I can’t believe my solicitor did this

[TipsyPeachSnake]

So I accepted an offer on a terraced house which I bought over 10 years ago. Double glazing was put in back then, similar to others on the street. However, it has now come to light that the house is a listed building and there is no listed building consent.

I could purchase indemnity insurance to cover this for buyer but have found out that my solicitor contacted the council asking for retrospective LBC!!

Because of the actions of my solicitor the council have been made aware of unauthorised work on the property which could potentially lead to significant penalties and loss of sale.

I’m shocked a solicitor acting on my behalf would do this. What can I do? Anyone had similar experience? Please, any advice would be appreciated.

Yes correct. It’s the councils decision if they pursue this. They may not have the resources to investigate and send someone out to inspect it right away. A previous poster mentioned another seller who tried to get retrospective permissions and the council told them the wouldn’t be able to do a visit for 18 months!

They may alternatively send out a local enthusiastic amateur to make a preliminary report and then decide from there. This happens ALL the time here.

What I can’t wrap my head around is that you messed with a listed building, didn’t attempt to get Consent and this is now someone else’s fault because now the council might notice. You shouldn’t have done it.

What does the current listing say?

So if the solicitor applied for consent at the time then what happened- it wasn’t approved?? why did the council not deal with this at the time if not?

If the council took no further action then surely it was approved??

Searches would have identified its listed, your seller would’ve identified it’s listed. Unless you ignored literally everything you were told or your solicitor didn’t tell you (which might be negligence) you knew or should’ve known.

I think no consent was sought at the time of installation

Solicitor sent an email asking for retrospective consent. The council rightly told them they don’t just give out consents at third party requests, owner would need to get in touch and go through process, form filling etc but can take months to authorise. Problem is as council have been made aware of unauthorised works the indemnity policy is not effective until 10 weeks from contact with council as long as council don’t make any further contact within those 10 weeks. If solicitor had not made contact with council the indemnity policy could be put in effect right away and sale gone through if buyer agreed.

Why do people who are not solicitors make such confident pronouncements as these? I’d love to have this blind confidence, must be fabulous!

So OP does the original paperwork under which you purchased the property not mention anywhere that the property is listed?

And yet this is someone else’s fault?

The reporting of it to the council is the solicitor’s fault, yes.

I don’t have the original paperwork but I would assume it did as a solicitor would not miss this? I did think it would be something my solicitor at the time of purchasing would have verbally informed me of as I did have several conversations with them at the time of buying but maybe it’s something they don’t need to verbally tell you as long as it’s somewhere in the paperwork. It certainly wasn’t in EA details either as that would be easy to spot.

I would also assume that it would have been mentioned.

As such, this issue of the unauthorised work is entirely of your own making - you should not have done it without consent, and you have an obligation as the seller to disclose the unauthorised work.

Are you actually listed or a conservation area. We were converted to a conservation area about 40 years ago. Specifically not allowed upvc windows and need consent for any changes however the council really doesn't care and it's all a con to access funding for other works in the area. There is absolutely no chance that my council would follow this up. My sympathy though that someone's stupidity is going to delay your sale.

Agree the situation is different if it's a conservation area. I live in a conservation area and people have done all sorts and no one seems bothered

YABVU. The solicitor is ensuring that your sale can go through. It can’t otherwise.

Ridiculous comment. The solicitor has actively delayed the sale.

Can you not just buy the insurance and sell on?

Indemnity insurance is not an option now that the council is aware of the unauthorised work.

personally, given the potential criminal liability associated with unauthorised work to a listed building, I would never buy a property with such an indemnity anyway. I'd walk away if a seller was unable or unwilling to sort out unauthorised work to a listed building.

Apparently the solicitor has obtained indemnity insurance, so it is indeed an option.

Has the buyer agreed to the indemnity or requested drop in price to cover work if needed?

That's not what the OP says. The OP suggests that indemnity insurance could have been an option, but now that the council has been made aware, that option no longer exists (as is generally the case with respect to indemnity insurance)

That is incorrect, please read all OP posts

I have

Following with interest

Please Take seperate advice. I do not think you can indemnify against a criminal offence. There won’t be an indemnity policy. Regardless of whether the council know or not.

You need to get quotes for restoring the windows back. That means single glazing too.