Just had the building survey come back on my potentially new house and it seems quite alarming to me.
One of the points raised was that the extension had substandard walls that may need replacing! I was just wondering if there is any way that I can check to see if the extension was done with planning permission or not? I think it was put into before the current owners.
The council will be able to tell you that, plus you need to check if it had building regs approval.
Substandard may just mean that they don't comply with current regs (ie not enough insulation). Homebuyers surveys and the like are so vague as to be almost worthless.
I'd try phoning to local council planning department and asking if they have a record of the planning permission.
You could also ask the current owners for any relevant information that they may have received when they bought the house.
What sort of survey dis you get a Home Buyers or Structural Survey (Building Survey)? You may need to commission a survey from a Structural Engineer to get an assessment of what remedial work is required and how much it will cost. You can then use this as part of your negotiations on price.
If you find out the that work was done by a previous owner who liked DIY walk away.
Do you have a solicitor? They ought to be advising on this as standard practice.
you need an indemnity policy or some other policy. i cant remember exactly - it insures you against having to pay for any works due to substandard work carried out bu otherts. i have one for our through lounge diner work as there is no record of building control inspection. the sellers took out hte policy for us.
as above your solicitor will tell you what you need to know.
my company will happily carry out structural surveys.
>Substandard may just mean that they don't comply with current regs.
We had something like that on our last place - the work had been carried out in the 70's well before the relevant regulations came into being. Best ask the surveyer specifically what they mean, it may just be wriggle room on their part rather than a real problem.
BTW - there's two parts to permissions - planning permission says you're allowed to build what you've applied for, and building regs sign-off demonstrates that what's been built meets the building regulations at the time.
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