Hi,
One of my friends is buying a property which is extended to the rear (kitchen) 3 meter.
The seller of the property says, he did not require planning permission as it is within permitted development, but does the seller require Building Regulations approval?
Seller says he did not require building regulations approval as the development was within in 3 meter.
If we need building regulations approval, who should he needs to contact?
Thanks,
seller is absolutely wrong You ALWAYS need building reg approval… PP can be within permitted developemnt The 3 metre rule was years ago and was for planning permission. ( since discontinued) PP are concerned with the look of the job . Building regs HOW it is put together
You can get retrospective Building reg thru Local council BUT they may ask for foundations to be exposed , other work to be exposed also. If foundation not good enough ,insulation not up to regs ? At worst demoltion at best rectification. Costly Get the seller to do it or walk away
no probs .The thing is that if bought as it is now , then down the line the next buyer will be asking the same questions if not rectifyed
I asked my friend again today about the extension of the property he is trying to buy.
He said the seller is not using it as kitchen, it is used as a reception room. There is radiator, light etc.
Seller said, as it is considered as a porch, he does not need building regulation.
Please see the attached floor plan.
Easy way to find out . Take pictures of it and go to the local council to check up on it Has it got a tiled roof or a glass roof. You can also take out indemnity insuance against Building reg problems for a small sum ,paid for by the seller
Thanks @Colin3 , I will ask him to contact the local council’s building regs team and book an appointment, then take all the photos with him.
IT looks to me by the plan that the double doors and Window(?) between the 2 rooms will have had a big beam (r s j ) put over the opening Anything structural like that needs Building regs and a structural calculation to ensure it will take the load imposed on it
I thought I read somewhere where that for a ground floor extension, it had been extended to four meters under the right circumstances…plot/garden etc.
I may be wrong but worth checking.
For planning permision it was extended to 4 metres sometime ago Now the planning rules have been relaxed even further and you can go out further and do all sorts subject to permision
Thanks Colin…interesting!
Wet central heating would need to work independently to the main house.
Which is stupid as you can turn a wet radiator off, much the same way you can turn an electric radiator off.
Breach of building regulations used to be such a minor thing that nobody worried about it very much. But not now. The Building Safety Act 2022, section 39, makes breach of the regs an offence punishable by fines and imprisonment.
Building Safety Act 2022, s39
My bungalow has a boiler The conservatory has its own gas boiler ! Crazy regs… Previous place in Wales ,I built a conservatory with no permission needed as long as I put no radiator in it > Which was ok with me as I built the conservatory to look down the valley in summer
You can be responsible for breaches in building regs even if the previous owner made the changes. Worst case it would need to be demolished best case get retrospective permission … just go cap in hand to them and ask for guidance.
I’ve done it before and it was simple enough… it just depends on the council person you are dealing with. some are solution focussed and some just want to give you grief
there was a guy who built a whole house in a barn behind a big wall of straw bales but rumours got to the local council. He was figureing that after 12 years or so he would pull the bales away and all would be well. NOT. He had to demolish it> Personally I have not heard of an imprisonment over planning , However if a place caused a death ,I can well understand that could happen
It was near Upton upon Severn, it looked like a castle. It had to be demolished on the basis that it wasn’t viewed by council as being completed until the bails of hay blocking it were taken down. Owner was relying on the fact it was standing for 10 years or whatever it needs to be to get round the law!
I was drinking in a pub there years ago and got talking to an extra from the film gladiator. A big bloke, he actually played one of the gladiators! I remember having a laugh about it!
That was the one ,Think of the cost that went into building it. All for nothing
I would definitely bring this to the attention of the Council before proceeding with any purchase.
I once bought a flat which had been converted without planning permission and didn’t meet building regs (or fire regs). The solicitor didn’t do an independent search but relied on one provided by the seller so the fact the flat did not officially exist was missed during the conveyancing.
In my innocence, I queried loft insulation with Building Control and this triggered a full investigation once they checked the address - which there were no records of. The Council took enforcement action against me, I wasn’t allowed to live there and was ordered to reinstate the flat but couldn’t because I didn’t own the rest of the property. I ended up with a very long and expensive legal case, ran up a bill I couldn’t pay and after 18 months still hadn’t made any progress. Eventually I went to the media and had a settlement via the Solicitors Indemnity Fund.
Obviously this is much more complex than the above extension but I learned valuable lessons re the planning process and would now always advise everything is legitimate prior to purchase. There is no benefit in having an order on the seller to rectify work in retrospect - and no guarantee s/he will have the funds to do so.
