How many people have had to ask for or take out an indemnity policy on a their house due to previous owners having made changes withour PP or building regs?

[stilltryingtosell]

Just wondering really!
Round 'our way' (mostly old old houses) it seems am awful lot of the houses have been added to altered (loft converted etc) but there is no planning. Of course some of them may have been altered pre the modern planning regs so in reality it all becomes a bit irrelevant.

But just wondering!!

We had to take out a policy on the last house we bought, as it emerged 3 days before exchange that the 70s extension had planning permission but not a certificate of completion from the council/building regs people. Cost us about £100 for the indemnity I think, and when we came to sell I told the buyer about the issue and policy really early on. He was exceptionally picky about a lot of things, but this seemed OK with him. Our solicitor said it was quite normal, else none of the houses with this issue would be saleable.

It's usually the seller that pays for it. When I bought my previous house they paid for it and when I sold it I had to top it up.

Yes, we did when we bought our house the vendor paid for it. It was something to do with having a wall moved. I have no idea why people don't just get the regs at the time and save themselves the delay and hassle when it comes to sell sorting it out held up our move for weeks.

When I recently sold my house I was asked to provide one because a change had been made years ago and we couldn't show building regulation approval - however we didn't in the end because firstly the insurance is pretty useless and secondly the buyer had already contacted the council.

It seems that the council only have the right to demand you obtain retrospective approval from one year after the work is done, after that they could have to obtain an injunction against you and there is no history of this happening in the UK. Handily, the insurance won't cover you for work undertaken less than a year ago so there is no cover for the period the council are likely to come at you Also, if you have undertaken a search for approval at the council offices, you can't obtain the insurance as underwriters deem that the authorities have been tipped off!

Oh at least other people have experienced this!

We had one passed down to us from the previous owners of our house and now we have found out the house we want to buy has also had stuff done to it which will require a policy (sigh!)

Personally I would never ever dream of doing stuff to a house without PP if it was something that needed it, but other people are obviously a lot more laid back lol!!

I wonder if it puts many people off buying a house?

I don't really think its a case of owners being deliberatly slack - in my case, a chimney brest had been removed but I couldn't show when this had happened. I know it was before I owned the place and so more than 12 years ago and I suspect so long ago that when it was done approval wasn't really needed

TBH I don't think it puts people off buying because the solicitors invariably get the sellers to pay for it (with the solicitor getting some form of introduction fee from the provider)

Hmm - my own personal jury is still out on whether people are slack or not when it comes to getting approval.

In my case, a bad 70s flat roof extension had been added onto a 400 year old house, and no final building regs sign off had been received. We had work done to eradicate the damp in the extention, and found out that it was definitely a substandard building with problematic foundations etc, hence wouldn't have got building regs sign off if they had tried to get this at the time. Ironic really - the only problems we had with the house were the newer bits, the original 400 year old part was fine.

It's become pretty much mandatory because of a court case in 2000 (Cottingham & Cottingham versus Attey Bower & Jones) when the Cottinghams sued their solicitors - NB: not the previous owners of their home - for not establishing whether building regs consent had been granted. Ever since then, conveyancing solicitors have been extremely keen on these indemnity policies. I had to get one when we sold our house and, tbh, it was cheaper than getting retrospective consent from the planning department and it's no big deal but does seem a bit of a scam.

We also had this on our current house - Planning, regs but no completion certificate - this was from 1980's - the vendor contacted the council planning who visited and inspected and we got a letter stating that the completion was to standards of the time - might be worth a try if not too long ago.

We had this with our old house which we sold in 2007. There was a small extension to the back of the kitchen, planning permission was given but no completion certificate. As the vendor we had to get the council out to approve it. We had a real jobsworth and he wouldn't let it go because the back window didn't have the British kitemark on it (job was done in the 80's). We had to get the window replaced in order to satisfy the purchaser's solicitor, although the purchasers weren't bothered. As luck would have it our purchasers brother was a double glazing fitter and he came, measured and installed the window. It ended up costing us about £150 all in.

the seller paid for this when we bought our house, cost them £40,it was for a wall that had been knocked down between dining and sitting room

ime quite common . We had to organise one on our old house for a non FENSA window and on this for use of loft as a habitable room

we did - the sellers paid the fee

Can I just add there is a big difference between planning permission and building consent? Building regs is all about how you construct it - and making sure that its done so it accords with the requirements and will stay up. Planning consent is more fundamental in that it tells you that you can build something (that accords with the plans) - if you don't have planning consent there is a potential worry that they will not grant retrospective planning consent - pariticularly relevant if only just constructed, although there are things that you can build with 'deemed' consent - ie you don't have to apply to the Council - there should be guidance available from the planning office.

We had to get this when we sold out house. It had been renovated when we bought it - seller told us he would pass on certificates (FENSA, Building Regs Completion etc) but never did. So when we came to sell, we bought the indemnity insurance. Was about 150 pounds and easy to sort out.

We have to take out an indemnity policy for work we had done on our house before we sell it. We did some work and have all the building regs etc, however we don't have permission of the company that built the house 30 years ago They are no longer in existence so we can't get retrospective "permission". So "150 for an indemnity policy in case the builder ever comes back and checks up on the houses he built....

Yes we had to reduce our price by £200 so our buyers could buy an indemnity cos of an unsupported chimney which we had got supported, but their surveyor wasn't able to see the support for himself cos we'd converted theh loft since it was done. Bit hassly but quite common.