No documentation of loft conversion - How common and how to handle

[solario]

We're FTB in the process of buying a period property. Overall it's in very good condition. However, there is no documentation on the loft conversion, which was done about 30 years ago under a different owner. The current owners have been there for about 10 years and have put a lot of high-spec work into other parts of the house.

The sellers have offered to obtain and pay for a Lack of Planning and Building regulations Consent Indemnity Policy, which seems to be the standard mechanism when this issue arises.

How concerned should we be about the structural integrity of the loft? The surveyor noted that it is unlikely to meet current regulations in terms of fire safety and in the absence of documentation they couldn't confirm if the roof structure has been adequately improved or that the roof has been framed correctly. However, they then said that "there were insufficient signs of serious cracking or visible deflection to the structure to suggest that this is not the case." Which seems to be saying they don't see any proof of obvious structural flaws. The surveyor (highly recommended) said several times that it's a really nice house, clearly cared for, etc. Despite a few red flags in the report, in conversation they were overall positive about the house and its condition.

So we are leaning towards not making too big a fuss about this and accepting the indemnity policy. Does that sound reasonable? We understand if there does turn out to be any structural issues, it will be on us to remedy.

What will we need to consider when we're ready to sell this property on?

Any advice greatly appreciated.

I'd take the indemnity policy and do what you suggest. Not an expert.

That’s what I’d do… if it’s 30 years and still standing and nothing picked up on survey I think it’ll be ok!

Almost nothing built 30 years ago will meet current regulations . However if it has lasted that long then its a pretty positive sign. Houses are never perfect and the surveyor seems positive so if the house is what you want, take the indemnity and go for it

We did exactly that in similar circumstances and no problems since.

I’d be asking for a reduction maybe up to £10k depending on the price (10k off of a £400k property would be reasonable to me) to cover any further issues down the road, should they occur & accept the indemnity insurance. On you selling in the future you can either go about getting the missing documentation or do exactly the same for your buyer. Indemnity covers you .You have a surveyor telling you that it’s sound.

Yeah that’s pretty much as good as your going to get from a surveyor. If it’s been done 30 years and got that report it wouldn’t faze me. I would accept the indemnity tbh personally and I would probs look at improving the fire safety side with fire doors throughout etc as and when you decorate etc as they can cause a lot of damage if doorways need amending.

It wouldn't have needed to meet current standards, but the standards that were in-force 30 years ago. If there's no documentation it's most likely that this is because the loft conversion couldn't be economically achieved in a way that would meet the standards but a lower spec version was affordable.

The problem with the indemnity policy is that it's almost worthless in most real circumstances that could feasibly happen. It will pay out the costs that would be rquired to reset the building back to its original configuration if the building regulations people find out that there's been an unauthorized change to the building, and you are issued with an enforcement order to either bring it up to spec or undo the changes, but only if you didn't do anything to alert them to an unauthorized change. Tbh that's probably not ever going to happen.

The building regulations are mostly quite rational, not just a bureaucratic exercise but minimum standards with good logic for why they should be there. I would be figuring out what the shortfall is before deciding what to do. We did buy a property with missing documentation once - because a downstairs loo was built without ventilation or a handwash sink. We were offered the indemnity policy but rejected it and instead negotiated a price reduction of 50% of the costs of beinging the building up to spec - and after having done the work we obtained the regularisation paperwork.

If the undocumented work had been more complex and regularisation had been unaffordable then we would have walked away and found a different property.

It depends what you are paying for.

If youa re paying for e.g. 2 x bedrooms + 'useful loft space' then it is fine, but if you are paying for 3 x bedrooms then I would not be happy and would want to think hard about the price.

The issue is you have to resell. What are you paying for - do you think the house is correctly priced for an undocumented loft conversion?

We were offered the indemnity policy but rejected it and instead negotiated a price reduction of 50% of the costs of beinging the building up to spec - and after having done the work we obtained the regularisation paperwork. This is a much better outcome than an indemnity policy!