No builiding regs

[oceanwind]

Hi all. Just wanted some advice. We're in the process of our house purchase. We're a couple week off apparently from completion. However our solicitor has just informed us the loft conversion has no certificate for the work that's been done. Our intention was to 'fix' the loft as currently it needs the stairs reconfiguring and we wanted to add a dormer and use it as a habitable space. I do think the house was priced accordingly without the loft being a habitable space even though it was listed as a 3/4 bedroom house. It's clearly only 3. Our solicitor told us we can take indemnity insurance out. However, has advised us when we come to applying for the planning for fixing the loft conversion, there is a chance it will be rejected. The main sell of the house for us was that we were going to add the bedroom in the loft. So really unsure what to do. Would it be unreasonable to ask for a price reduction for this? What would you do?

Depends when the work was done and what the law was at that time, not now. Had an extension at previous house without any regs or planning in place as it was not required when it was built. Sold on without issue.

Older houses that had a bedroom in the loft can still count the space as a bedroom because the building regs at the time did not apply 're access etc.

What was in place when the house was built or alterations were made?

Indemnity insurance is next to useless in a situation like this.

Loft conversions frequently fall under permitted development, and as such it may be that planning permission is not required for a dormer. But perhaps there is a specific reason your solicitor has suggested consent may not be granted - is the property in a conservation area?

Whatever you do, don't notify the council about this as that would prevent any indemnity insurance being taken out. However I agree with a pp that an indemnity policy is next to worthless here, it certainly won't protect you against shoddy or unsafe work.

If you're going to rip out all the conversion then I'd just ask for a price reduction to a three-bed house. If you want to keep any of it then I'd want a bigger reduction to cover the cost of removing their work and correcting it.
If they won't reduce the price, or if the council won't grant planning permission for a loft conversion then I'd walk away.

You can check your council planning website to see if similar properties on the same road have been allowed loft conversions recently.

These are 2 separate issues.

Using the loft space as a bedroom is not something the previous owners actually did, so to ask for a price reduction is unreasonable. You would be adding value by doing it irrespective of the quality of work they've done.

And the LPA not being likely to grant planning permission has not been established whatsoever. Has the solicitor actually got pre application advice to confirm this? Unless the property is listed, or there is some other restriction (Article 4 Direction), the solicitors claim is a bit of a guess.

And the LPA not being likely to grant planning permission has not been established whatsoever. Has the solicitor actually got pre application advice to confirm this? Unless the property is listed, or there is some other restriction (Article 4 Direction), the solicitors claim is a bit of a guess

Exactly.

Many solicitors seem to take the view that if the glass isn't currently half empty, there is a very likely possibility that the glass will become half empty at some point in the near future.

It may not require planning permission but it would still need to meet Building Regulations.

A badly converted loft could compromise a buildings structure. That's why Building Regulations are there.

Having had a loft conversion at my property, I am well aware of this.

The reason why I chose to highlight the PD aspect was in response to this part of the OP:

However, has advised us when we come to applying for the planning for fixing the loft conversion, there is a chance it will be rejected

Planning and building regs are entirely different things.

Sound like it was marketed and you bought on the understanding it wasn't a proper loft conversion as you mentioned wanting to turn it into a habitable room implying it currently is just a posh loft type space?

I don't think you have much justification for any reduction here.

Thanks for your comments. FTB here so pretty clueless. My understanding was due to wanting to add a dormer, this does not fall under permitted development so planning permission will be required. In any case, the NDN have done the exact same work to their loft and had planning granted a few years ago.

Just to add, I do believe the house was priced fairly however my concerns were if the work they've done deems the house structurally unsound, for example, and will require a lot of money/work to fix this. This would be an unexpected cost we hadn't planned for. So this is where my question was coming from whether it's reasonable to ask for a price reduction. However besides that, if we can't make the loft work as a habitable space, this wouldn't be the house we had gone for so would need to rethink the purchase.

Whether a loft conversion needs planning permission or not doesn't relate to whether a dormer is being added.

It comes down to the increase in volume to the roof space compared to the original. 40sq m for terraced houses and 50sq m for everything else, as well as a few other considerations.