Advice about retrospective building regs on an extension. Help...

[matthew turl]

Hi,

Having read a few of the other threads i'm hoping that some of you very nice and helpful people might be able to help me out of a pickle!

5 years ago and shortly after buying my first house I took some rather poor advice and built a small single storey extension including a storm porch to the front of my property. I have been granted retrospective planning permission and am currently dealing with a rather unhelpful building regulations inspector. He has asked to see quite a few things (removing bricks/tiles, uncovering footings, etc) none of which I have any major issues with as it is ultimately my error. However, he did say that due to the pitch of the roof (approx 25 degrees) I must replace all the tiles with a more appropriate tile (unspecified) despite the fact the roof was already in place prior to the extension, and the extension simply built out to this existing roof. This would obviously be quite expensive! I am now considering my options.

Anyway, my question is... what would the fallout be if I never received the building regulations certificate? Would it likely affect/de-value/hold up the sale of the property should I sell it? Would I/the buyer have to gain some kind of insurance?

Any thoughts, recommendations or observations would be warmly received. Thanks in advance.

Matt

 

[tony1851]

Question is - why did you bother getting retrospective planning permission and building regulations application in the first place?
The extension would have been out of time for enforcement of either.
Indemnity nsurance would be of no use in this situation.

 

[matthew turl]

Tony,
There are a lot of things I would have done differently if I had the chance. Clearly I am on this forum as I have very little knowledge of processes and requirements in this field and I'm just trying to decide on the best course of action going forward. You seem to know a lot more than me so any advice regarding my actual question would be more helpful.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Well Mathew, you will find that the more background information you can (or are prepared) to divulge will result in higher quality responses. That would be my observation at this stage.

 

[tony1851]

Hi,


Anyway, my question is... what would the fallout be if I never received the building regulations certificate? Would it likely affect/de-value/hold up the sale of the property should I sell it? Would I/the buyer have to gain some kind of insurance?

@ OP.
OK, to answer your actual questions:

1. Fallout? no-body can say definitively what would happen if you never receive a Building Regs certificate. The range of options would be that the council could either 1) apply for an injunction to have your extension demolished, or 2) they could do absolutely nothing other than bank your fat cheque for the regularization fee.

2. Re-sale? it may or may not affect the value/hold up a sale should you sell it. It depends on how much a potential buyer wants the house, and how clued up the buyers' solicitor is - some would flag this up - some would miss it.

3. Insurance? Indemnity insurance is of no use to anyone (except perhaps the solicitor recommending it, who may get a kick-back) once a council is made aware of the unauthorized work.

I trust that answers your actual questions.

 

[Notch7]

Hi,

Having read a few of the other threads i'm hoping that some of you very nice and helpful people might be able to help me out of a pickle!

5 years ago and shortly after buying my first house I took some rather poor advice and built a small single storey extension including a storm porch to the front of my property. I have been granted retrospective planning permission and am currently dealing with a rather unhelpful building regulations inspector. He has asked to see quite a few things (removing bricks/tiles, uncovering footings, etc) none of which I have any major issues with as it is ultimately my error. However, he did say that due to the pitch of the roof (approx 25 degrees) I must replace all the tiles with a more appropriate tile (unspecified) despite the fact the roof was already in place prior to the extension, and the extension simply built out to this existing roof. This would obviously be quite expensive! I am now considering my options.

Anyway, my question is... what would the fallout be if I never received the building regulations certificate? Would it likely affect/de-value/hold up the sale of the property should I sell it? Would I/the buyer have to gain some kind of insurance?

Any thoughts, recommendations or observations would be warmly received. Thanks in advance.

Matt

You could ask an independant building inspector if they could issue a cert and what work they would require for compliance.

They may have a more pragmatic viewpoint.

How big is the extension? I cant remember what building regs consider to be a porch -porches can be exempt if they are thermally separate.

Your easiest remedy would have been indemnity insurance, but that cant be done now. Not that such insurance is of any use really other than it helps a house sale go through.

If you have no intentionnif moving, you dont need to worry really, its pretty unlikely building control will care much. The main issue is a buyers solicitor picking it up and stopping the sale going through if the buyers get cold feet

 

[tony1851]

You could ask an independant building inspector if they could issue a cert and what work they would require for compliance.

Not 100% sure, but once LABC is involved, I doubt it is legally possible for a private inspector to take over the function.