Building Regulations Certificate

tmf786 · 22 Oct 2020

Hi All - some advice for a first time seller!

I did some renovations in 2015 (6 x chimney breasts removal onto gallow brackets into loft, through lounge (rsj), downstairs WC (concrete lintel) and new joists across 1st floor bedroom ceilings) which was all drawn up by the architects - 2015.
The architects logged the drawings with Local Authority Building Regs. during the project 2015.
I am now looking to sell and have realised that none of us (Project Manager/Architect and myself) got the building regulation certificate final approval.
The Local Authority Building Reg site shows my application and decision and is 'approved with conditions' in 2015. The conditions were to provide the specs of the concrete lintel and RSJ - which I sent to the architects and assume they sent to the Local Authority.
The buyer has had a structural engineer survey and all was ok with minor points around bringing the gallows up to current regs (e.g. not gallows but rsj under chimney stack).
I'm aware of Indemnity Insurance and regularisation certificate but not sure what is the best approach.

EITHER
1. Indemnity Insurance - will need to convince a nervous first time buyer that this is ok to cover any enforcement action.
OR
2. Regularisation Certificate - I have lots of photos of the works and installation i.e. showing the RSJ, the gallow brackets, the concrete lintel, the joists.

Is it better to get the buyer to agree to the indemenity insurance and/or will the Local Authority accept the photos and issue a Regularisation Certificate? How long on average might this take?

Thanks

Luckyphil · 24 Oct 2020

Indemnity Insurance , you’ll be surprised how cheap it is

I got £160k cover for PVCu Windows I installed all under Sandstone Lintels & DPC on a Semi detached House for £130 all sorted by the Conveyancing Solicitor, all depends of the Buyer is happy with it though

regards

Phil

tmf786 · 24 Oct 2020

Luckyphil said:
Indemnity Insurance , you’ll be surprised how cheap it is

I got £160k cover for PVCu Windows I installed all under Sandstone Lintels & DPC on a Semi detached House for £130 all sorted by the Conveyancing Solicitor, all depends of the Buyer is happy with it though

regards

Phil

Thanks, that was my preferred option - will find out soon whether the buyer will be satisfied with this.

frutbunn · 25 Oct 2020

It sounds to me like the only thing you didn't get done was a final inspection from B control, rather than wasting your time thinking of indeminity/reg certs that you don't actual need as you have approval for the work. just arrange for the final inspection to be carried out. There's nothing particularly unusual about a final inspection being missed and only coming to light when you sell.

steve.mack · 25 Oct 2020

Same, seems madness not to get the final inspection done. I'm very cautious of indemnity insurance as a buyer because if the house collapses it doesn't pay for it to be rebuilt it just covers the lack of building regs issue. Our house purchase was delayed 3 months waiting for copies of certs etc to be obtained that the sellers lost and didn't think to get before they sold the house

frutbunn · 25 Oct 2020

steve.mack said:
Same, seems madness not to get the final inspection done. I'm very cautious of indemnity insurance as a buyer because if the house collapses it doesn't pay for it to be rebuilt it just covers the lack of building regs issue. Our house purchase was delayed 3 months waiting for copies of certs etc to be obtained that the sellers lost and didn't think to get before they sold the house

I know of 3 instances where the policy didn't pay up for loft conversions, I don't know the precise details but I believe they used my report of the defects in litigation. I was involved following an application for a Regularisation Cert,

tmf786 · 25 Oct 2020

hmm, the issue will be for example, the LA coming and asking for all of the plaster work to be taken off to see the RSJ or the concrete lintel - it could also take more than 3 months to get it all tick boxed off

frutbunn · 25 Oct 2020

tmf786 said:
hmm, the issue will be for example, the LA coming and asking for all of the plaster work to be taken off to see the RSJ or the concrete lintel - it could also take more than 3 months to get it all tick boxed off

It must be visible in the roof, they'll do the inspection in a couple of days, we always did them the same day.

frutbunn · 25 Oct 2020

You might need the completion cert anyway to sell your property.

tmf786 · 25 Oct 2020

frutbunn said:
It must be visible in the roof, they'll do the inspection in a couple of days, we always did them the same day.

thaks for your help.

The RSJ in the through lounge cannot be seen - only on the photos I took.

I'm not too concerned with the chimeny breasts as I know they can be seen in the loft and structural surveyor confirmed all ok.

Will they issue a cert? I read somewhere they might not issue one since it is more than 5 years and they will just say that they will not enforce it?

denso13 · 26 Oct 2020

tmf786 said:
Indemnity Insurance - will need to convince a nervous first time buyer that this is ok to cover any enforcement action.

It will normally be their solicitor who will advise them. Suggest an indemnity policy and see what the response is first, it could be the easy way out in this instance.

frutbunn · 26 Oct 2020

tmf786 said:
The RSJ in the through lounge cannot be seen - only on the photos I took.

There is no statutory inspection for this, so the LA cannot ask for it to be exposed.

tmf786 said:
Will they issue a cert? I read somewhere they might not issue one since it is more than 5 years and they will just say that they will not enforce it?

There is no time limit on completing B Reg work and, due to the time expired, they are statute barred from enforcement. If the work is satisfactory they are compelled by the B regs statutory instrument to issue the cert. I really am at a loss to understand why you don't just get B control out.

denso13 said:
It will normally be their solicitor who will advise them. Suggest an indemnity policy and see what the response is first, it could be the easy way out in this instance.

Having had a little more time to consider this I don't think you can take out indemnity insurance as the LA already have an application for the work

denso13 · 26 Oct 2020

frutbunn said:
Having had a little more time to consider this I don't think you can take out indemnity insurance as the LA already have an application for the work

Yes, but as they haven't been contacted about the "missing" completion certificate it may still be ok.

frutbunn · 26 Oct 2020

denso13 said:
Yes, but as they haven't been contacted about the "missing" completion certificate it may still be ok.

Its not missing it simply has not been carried out, they are also aware of the work as there is an application, they may even have done some intermediate inspections. An app has been received, details are lodged with the LA , its even had an engineer look at it, I really don't see the problem with contacting B control to inspect this, there is absolutely no problem with inspecting the work late, I've even inspected a "new" bungalow that started a year before I was even born, it wasn't even covered by national B regs it was local bye laws, pain in the arse trying to find a copy beforehand though!

denso13 · 26 Oct 2020

frutbunn said:
Its not missing it simply has not been carried out

Which is why I put "missing" in italics. There is no reason not to provide indemnity insurance in this instance, if the buyer will accept it.

What if the work is inspected and building control decide it isn't satisfactory?

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Building Regulations Certificate

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