Urgh, selling house without planning permission - will this cause mortgage problems?

[Wilfulchaos]

My purchaser is applying for a mortgage to buy my listed house. A wall was taken out downstairs and double glazing windows put in. It was all done at least twenty years ago and long before I bought the house. We've knocked off the cost of sorting out windows, and the council has indicated it's fine with the wall being taken out (same wall been taken out in several houses on the street), but the mortgage company is asking whether the wall was load bearing or not and I don't know. I sort of assume that if it was, there would have been problems some time in the last twenty years, but does anyone know whether it will be ok to get a mortgage on it? The purchaser has known about the problem all along and is fine with it (the only reason I haven't gone for planning permission is that it will take a long time to sort it out, but it's not going to be a huge problem to fix.) I just want to know if this is the sort of thing a mortgage company will be resistant to?

I believe you can get indemnity against this.

I bought a flat where they moved a wall internally without freeholder permission and got an insurance against having to remedy the wall.

My buyers did the same.

An indemnity in respect of this should be fine. As it was so long ago, my understanding is that the council are out of time for taking any enforcement action anyway.

As this is a Listed building, I assume it is Listed Building Consent that is missing (and Building Regs with regard to the wall), rather than planning permission.

If this is the case, there is no time limit in enforcement action, and alterations to LBs without the necessary consent can result in hefty fines (and even prison). The action can be taken against the current owner, not necessarily the person who allowed the work.

I don't know if indemnity insurance is available for this situation?

Thanks for your answers. Yes, it is listed building consent not planning permission, sorry. I can't get indemnity insurance because the council know about the problem (I applied for planning permission to sort it out but they turned it down). The purchaser will get it fixed as soon as he has bought the property, so no concerns about enforcement action as the council won't act that fast (they can still enforce as it it listed evn though it was done 20+ years ago). I would do it, but I need to get the council to sign off on what doors and windows they will approve before I get them made, and there's a long lead time on doors and windows at the moment, plus at least 8 weeks for the council to process the planning application. Could easily take six months to get it sorted, and purchaser happy to do it after buying the house. I am just wondering if the mortgage company will let him borrow on that basis?

I bought a G2 listed house last year; similar situation in which the windows in the extension at the back didn’t have listed building consent, even though the extension had full planning permission.
There were no issues getting a mortgage (although I had over 70% deposit); it was my solicitor that wouldn’t allow the sale to progress without the listed building consent. Wouldn’t allow an indemnity either.
In the end, the estate agent went directly to the planning officer at the council and they produced the consent in about three weeks.
Not entirely the same situation, but your purchaser should probably speak to their solicitor first?

We have just had a similar so with our purchase of a listed building. We resolved ours by agreeing a sum worth the buyers that would cover any work, should the Conservation Officer decide not to regularise, but instead insist the wall is reinstated to how it was. This sum has been withheld from the purchase fee as a retention, and is being held by our solicitor until the CO grants approval. If we are not given approval, the money can be claimed by us to cover the reinstatement work we have to do. It did not cause an issue for our mortgage provider (tbh I’m not sure the broker even let them know, as the mortgage was already agreed before the issue came to light).

Ugh, typos, but I think you can get the gist.

Thanks for this. We've already reduced the agreed price to reflect the costs (plus a bit), so I think we're ok on that point. I'm just stressing in case the mortgage company makes it a problem (the purchaser has told the mortgage company). Urgh, just want this sale to go through. The council are being stunningly unhelpful. I'd order the doors now if they would let us know what they would approve, but they are making us go through the whole process again on off chance they say no to what we suggest.

If the house price reflects the issue, and your buyer has a lower loan to value ratio, the mortgage provider may not be too bothered. Fingers crossed.

I don’t think it is normally too difficult to find out if a wall is load bearing. I think it has something to do with roof timbers.
My father was a builder and did once explain it to me, but that was many years ago.
Clearly in your case you will need to look at the upstairs wall as if that is load bearing so will the wall below have been. Even if it was load bearing it could have been reinforced with a lintel/ RSJ.

@Seeline

As this is a Listed building, I assume it is Listed Building Consent that is missing (and Building Regs with regard to the wall), rather than planning permission.

If this is the case, there is no time limit in enforcement action, and alterations to LBs without the necessary consent can result in hefty fines (and even prison). The action can be taken against the current owner, not necessarily the person who allowed the work.

I don't know if indemnity insurance is available for this situation?

You can’t go to prison for something a previous owner did. Enforcement action can be taken against the current owner.

It's possible that the mortgage company will put a clause in that the work is carried out within a time frame. Depends on which lender as some have more flexibility than the mainstream lenders who tend to tick boxes and will just refuse. You may find that the lender holds part of the loan back until the work is completed. Or depending on survey, it could just sail through. Point is things are sortable.

Load bearing walls don’t have anything to do with roof timbers directly but they do indirectly.. The load of a roof is borne by the foundations. The load weight is transmitted to the foundations via load bearing walls. If it’s a very old house, the foundations might be negligible. A few rows of bricks for example. Therefore the load bearing walls are thick.

Your buyer must get a structural survey done.,It’s vital to know if the missing wall is load bearing. Personally I think your buyer might find an adverse survey and the mortgage lender might request a detailed survey too. Therefore the mortgage might not be forthcoming.,