No FENSA, building regs, planning permission or LBC!

[umbel]

The house we are buying had all windows replaced in 2017, with double glazed unit. Turns out there is no FENSA certificate for the installation, nor were they signed off by building regs. Worse still, the house is listed, so does not come under permitted development, so the work should have had planning permission AND listed building consent. It has neither. Sellers are pushing us to just accept some kind of indemnity policy, but from what I have read, they are not worth the paper they are written on, and besides, we think they have started the process of retrospectively asking for LBC. Does anyone have any idea how expensive and time consuming this might be to sort out? We are hoping to exchange soon and complete in early March.

To add - if the sellers have approached the council (either planning or conservation departments) any insurance would be invalid anyway.

DO NOT TOUCH a listed house done up without permission unless you are happy to pay for everything to be undone and reinstated as it was, to the materials spec desired by the conservation officer! All alterations in the house and it's curtilige need permission, not just the bits mentioned in the listings document. Good luck!

Walk, actually no, run away as fast as you can!

If it's listed, that's the main issue though indemnity insurance should cover you. If it wasn't listed I would be more laid back - I don't have a fensa certificate for one set of windows because the company went bust 2 weeks after installing them

I wouldn't care about the FENSA & probably wouldn't care about building regs (I didn't think there was signiff for straight replacement windows??)
Planning may be a problem, maybe not - 2017 means 4 years have passed since install now?

The main thing is focus on is the listed building side of things- I suspect that will be the major issue but don't really know much about it .

I do understand the implications of it being listed. Sadly the current owners don’t seem to have. Walking away is not really an option at this point though (already sold and in rented, literally no other houses available, rising market). I need an idea of how long it will take to resolve though. I’m pretty confident the CO won’t insist they are removed and originals reinstated. They are wood and in keeping. I’ve had dealings with the department before and they are pretty pragmatic when it comes to unauthorised changes. They’d probably regularise, but I’m not sure they could do that without planning permission and building regs. Retrospective building regs sign off is a thing though, right?

If you are a cash buyer you can make your own decision (fwiw mine would be to walk away very quickly!).
If you have a mortgage it's not up to you. Your solicitor will need to disclose the situation to the lender.