Should I buy a bungalow with extension work without sign off from the Building Control?

[yodasw101]

Hi,

My offer was accepted for a 4 bedroom Bungalow in east London, the house was renovated in 2016. After my offer was accepted, I found a solicitor and instructed them on the sale and purchase of my house by paying the initial fee. Plus, also paid for the structural survey as the house is from the 1950s.

Just today the estate agent has told me the following:

"I just want to make you aware that for the property there is no under floor heating building regulation certificate, and there was planning permission for the property but the Building control for the extension was not completed and has not been signed off. However, this is not a problem as the vendors solicitors can buy an indemnity insurance in order to protect you."

I'm relatively new to the UK housing market and the laws here. The seller lives outside of the UK and in Europe somewhere. So, it seems like he will not get the outstanding completion work done based on what I have heard from his estate agent.

What will be the impact of buying this house? Can the council/government put a penalty or ask me to demolish the construction of the extended property, etc.? Or will there be an issue later if I'll have to sell the house due to any reason?

@LemonadeFromLemons

Phone the planning department tomorrow and ask them for the latest status on the planning application. I did this once and they updated it on the website the next day.

Sure, I'll do this tomorrow. Hopefully, this will clear whether the plan was ever approved or not. Otherwise that explains the reason why there is no completion certificate and seller's response.

Buying my current house was so simple as it was a new build, buying a new one not new build is so complex! 😅🥲

If you have contacted the building regs department about the specific property then you now can't get indemnity insurance anyway.

If lack of sign off is for something like a loft conversion then in my mind the property should be valued excluding the unregulated work. So a two bed instead of a three bed for example.

Personally I would not buy the house

@Blankscreen

If you have contacted the building regs department about the specific property then you now can't get indemnity insurance anyway.

If lack of sign off is for something like a loft conversion then in my mind the property should be valued excluding the unregulated work. So a two bed instead of a three bed for example.

Personally I would not buy the house

@Blankscreen the sign off is pending for the kitchen that was done in 2016. From the outside, kitchen looks great, no idea about the internal bits.

I have got some more information about my case, some from the seller's agent and some from my own research.

As per the land registry, this house has been sold twice:

• 21/05/2014 £250,000 (It had Hallway via the front door, reception, kitchen, 2 or 3 bedrooms, bathroom)
• 30/11/2016 £350,000 (It had Hallway via the front door, kitchen, 4 bedrooms, utility room, 2 bathrooms)

Seller 1 bought this house in 2014 and has renovated it plus applied a planning application to the council for a single-storey rear extension to have a living room and kitchen. I have received the council letter from the estate agent as I was asking questions about it, the council decided to grant the planning permission based on the designs submitted back in 2014.

Seller 1 did the job and sold the house to Seller 2 in Nov 2016 without the building control completion certificate. The new owner just lived at this house for a while and then moved out of the UK somewhere in Europe.

Now as such he is out of the UK, he is selling the house but without the building control completion certificate. I have requested him via his agent to either complete the sign off process or get the retrospective regularisation certificate for the sale but he is not willing to do it. He would like to sell the house as it is with the indemnity insurance.

Below are my questions:

• Will the absence of the completion certificate affect my future extension application to the council/planning authority? As the garden is of good size and I was hoping to extend the house at the back by proper planning permission regulations.

- If the result of my own structural survey, searches is satisfactory, Should I buy this house and request the building control to complete the sign-off process? - Is there any other impact that I should be aware of at this stage? I'll not be selling the house unless there is some odd financial situation. - Is there any certificate required from some authority (building control, electrician, etc.) for the underfloor heating? - Will there be an issue getting building insurance when a building control completion certificate is not available?

If the vendor won’t get a regularisation certificate, I would Not buy this house.

You will have trouble selling it on later. And yes, this could affect your chance of getting planning permission for an extension- the council may want you to sort out the existing mess/lack of final sign off before you get permission to extend.

It’s just a really big unknown - the vendor and the estate agent want to make it sound like it’s a minor detail, but if it’s so minor why would they not just sort it before sale?

Honestly I would avoid. There will be other houses.

walk way OP.

I'd definitely walk away from this.

If you are extending anyway, you can get the work that's been done now signed off at the same time via building control if you like. This is particularly pertinent if you are changing/amending what was done.

We are buying a house with extensions with no sign off (they are far older though). Because we intend to extend the house anyway, we have decided to accept it as is. They have 2 non signed off pieces - a downstairs extension and 1st floor. All the neighbours have done the ground floor one but no one has done 1st floor so we know that is a risk and decided to accept that as it needs rebuilding anyway.

As you've spoken to the council, I don't think you can get the indemnity insurance now. You need to decide whether you want to take the risk. We know ours aren't up to modern standards - I think I would be slightly more concerned about yours given they are more modern as it's unusual they haven't got sign off.

Are the solicitors sure it's a case of them not getting it done or have they just lost it?

You could use this to argue down the price a bit...if you want to take the risk.

Yes it sounds as though you have spoken to the council BRegs department You now can't get indemnity insurance.

If you buying with a mortgage you now can't get mortgage finance without indemnity insurance.

Planning and Building Regs are 2 different depts.

It’s a ‘good price’ for a reason OP. You’ve had some great advice here but unless this is your forever house, walk away before you throw more good money after bad. As a pp said you are buying someone else’s problem. In this case the person who bought it in 2016 without Certs and sign offs. A surveyor can give his opinion, but won’t have watched the exact construction in 2014. That’s what BC is for. The report will be full of caveats. If you plan to extend you’ll need to check with the council PD to see what the local regs are but it’s possible that the majority of the allowance to extend has been used up with the current extension. Unless you plan on taking down the uncertified extension as part of a remodel?

Over the years regs have only got tighter and mortgage companies more strict about what they’ll lend against. My fear here would be spending out on surveys etc only for your lender at the last moment to make regularisation a condition which the vendor has made clear he won’t do. I’d go back to the EA and explain without regularisation the house simply isn’t worth the valuation they’ve placed on it so you’d be prepared to offer £x (the going rate for the unmodelled house) the EA knows they’re going to have the same issue with any other buyer so that places the ball firmly back into the vendor’s court.