Why would you not bother getting building regs approval?!

[YourSpleenIsDamp]

Buying a house, all going swimmingly, then found out that the owners never got building regs approval for a two storey extension and loft conversion! Lots of concerns about structural integrity raised by our surveyor, so an indemnity policy won't be enough. The work was only done in the last fifteen years - why the actual fuck wouldn't they have got building regs approval? We're going to have to pull out, aren't we? We'd never sell it, might not even be able to insure it 😭FFS. Back to Rightmove I go 🙄

The problem is there are builders and there are builders.

Was just about to start typing exactly the same thing before seeing your reply!

Slightly concerning......!

Having dealt with a few solicitors over recent years it really wouldn't surprise me if they don't know the difference - several of the ones I've dealt with would struggle to tell you the difference between their arse and their elbow whilst charging you £250 an hour or more for the privilege.

Personally, I would be going nowhere near an extension built by a builder on their own house without the proper planning or building regs - Christ knows what corners they'll have cut and there's no way you'd get retrospective building regs as they'd do them to the current standards which it definitely wouldn't meet.

I would be walking away now very quickly

Indeed. I was putting forward the best case scenario, but the worst case scenario is pretty bad... And this might be the second kind of builder, because why would you not bother with the relatively small extra cost (£1500?) of doing it with a structural engineering calculation and approval but still bother to follow the regs.

Our house has a two storey extension. The bottom floor doesn't seem to have either building regs or planned permission but the second storey has both.

Lucky at the second storey has been built otherwise there'd be no record for the ground floor. Both sets of solicitors accepted the case that the second floor wouldn't have been automatically if there was nothing for the ground floor.

Run don't walk.

Like someone already said, there are builders and there are builders.

The sellers should be able to engage with you about this, but you'll never get a mortgage (I assuming you're not a cash buyer?) let alone insurance.

Mini update - the vendors have agreed to seek retrospective building regs approval at their expense. We've said we still want it but that we'll keep looking for another house in the meantime - hopefully it'll be simple and quick 😬 but if not then hopefully something else suitable comes up soon! Just so little on the market locally - even if we had three million quid it wouldn't help 😭😭

Great result OP!