[waddy]

Hi,


Has anyone any experience of getting retrospective building control inspection and certification? The property we are buying was rebuilt in the 1970's from an old barn (it had planning permission) with a more recent (2005) extension and improvements (also with planning permission). It looks very well built according to our surveyor; but the chap who built it unfortunately died before the latest work was fully complete. There are no building control or electrical certificates. The vendors (there are two parties who contested over this property and two sets of solicitors so it is far from straightforward) are unwilling to do anything further to the property in order to get it certified and have suggested some insurance we could take out against building control coming along and finding problems, Has anyone any experiences with this sort of insurance? As far as we understand it this may pay building control fines but wouldn't however cover the cost of any work needed. The place is just right for us so we are prepared to take a risk but would like to get it signed off if we can. We anticipate we may have to dig inspection trenches and uncover some things inside.


Thanks in advance for any advice.

[lachlanandmarcus]

Electrical certification would require inspection by qualified electrician but you could apply for a letter of comfort re the building regs aspect of it which basically says although no certificate of completion the council are satisfied to the extent that they will rule out taking any enforcement action. They won't certify once the building warrant and any extension granted have run out ( as we found when we took soooo long to do our place!), but the letter of comfort should he, they will come out and have a good poke around.

[waddy]

Thanks for the reply Dojango. If we can get something in place with building control; even a letter it would be reassuring. The former owner put his heart and soul into this place. He had professional plumbers and electricians, but we are told he built it himself; even quarrying some of the stone from the land (chert) and creating a small lake in the process. He was even working on it while having chemotherapy trying to complete everything. We have a lot of respect for what he achieved. It is so sad the family then had to sell; although we are glad to be buying it. The attic conversion needs some reconfiguring to finish it and the outside needs a lot of work to reinstate animal housing and handling facilities and repair fencing. It is very nicely livable unlike most of the properties we looked at (we like a project but I would like to be living in it it before drawing my pension - and I have 14 years to go yet). It will be a long process anyway as we are spending everything and borrowing everything we can to buy the place. OH will need to continue working in London during the week (he is an engineer) to fund everything but we hope he will eventually be able to reduce his hours and work closer to home.


 


Helen

[waddy]

Apologies!


Thanks for the reply Lachlandmarcus!


 


H

[waddy]

I still spelled your name wrong!


 


H

[LoveDevon]

Hi
Hope all is going well with buying of your new property. If the Planning has been done then the work would have to comply with the building regs that were in at the time of the planning approval. Depending on how far he has got would also determine the amount of investigating work that will have to be done.
  Have you spoken to building control about what has been done you might be suprized how help full they might be. In my experience the more you involve them the better they are.
Hope all goes well.

[lachlanandmarcus]

OP there are certainly indemnities that can be taken out, the correct way would be for the vendor to pay for them but many vendors just shrug and the purchaser ends up paying. You are correct tho, it won't pay for corrective works only legal costs and fines etc I think, tho they may vary. Having said that it is pretty unlikely anyway that the local authority would be concerned about it at this stage


TBH I would mainly be concerned that the electrics were safe: the rest a competent builder should be able to give an opinion of how good a job has been done by having a poke around. TBH the house sounds as if it will be in massively better shape than 99% of the houses in the UK so I would go for it if builders think its well built and the electrics are OKd by an electrician (even with electrics they can generally tell pretty quickly if there are major issues)

[waddy]

Thanks for the replies!


All being well we are still going ahead with the property, although it has gone back to the mortgage company to see if they will still lend given that as far as we know there is no planning permission for a large extension and no building control on any of the more recent works. It looked sound on the survey and is miles ahead of some of the wrecks we looked at. We are still looking at insurances. We were told not to contact building control by our solicitor as doing this can make taking out insurance impossible. It looks like the septic tank also has issues. Having said all this we like a project and there are things we would like to do with the property involving planning permission and exposing the fabric so we can then get building control to have a good poke around and issue the rectification certificate (or whatever they call it). We will certainly get an electrician to check it out. My OH also comes in handy for electrical stuff as he designs electric circuits as part of his job. He can't certify as not domestic but it does give him an idea if something is OK.


Helen

[lachlanandmarcus]

Bear in mind re the septic tank that the building regs change regularly and in many cases 'new' installations have to be full treatment plants (eg Klargester) rather than septic tank, so it is worth checking out whether it would be cheaper to repair the existing facility as they might not let you replace like for like.

[henchard]

Building Regs are not enforceable after 2 Years according to this

http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/permission/responsibilities/buildingregulations/failure

This action will usually be taken against the builder or main contractor, and proceedings must be taken within two years from the completion of the work.

It is more about the fact that when you come to sell (as you are finding out) it will come to light on a search.

[doganjo]

And a 'letter of comfort' will nearly always be given provided the work has been done correctly.

[henchard]

And a 'letter of comfort' will nearly always be given provided the work has been done correctly.

I get the impression that this is in Scotland only (but stand to be corrected)

[suziequeue]

Good luck.....

[doganjo]

And a 'letter of comfort' will nearly always be given provided the work has been done correctly.

I get the impression that this is in Scotland only (but stand to be corrected)

Yes, I'm in Scotland but perhaps there is something similar in England and Wales (and NI)