Help! Beautiful house but....where are building reg docs?

[helsbels74]

We've been to see a lovely Edwardian Semi which ticks all the boxes in terms of location, good sized rooms, garden etc etc. It would need decorating and all of that but basically seems to be well maintained.

Problem is the current owners reckon there is no paperwork for the loft conversion which was carried out before they moved in - they reckon it was about 13 - 15 years ago that the conversion took place. It looks fine but having had trouble with a dodgy loft converion during a previous purchase I'm a little nervous if it has no paperwork.

One option of course is to walk away as a) it might be structurally unsound (not sure I trust surveyors to spot anything wrong anyway!); b) might be a fire trap; and c) might mean we can't sell the house in due course.

Other option might be to get retrospective planning/building regs - but is that opening a can of worms?

Oh dilemmas. Anyone any thoughts on this one?

When we pruchased our current house they did not have a completion certificate for a small addition completed in 1984 - had the rest of the regs but not the completion - Vendor thought that he had it (had the original house plans and was very organised) so went to try and get a copy from the council archives - if you know when it was done this is one option. It turned out that no cert had been issued. Solicitor considered this to be an issue which we should not overlook. After talking with the council they were able to send someone from the planning department to inspect. She was not able to issue the cert as regulations have moved on from 1984 but she issued a letter stating that it was sound and that it complied with the building reqs of the period in which it was built - our solicitor was comfortable with this - maybe an option for you? Good luck it is a tricky one I know.