Garage conversion & lack of building regs indemnity insurance policy

[beesonthewhatnow]

Hello, completely lost and to be honest wandering if anyone has been in a similar situation and if so, if i'm panicking over nothing!

Have put an offer on a house and what was appealing was that they had a garage conversion which had been converted into a second 'reception room'. We thought this would be ideal as a playroom for our DS.

Solicitors did their checks and found there was no reference to the conversion of the garage at the property into habitable accommodation.

Sellers have provided a Lack of Building Regulations Consent Indemnity Insurance Policy. I am confused what this will actually cover us for and solicitors haven't been able to answer my questions.

For example, it seems like if the local authority come round asking us about the garage, we can point to the policy and that will cover us.

But what happens if we do some work on the garage ourselves (as homebuyers survey indicated the rear wall was inadequate and could use some structural repair). Would we then be liable? Similarly, if we want to provide further insulation to make it more habitable.

Thanks, hopefully someone has been in a similar situation.

Not us but a neighbour had this - bought the house in a rush and no building regs, so bought indemnity. Subsequently discovered the last meter of their extension has no foundation. Lord knows why - many other bodge jobs throughout.

My understanding is that the indemnity will cover you, like you say, with the council. However, it makes no provision for making good any poor workmanship. If the work has been done to code then it’s really quite straightforward getting building regs sign off.

If you must buy this property I’d assume you’ll need to do all conversion works from scratch and lower my offer accordingly.

“If you must buy this property I’d assume you’ll need to do all conversion works from scratch and lower my offer accordingly.”

Basically this.
How old is the house/garage? When was the conversion done and by who? Are there any photos of the construction work?
How do you know it’s not fully insulated already?

I was under the impression that indemnity insurance isnt worth anything really.

As I understand it the indemnity policy will only cover you if the council's building regulations team come around and declare the work non compliant and they decide to prosecute you for this. The likelyhood of this happening is very small (and how would they know?).

The danger from having a non compliant room is minimal (assuming the walls arent falling down)

If you want to regularise it you will need to get a builder in who will bring the conversion up to current building standards in terms of insulation, safety, electricals etc and then get it inspected and signed off by the council. If it was me I would be getting quotes from builders to do this and then use this as a way of asking the seller to take money off.