Was a cash buyer for a house 8 years ao. possibly missing building reg for removed chimney breast. Will it make it impossible to sell?

[mrbrightside2222]

Hello, I purchased a house in 2014 for an excellent price (so i thought at the time). I am thinking of selling now and looking back at the survey and doc. The surveyor notes that there is a removed chimney breast and our solicitor asked the seller for building regs certificate, though looking through our correspondence we never got this. Does this mean the hosue will be unsaleable to anyone other than a cash buyer like u? I am ok with that as it was cheap when we bought it so accept it may not get as good a price as if we sold on the open market. just wndering whether to bother marketing at all through agents or put i straight on at auction. many thanks for your responses.

 

[johnny2007]

Regularisation?

 

[mrbrightside2222]

I think it was a buildings regulation certitifcation that was requested. does this sound right?

 

[johnny2007]

Yes, you might obtain a regularisation certificate (basically a building compliance certificate) by approaching the building control department at the council.
Most likely you would need to chip plaster or open gaps in plasterboard for inspection.
Also you might need retrospective planning permission if the work was done less than 6 years ago, but usually this is not required.
Trouble would be if the council found something wrong, then you'd be forced to make good.

 

[mrbrightside2222]

thank you for this. is this something we should do before selling? we arewanting to sell on a tight timeline. i mean would it likely lead to a scenario where we have a buyer and they pull out because of this and we have to auction the house anyway?

 

[johnny2007]

It might take a week or months.
You better ask the council.
Maybe there's trace of the work done but the old owner lost the certificate.
Do you have contact details of them or their solicitor?
Maybe worth asking.

 

[mrbrightside2222]

I checked on the searches done by the solicitor at the time, and I could not see any application for building regulations! I know records go back to something like 1990 only though so maybe it was before this. Do you think we should do this before selling or just sell and see what surveyors/solicitors say? edit: i noticed that when I bought it the seller's solicitor just suggested indemnity insurance.

 

[johnny2007]

Indemnity insurance is an option, very common in house sales.
Better than selling at auction if you ask me.

 

[jeds]

8 years old; just go for an indemnity policy. Bear in mind that you must not contact the building regs people to make enquiries about it - otherwise you will prevent the possibility of indemnity in the future. It is a condition of the policy that you must not have made enquiries.

 

[^woody^]

You can't rely on any prospective buyer or their surveyor, legal advisor or lender accepting any insurance policy. But you could probably rely on this happening right at the end of the process when you are near to exchanging.

 

[SpecialK]

Does it still have the chimney stack?

 

[mrbrightside2222]

8 years old; just go for an indemnity policy. Bear in mind that you must not contact the building regs people to make enquiries about it - otherwise you will prevent the possibility of indemnity in the future. It is a condition of the policy that you must not have made enquiries.

oh thank you that's very good to know!

 

[mrbrightside2222]

Does it still have the chimney stack?

yes it does. The chimney runs through the loft and on the upstairs floor of the house but removed from the bottom floor

 

[^woody^]

No PW Agreement either then?

Competent buyer's surveyors would be advising their client to require a hefty discount for the risk, along with specific structural reports based on opening up the structure to check things

 

[mrbrightside2222]

No PW Agreement either then?

Competent buyer's surveyors would be advising their client to require a hefty discount for the risk, along with specific structural reports based on opening up the structure to check things

thank you. We did have a hefty discount on the property, it was very cheap even for the time we bought it. What is a PW agreement?