loft conversion in the mid 90s by our sellers. The loft has all the paperwork, but the previous changes don’t, no idea if they did originally or even needed it at the time but, as they haven’t fallen down yet and no signs of any concerns, it’s just not an actual issue. Solicitors were not concerned beyond confirming work took place before X date which seller did. We’ll be renovating the back extension at some point anyway and that will have proper paperwork obviously for whenever we come to sell - hopefully not until we are very very old though!

Once changes are a certain age, they’d have started falling down if they weren’t structurally sound. I think

We bought a house that had had 2 alterations done to it with no building regs approvals (loft conversion and an extension) but both were very old. We took our indemnity insurance at the advice of my solicitor. It was always in the back of my mind that it might come up when we resold but it didn’t get challenged at all when we sold a couple of months back.

Sold a house with an extension built before building regs were needed. No issue buying it or selling it on. All work completed before the 80s
It didn't need them at the time and it was fine. Lots of buildings don't have paperwork and are perfectly ok. Present house is 1790s and only recent work has paperwork even though it had a new staircase and toilet. It isn't unusual to not have a paper trail for older work.

I think at this stage, in relation to alterations made this long ago, whether there is a building regs document or not is irrelevant.

Indemnity insurance is also entirely pointless at this stage. The only indemnity policy it is possible to take out is one which covers the costs associated with the local authority taking action for lack of building regs. The chances of which are slightly less than zero.

The solicitor should be helping the op more. Building regs didn’t start till thr mid sixties and it was the mid eighties before they became prescriptive, there is also a ten year rule for planning permission which prevents enforcement after this date, if these are changes that are old then it’s possible nothing is required, at all a d never was.