Buying house with wall removed and no build regs approval

[gna03633]

If I could get some thoughts on the below that would be good:

I'm in the process of buying a terraced house where the owners have knocked through the lounge/dining room to create one large space. Doesn't look like Building Regs approval was sought, my building survey noted this should be checked etc.

Looks like the thorugh lounge space was created 25+ years ago by the owner, looks like an RSJ has been used but I'm not in a position to know if it's supported correctly or the beam is the correct size.

Would be council grant this retrospectively, or is this just planning permission?

How would this be handled the seller got a structural engineer to confirm its was good for 20 years ago but not for today?

Any thoughts/opinions would be appreciated.

I will give the Building Controls office of my council a call tomorrow to see what they say.

[John Rumm]

If it has been there 25 years and there is no obvious sigh of a problem I would not be too worried.

You could apply for a regularisation IIRC.

Probably a good idea.

[Owain]

Planning permission is not involved. You could apply for retrospective B Regs but AIUI it would have to be compliant with *current* regs, and you 'd probably have to expose the steelwork for inspection.

Can the seller give you the contemporaneous report from the Struct Eng? If he said it was okay 20 years ago, and it's stayed up so far, it's probably okay.

Owain

[Hugo Nebula]

On Sun, 08 Jul 2007 14:56:47 -0700, a particular chimpanzee, [e-mail] randomly hit the keyboard and produced:

If the work was done after Nov 1985, then a Building Regulations Regularisation certificate can be applied for. This will involve exposing part of the beam and the bearings to establish that they are adequate for the loadings (which may involve a structural engineer's report), and that the beam has the requisite 2x12mm plasterboard or

13mm plaster to give 30 minutes fire resistance. It has to meet the requirements that were in force _when_ the work was carried out. Saying that, the requirements for steel beams haven't changed by much, if at all.

If it was carried out before Nov 1985, then a Regularisation certificate can't be issued. If so, it's then down to a structural engineer to check and report that it's fit for the purpose. You would then keep hold of this report to show any subsequent buyers.

If I were you, I'd make it the current owners responsibility, including making good.

[bp]

Hi,

I bought a house a while back and I had the same issue.

THe solicitor said that a type of insurance could be bought (less than =A350 - that was 3 yrs agoo though), which wold cover me against that.

THe cover was incase somene from the council would question the work. Me and the seller went halfs on it as I still wanted to buy it.

TO be honest I am not sure what the insurance exactly covered, but I knew the lawyer, and trusted him. He explained that i happens quite often as a building regs were not required a long time ago for this type of work. I think the insurance would not cover any remedial work, but would cover any cost incurred as a result of satisfying the council if they objected.

As the other replies have mentioned. I took the view that it was done a while ago and everything still looked OK and hence I proceeded.

Ask your lawyer about this.

Bhupesh

[e-mail] wrote: