Buying a property that lacks building regs for recent work

[cannon999]

No I mean evidence that there is anything wrong with it? Cracks, sagging, etc.

The removal of a wall sounds the main concern, that should be quite easy to check to see what is behind the plasterboard.

There are some cracks in the plasterboard but nothing that screams that the roof is about to collapse.

[SueEllen]

If they knocked down a supporting wall what's the roof supported with?

[cannon999]

If they knocked down a supporting wall what's the roof supported with?

A steel beam I hope!

[ladymuck]

When I sold my house, I discovered that a wall had been removed between the kitchen and dining room and the buyers wanted evidence of build regs conformance. There was none as the work wasn't done by me and it wasn't even picked up as an issue by anyone when I bought the place. Not sure if it was a shoddy job by my solicitor or the buyers knew what the layout should have been and raised it as a query.

I had to spend a couple of hundred quid on indemnity insurance or else the buyers would have pulled out. My solicitor arranged it all.

Get the sellers to buy an indemnity insurance policy. Their solicitor will be able to sort it out as part of the sale contract pack.

[cannon999]

When I sold my house, I discovered that a wall had been removed between the kitchen and dining room and the buyers wanted evidence of build regs conformance. There was none as the work wasn't done by me and it wasn't even picked up as an issue by anyone when I bought the place. Not sure if it was a shoddy job by my solicitor or the buyers knew what the layout should have been and raised it as a query.

I had to spend a couple of hundred quid on indemnity insurance or else the buyers would have pulled out. My solicitor arranged it all.

Get the sellers to buy an indemnity insurance policy. Their solicitor will be able to sort it out as part of the sale contract pack.

Yeah indemnity insurance doesn't actually do anything. That's why it only costs £200. It ONLY protects you against council enforcement (chances of which are 0.0001% hence the price) and has MANY clauses that make it void. It's a complete scam - people who accept it have no clue what it is actually for.

[ladymuck]

Yeah indemnity insurance doesn't actually do anything. That's why it only costs £200. It ONLY protects you against council enforcement (chances of which are 0.0001% hence the price) and has MANY clauses that make it void. It's a complete scam - people who accept it have no clue what it is actually for.

True but for me it was the difference between selling and not selling.

For you, that's probably a waste of time as you'd want more assurances that the work they've done is safe. Did you get a full structural survey done?

[d000hg]

There are some cracks in the plasterboard but nothing that screams that the roof is about to collapse.

Cutting a hole really isn't much work, neither is patching it. I think I might demand proof on that one item.

Another option is you can agree the solicitor will retain some cash against required work after purchase. We did this when buying a flat, nobody knew if we had a fire door or not and it was a requirement. The solicitor held on to a couple of hundred quid until such time as someone could come and inspect properly.

In this way you buy the property and only if a problem is found do they have to pay to address it, rather than getting them to tear the wall open.

[courtg9000]

Personally I would walk away.
Even if you negotiate a hefty discount and remedy the OP issues. (Probably demolition and rebuild with regs) it will probably be a problem sale later on.
There is the other issue that this property is also potentially hiding some other costly and nasty surprises.

[vetran]

Personally I would walk away.
Even if you negotiate a hefty discount and remedy the OP issues. (Probably demolition and rebuild with regs) it will probably be a problem sale later on.
There is the other issue that this property is also potentially hiding some other costly and nasty surprises.

If you have a significant contribution to rebuilding it the planning rules are much more generous now.

If the issue is depth & quality of foundations you can do test excavations. If its quality of steel then you can remove the plaster. Both could be done with little damage and probably by a surveyor initially.



What happens if I do work without approval? | Building regulations - a guide | London Borough of Bromley
Can I get retrospective building control approval? | LABC

[Paralytic]

I have listed the problems in the OP. This modification is recent and most likely it would not be possible to obtain building regs sign off retrospectively. I have no idea of problems with this as well, did they install an approriate supporting beam or did they cheap out on that too..

As them to get a structural engineer's report done proving there is no issue with the removal of the wall.