I agree. Worst case scenario is that you ask your purchasers to go back to their surveyor and ask them how the lack of paperwork affects the valuation of the house. I predict the answer will be "not at all" - unless someone thinks there is a real risk of someone from the Council coming round and demanding remedial work be carried out.
David
I'm duly impressed: you're absolutely correct: your memory of (my) events is better than mine! (One house into two as it happens, but same net effect)
David
| 3 years ago we bought a derelict terraced house as a money making | venture, and renovated it. | Now it is all completed, and we have a sale going through. | (The likely profit is about the same as I would've made if I'd had a | second job working evenings and weekends on a building site for 3 years | (which is pretty much the truth!). It's a decent profit and was fun to | do, but hasn't made us millionaires) | | The problem:- | We have a sale going through. The buyer's solicitor has asked for a | FENSA certificate for the double glazing. I'd not heared of one before | today, so don't I have one. I gather that being a diy-er I should have | applied for building regs approval before commencing the work which | would have had the same standing as a Fensa cert. But how can I | resolve the problem now? | Perhaps I can get building regs approval now, although that'd really | delay the sale? | Or I can knock money off the sale price and let the buyers sort it out | if they are agreeable? | There is an easy solution??? | | It's Saturday AM. I wish I'd got this darned letter on a weekday so I | could've asked my solicitor what the options are!
Have you double glazed absolutely *all* the windows? I had a discussion with our double glazing suppliers and he said that the new regulations only apply to *complete* re-windowing of a house. Partial double glazing falls through a loophole somewhere. HTH
On Sun, 25 Sep 2005 11:01:59 +0100, a particular chimpanzee named Dave Fawthrop randomly hit the keyboard and produced:
Not true. Repairs to a window or door frame is exempt, but any individual replacement window (or door with more than 50% glazing) is covered. Most Building Controls charge the same amount for an application covering one window or a whole house.
Not really, buyers solicitors do raise it, but upon being told not to be sily the buyers in almost all cases forget they ever raised it. As said, millions of houses dont have such paperwork, its only a panicky buyer that would walk away.
one case means highly unlikely to prove costtly. And, more to the point, if you say nothing and leave it to the buyer to decide, you can't be had for misdescription. The buyers solicitor is potentially liable if they fail to ask, hence they ask. How important it is to buyer and seller is another matter.
Theyre not entitled to any answers. It is the sellers choice whether to answer questionnaires. We live in a litigious society, errors do get made with these forms, sometimes issues exist the seller could not have known at sale, and sometimes one party claims something that wasnt your work was, and decides to pursue it, rightly or wrongly. Thus filling such form in only buys you legal liability.
The buyer can determine what theyre buying without you holding their hand.
However, vendors can't be expected to know precise details of all work done
On the contrary, the safest route is to say nothing, and leave it to the buyer to determine and decide.
NT ====================== Buyers certainly are entitled to *HONEST* answers. That was established by the case referred to by another poster even if it is only one case.
A vendor who refuses to answer any questions may be within his legal rights but his refusal to answer is likely to be very off-putting for potential buyers. I would certainly ask my own questions before engaging a surveyor and I would certainly walk away if a vendor refused to answer my questions.
If the proposed 'Vendor's pack' becomes law then it will probably remove a vendor's 'right to silence' and that might not be a bad thing.
As far as I remember, the case referred to concerned a serious neighbour dispute concealed by the vendors. It is unlikely that this kind of information would be picked up a surveyor's report yet it can be very relevant to potential buyers. At least they can choose to buy or not in the light of full information provided in a vendor's pack.
Cic.
| On Sun, 25 Sep 2005 11:01:59 +0100, a particular chimpanzee named Dave | Fawthrop randomly hit the | keyboard and produced: | | >Have you double glazed absolutely *all* the windows? | >I had a discussion with our double glazing suppliers and he said that the | >new regulations only apply to *complete* re-windowing of a house. Partial | >double glazing falls through a loophole somewhere. HTH | | Not true. Repairs to a window or door frame is exempt, but any | individual replacement window (or door with more than 50% glazing) is | covered. Most Building Controls charge the same amount for an | application covering one window or a whole house.
We were replacing a single window at the time, discussing emergency exit and that is what he *said*. I have not checked the regs, but if there is an ambiguity, I would use it.
Interesting. I replaced a kitchen window and patio doors with ones from Screwfix some three years ago. Would these likely conform? I had to wait several weeks for delivery straight from the factory, so I'd guess they were new made to order rather than stock.
Apparantly you need Building Control approval, if you fitted them, or a Fensa cert if a contractor fitted them after April 2002. (I'm not an expert at ALL - I first asked the question at the start of this thread, and got the answer here - but I'm itching to provide some answers instead of asking questions all the time!) I spoke to my solicitor today re my problem. He said contact Building Control. Following a telephone discussion I'm going down their office to have a word. I hope there's someone other than an admin person when I get there. This could seriously delay our house sale. The windows might not even pass which could seriously upset our first-time buyers - I'm concerned about the opener sizes, though theyre the same as most new windows in the street and bigger than some, I don't think they t equate to 1/20th floor area. Maybe Large fitted cupboards will solve that ;-)
Tony the stressed.
What's with the 1/20th floor area thingy? - never come across that one.
Hugo (who is a BCO in case you didn't know) pointed out that regarding openers, they don't specifically need to be Means Of Escapes unless the originals were; ie, you're not allowed to make the situation *worse* than it was. As the BCO didn't get the chance to inspect your windows previously(!) I'll be interested in knowing how you get on (assuming you've fitted non-MOE windows) - how do you prove that the originals weren't MOEs either?
Do you have any photos, eg from the original estate agents' sales particulars? (In these days of digital photography I now document everything by camera; you never know when it might be useful to prove(?) that the foundations were indeed dug that deep, or whereabouts that cable run traversed the ceiling).
Good luck with it - let us know how you get on!
David
Hi David The 1/20th is something Cicero wrote in post number 8 in this thread - part of the regs:
Cicero wrote;
Hopefully Building Control will be out in the next day or so. I'll let u know how I get on. If you don't hear from me, it probably means I'm being treated for stress somewhere!!
tony
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