Conservatory with no building regs but has internal door

[wheelsfallenoff]

The house we're buying has a conservatory (around 15 years old) off the kitchen, with a normal internal glass door between it and the kitchen. It has underfloor heating.

From what I understand, it should have had building control sign-off given that the door isn't an external one. But the sellers haven't got any details on that (previous owners did it).

Does this matter, given the length of time it's been there? Or is there no time limit? Funds permitting, and if we're there long enough, we'd like to convert it into a proper room, but if we don't, are we going to have problems later on when we sell? What's the solution?

What does the solicitor advise? We aren’t lawyers here. My guess is that it’s easy to replace an internal door to be an external UPVC one?

Your solicitor should ask the vendors for indemnity insurance - this will cover the costs of obtaining building control sign off in the extremely unlikely event that it is required.

I know this because we've just purchased a house where the kitchen is open to the conservatory. I was more concerned that the opening was structurally sound and had a building survey done.

The current owners should be able to get building control sign of retrospectively and/or indemnity insurance. Neither is expensive or time consuming. Check with your solicitor though

Council needs to enforce building regs within 12 months of the work being completed, I believe. You can get indemnity insurance to cover the risk of the legal costs associated with that, it's pretty cheap (but a bit of a racket in my view!)

If it's been standing for 15 years, I personally wouldn't give it a second thought!

Any indemnity insurance will be utterly pointless in my opinion, fifteen years after the work was done. Nobody would or could take any action over a breach after that long.

Then again, even if the conservatory is fifteen years old, are you sure the internal door has been there the whole time? Could there have been an external door originally which has been replaced later?

In practice, if you mention the door and lack of building regulations to your solicitor, they will almost certainly ask for the vendor to pay for indemnity insurance even if you don't particularly want it. The solicitor acts for your mortgage lender too, and they may well have simple rules which leave little scope for a common sense approach!

We were forced to pay for an indemnity policy for something similar. Our vendors refused to. Cost about £200 for a shitty, leaking conservatory that we plan to demolish and replace the internal door with something more secure.

@ShaunaTheSheep

Your solicitor should ask the vendors for indemnity insurance - this will cover the costs of obtaining building control sign off in the extremely unlikely event that it is required.

I know this because we've just purchased a house where the kitchen is open to the conservatory. I was more concerned that the opening was structurally sound and had a building survey done.

I'm not sure that you'll find many indemnity policies that cover the cost of the work needed to make it comply. It's usually limited to the legal costs in the extremely unlikely event that the council come knocking.

Couldn’t you just get an external grade door if you ever wanted to sell it? Given that the likelihood is that you’re going to replace it anyway I probably wouldn’t worry.

The current owners should be able to get building control sign of retrospectively and/or indemnity insurance. Neither is expensive or time consuming.

They won't get building control sign off on a conservatory.

Indemnity is a waste of time, there is zero risk of building control pursuing this. It may be something the lender requires however...

I'm not sure that you'll find many indemnity policies that cover the cost of the work needed to make it comply. It's usually limited to the legal costs in the extremely unlikely event that the council come knocking.

That's not what I said?

Anyway,our solicitor arranged it with the vendor, who presumably agreed, as they would've had the same issue when they bought the property.

A 15 year old conservatory, I honestly wouldn't care about any paperwork. I'd be more concerned that it might be coming to the end of its life and need money spending on it.