indemnity policy for missing building regulations?

[ChipmunksInAttic]

I had posted about this but just looking for a little more information.

We’ve knocked down our kitchen wall last year. We’ve included that in our planning application and got approval too, and I believe it was done properly as per structural engineer’s calculations. but there we don’t have building regulations approval, as we didn’t exactly know the process and was misled by the builder.

Now we are remortgaging and lender asked about building regs. Can anyone advise if indemnity policy is a better option compared to retrospective building reg application?

With the mortgage rates going up, I don’t want to go into a lengthy process and risk the offer we received.

Thanks!

If you’ve got the beam calculations I would go for retrospective building regs. Don’t approach the council though! First go back to the structural engineer as they may have experience of this

Buy an indemnity, normally via your solicitor, you may find the purchaser and their solicitor accept it, especially as @Whyohwhyohwhy123 says you have the structural engineers caluculations for the steels. If it is not accepted, then apply for building regs but the chances are the building inspector will need to see the beam so some remedial work will be required to repair the inspection hole.

As has been said before, do not contact the council, if you do an indemnity policy is not possible.

Indemnity policies are quite common.

I approached a private inspector to enquire about the retrospective regulations approval, not hired them but only asked questions though. would that invalidate the indemnity if I go for it?

I would think not, it is only the council but just check to make sure. I am sure searches on indemity policies and when they are void should find the answers. Your solicitor would know too.

thanks a lot for your replies.

Was a building regulations application done? We had French doors installed in an external wall. The guy we trusted to project manage the building works did the BR application but we never received the certificate- he was long gone by then.

Found out 3 years later, but we had structural engineer calculations and we were fairly certain the inspector had attended when the beam was installed. Structural engineer recommended we contact council- it only needed a final inspection, was done in a minute and we got the certificate.

We did deliberate over contacting the council as it invalidates any future indemnity, but I was fairly sure we’d had an interim inspection, we had structural engineer calcs, I took photos when the beam went in and I was pretty confident it was compliant. I was also worried that not having the completion certificate might cause problems down the line if we tried to sell.

Does your council have a database of building regs & status? Can you contact your builder and ask if there were any inspections? Or was it missed completely?

We went for retrospective approval and it was easy, they didn't ask us to expose the beam as we had evidence/emails from the structural engineer.

we also have pictures of the beam and I believe it was done properly too. I still worry about the time frames though.

thanks a lot for the replies, much appreciated!

Just an update for the people who could be having similar concerns:

I’ve called building regs today, they made a regularisation application for us. paid the £450 fee and booked a visit from an engineer the same day. The engineer checked the structural engineering report, checked the installation pictures, measured the beam but didn’t ask to expose it, checked if we have smoke detectors and that was it. We are told the certificate should be available in a week or so.

Excellent! That's a great outcome and will make things much easier in the long-term when you come to sell.

Great news and glad it all got sorted!
Hope you don't mind me asking a question on here but why does contacting the council need you can't get the indemnity insurance?

The indemnity only indemnifies you against action by the council for having the regularisation-not any structural issues. So an insurance wouldn’t work as you’re bringing the attention to the council!