Help required - Leasehold / permission for extension

:help::help:

Hi all,

Thank you for taking the time to read this and any help will be appreciated.

We are in the process of purchasing a house which is leasehold. The house had an extension in the late 70's and early 80's. Now the planning permission was granted from the council but the vendor can not say that it was granted from the leaseholder. On top of that, the vendor does not have a completed building regs form.. Now I know that the building has been up 35 years but how do I know that it has been completed to the right standards.

Few questions that I think I will have to look into:

1) How do I find out who owns the land?

2) Would the leaseholder make us pay if no permission has been obtained?

3) Has anyone had to claim for indemnity insurance before and did it cover you for losses?

4) How can I look back to find a completed building regulations form?

I know I really should not be looking into this as it is the responsibility of the vendor but we have sold our house and do not want to keep our buyers waiting and do like the house we are buying.

Any help would be gratefully appreciated

Thank you

richblade

1) You can apply to the Land Registry to find out who owns the land.

2) 20 years is generally considered as the cutoff for enforcement for breach of covenants (as long as its an obvious breach which an extension would be)

3) no, but would have thought the terms of the indemnity cover would detail this

4) contact the council. They should have the details if building regs were granted

1) How do I find out who owns the land?

If the vendor (the leaseholder) can't even tell you who they lease it from, I would walk away from it! With leasehold properties, in my opinion you'd want to know everything about the terms of the lease before you consider whether you'd want to buy it or not.

But really, you need to speak to your solicitor about this - you're now into the land of needing expert help and advice, so get your value from your solicitor now when you need it.

Discovery of the leasehold details would be a normal part of the conveyancing process. But as vincentb says, you'd want to know the broad details before you'd even consider buying it I'd guess.

Indemnity insurance exists specifically for the coverage of things like unapproved extensions attracting a charge.

Oh, and getting proof of build regs compliance from something built in the 70's/80's is fairly unlikely IMO.

If the vendor (the leaseholder) can't even tell you who they lease it from, I would walk away from it! With leasehold properties, in my opinion you'd want to know everything about the terms of the lease before you consider whether you'd want to buy it or not.

 

But really, you need to speak to your solicitor about this - you're now into the land of needing expert help and advice, so get your value from your solicitor now when you need it.

^^^ This, of course. He/she, rather than the denizens of SF, must be the provider of such information!

:help::help:

 

Hi all,

 

Thank you for taking the time to read this and any help will be appreciated.

 

We are in the process of purchasing a house which is leasehold. The house had an extension in the late 70's and early 80's. Now the planning permission was granted from the council but the vendor can not say that it was granted from the leaseholder. On top of that, the vendor does not have a completed building regs form.. Now I know that the building has been up 35 years but how do I know that it has been completed to the right standards.

 

Few questions that I think I will have to look into:

1) How do I find out who owns the land?

2) Would the leaseholder make us pay if no permission has been obtained?

3) Has anyone had to claim for indemnity insurance before and did it cover you for losses?

4) How can I look back to find a completed building regulations form?

 

I know I really should not be looking into this as it is the responsibility of the vendor but we have sold our house and do not want to keep our buyers waiting and do like the house we are buying.

 

Any help would be gratefully appreciated

 

Thank you

 

richblade

As far as building regs goes, the act only came into force in 1984. So it might have been built before there was any requirement to comply with them.

As far as building regs goes, the act only came into force in 1984. So it might have been built before there was any requirement to comply with them.

Although the Act is indeed the Building Act 1984 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1984/55/contents, the law pre-dated it.

Its long title appears as An Act to consolidate certain enactments concerning building and buildings and related matters. It derived from the Public Health Act 1936 and existing Building Regulations- these now appear in the 1984 Act's Schedule 1.

Has there ever been a case with someone getting into trouble with building regs on a 30-40 year old extension on a normal domestic property??

Seems quite unlikely to me??

I don't think "trouble" with the authorities would be the concern. It would be that as the purchaser you're looking for some proof that the work was done to a reasonable quality. And building regs is about the only indication available.

solicitor will/should insist on an indemnity ins policy from the vendors, as for build quality only a surveyor or builder can tell you that.