What would you do? Lack of building regs

[LGY1]

Received attached letter from solicitors. Still waiting for them to call me back.
Sellers are saying they hold indemnity insurance from when they bought “so it’s all ok” but I don’t think that puts the issue to bed for me.
I was thinking we were about 3 weeks from moving so head is a total shed at the moment!!

Is this really bad? Should we accept the insurance? What would you do?
Ive told our solicitors we want retrospective sign off, but not heard back

Be careful here. People who tend to swerve building regs are usually people who spend the least money getting the renovations done and can bequeath you a legacy of unpleasant discoveries.

What did the survey say?

Depends what it was for, to be honest. Your sellers were happy to buy with an indemnity policy on whatever it was when they bought the house, so they can show you that. When we bought, a doorway had been widened and they had no sign off for it, so we were happy to accept it as we were doing more work and had our structural engineer check it over.
If it is change of doorway or a window, you might get comfortable. If it is a whole extension, then I probably wouldn't.
Further investigation needed

I wouldn't go ahead unless they get the building reg approval before exchange. It's really not worth the hassle unless you are getting the house very cheap or there is something super special about it.

How big is the barn? The whole house? Building regs just say it was done properly at the time. The work was done 30 years ago. I'd take the indemity policy, but get the electrics and anything else involved in the work checked out.

Also, for a barn conversion I would think you would need planning permission too, not just building regs!

It’s the whole house basically - conversion from a barn to a house. Works done in 1991
Current sellers bought 4 years ago. We have proper documentation for everything they have done since.

Our surveyor said the conversation was done to a high standard. I’m not so much concerned about things falling down etc as it’s now 30 years old, it’s more about the lack of paper work when we try to sell on etc etc

I wouldn't buy it with just the indemnity policy, I'd only proceed with retrospective sign off.

This is actually very common op. There won't be any building regs on it to access. I'd just continue with the insurance policy that's already in place. X

Planning was done properly
designed by architect
Just never signed off!

OP, did they get planning permission and not building regs? Just not sure how you could convert a barn without planning permission. I would be less worried about the structure (assuming you had a survey) and more worried about when you want to sell.

For works done over 20 years ago, I'd be happy enough with a thorough walk around with an experienced builder (including on the roof), an electrics certificate if possible and an indemnity. If issues are going to show, they'd be starting by now generally. (That would be the advice from my FIL too who's a builder with 40+ years experience)

Ah okay, makes sense. I just don't understand how they managed to get planning, get that signed off and never get the building reg sign off, just seems odd!

I would be happy with this, too (not a builder, but have had an entire career involving buying and selling houses).

They got planning and my surveyor said it was done properly with architect design etc.
Just never signed off.

So hard to know what to do, as above, some say it’s fine & some say don’t touch it!!

Obviously I really like it as we are buying it, but yes it is special, it’s an old farm building with famous roots. In a idyllic location, 1 acre of gardens, perfect little primary in the village, large rooms.
Anything similar on the market at the moment is at least £100k more but no so secluded/ with as much land 😢

Given it dates back to 1991 I'd proceed with the indemnity. Surveyor has confirmed its structurally sound, which you already know really based on how long it's been standing. Lack of sign-off cert might limit your buying pool in future, maybe, but even more time will have passed by then and plenty won't mind (as you don't!).

30 years old?
I would take the indemnity & not give it a second thought tbh.

Problems would have emerged by now.

I’d go ahead, given the length of time since the conversion and the existing indemnity policy. Building regs non compliance can’t be enforced after 12 months unless the local authority gets an injunction, which they’ll only do if it’s dangerous. And given it’s survived this long the chances of that are, IMO, infinitesimally small. It almost certainly won’t comply with modern building regs, but then that’s probably true for everything built more than 2 or 3 years ago, and getting retrospective sign off against 30 year old regs is also practically impossible I’d have thought.

Firstly your seller won't apply to get sign off as that will then mean their insurance policy is invalid.

Personally I would not buy it. Do you have a mortgage? If so I would have thought this would have to be referred back to the valuer.

Strictly speaking you are not buying a converted barn, you are just buying a barn and they worth very different amounts.

Reading your posts it seems that as you are not worried about it falling down the only thing to worry about would be whether the council would want you to do any work to comply with building regs. Given the work is more than ten years old the likelihood of the council giving a monkeys is vanishingly small. Proceed with indemnity insurance. The indemnity policy price will reflect that it really isn't a big risk.

If the work was done 30 years ago and had planning but no final sign off I'd definitely progress with an indemnity.

We've just bought a house with a similar scenario with a loft extension and decided to proceed.

I would definitely progress with indemnity given it was 1991. Different if it was 10 years ago!

The sellers do not hold a copy of the certificate. This doesn't mean it didn't exist, just a previous owners hadn't passed it on. I did this from a 70's extension- we paid the indemnity insurance. A new policy is needed though. Lack of paperwork is really common

30 years ago, I’d do the indemnity.

Slightly different as our house just has a small extension but the people we bought it off had indemnity policy due to not being able to produce regs (it was built before they moved in) and we bought with just that in place.
We are now selling and the only issue we've had is having to top up the value of the policy as the house is worth more than it was when they took it out. It's a small extra premium to pay, less than £100 so not much in the grand scheme of moving house.