Ask The Agent.
Richards is an independent Estate Agents in Corfe Mullen, specialising in residential properties for sale and rent as well as property management in Corfe Mullen, Wimborne and the surrounding areas.
Jason Spiers MNAEA, the owner of Richards Estate Agents, has been an agent for over 25 years.
Let us know any
questions you may have about moving and he’ll answer them for you.
Hi Jason,
I want to sell my house, but I understand there could be a problem because of some minor alterations I made nine years ago, without getting the proper consents. What should I do? Mr P Andrews
Hello Mr Andrews,
This is not uncommon and something that I have seen many times over the years. Now it rather depends on what you had done – in other words, whether it was the sort of work which only required building regs approval, or whether you should also have applied for planning permission. If the latter, then yes, you could have a major problem – not least since the purchaser’s surveyor will almost certainly raise the issue. Planning rules generally exist for a reason, and people fl out or ignore them at their peril. Minor infringements may be overlooked, but at the other end of the scale it is not unknown for entire homes to be demolished if they were built without proper planning consent – not that I want to worry you!
In the case of building regs, things are rather more straightforward, as you can always apply for retrospective approval. However, there are a few catches. Firstly, your local authority will probably
want to charge you fees several times higher than usual. Secondly, the alterations must conform to current building regs – not the ones in force when the work was actually done – and since these regs are constantly being updated, this could be a bit of a headache! Then there’s timescales, retrospective approval can take many weeks or even months to get and if you have a sale progressing on your home this can seriously affect the timescales you and your buyer/chain may be working to.
All things considered, you are probably much better off taking out special insurance cover to indemnify a purchaser against any future problems over the lack of building regs approval. The likelihood of this happening is admittedly fairly slim – in practice, most councils won’t take action if the work is more than a year old, although they are perfectly within their rights to do so. Nevertheless, your purchaser (or rather, your purchaser’s solicitor) will probably insist upon you taking out this insurance, which your own solicitor can arrange.
The good news is that, since the risk factor is fairly low, the cost of such cover is pretty reasonable, and normally involves just a single
payment.One thing worth remembering, however: cover will probably be refused if you have already approached your local authority over the issue, since they will then have been alerted to a breach of the regs, which might make a claim more likely – and we all know how insurance companies hate claims.
A good experienced estate agent will be able to discuss the ‘changes’ you have made and advise on whether you will need to apply for retrospective planning, building regs or an indemnity policy. Whichever way you go, with the correct advice and handling of the timescales you will be able to move on.
Jason Ask The Agent is brought to you by Richards Estate Agents in Corfe Mullen.
If you have a question for Jason, please email:
jason@richardsestateagents.co.uk or feel free to pick up the phone and call us on (01202) 602121.
48 To advertise, please contact 01202 657317 or email
karen@broadstonelink.co.uk
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