Accessing Building Control application history.

[scallywag65]

Hi, When 3/4 of the way through buying a property and the seller was being asked to provide BC Certificates for all the major works he had had done he just ignored all the requests from the Agent and the Solicitor, after several weeks of this failure we were informed that the seller had accepted a higher offer from another buyer and that there was nothing we could do, we lost another property (the 3rd one in just over a year).
Can someone please advise me as to how i can get confirmation that he didn't have any BC Certificates.

 

[blup]

I don't think you can get confirmation that something wasn't done, but the local council would have a certificate for what if anything was done and approved (a completion certificate i think it is called). That is typically an overall description of works and it doesn't follow you can identify all The elements without seeing the drawings.

I was once refused access to the detailed drawings when buying a house, the Council said they was personal to the applicant. Not a problem if you are buying from the applicant, who can disclose them, but potentially one if the works were carried out by a previous owner.

Blup

 

[^woody^]

Why does it matter? You lost the property, move on.

 

[RichA]

You could try checking on the council’s planning/building control website.

 

[geraldthehamster]

What use is this to you now?

 

[scallywag65]

We are in the 2nd year now of selling our property and buying another one. After 2 failed attempts by prospective buyers of buying our property we finally were due to complete with the 3rd buyer last march, a week before the completion date we were told that the property we were due to move into had pulled out (for "personal" reasons).So in effect, in order to not let our buyer down and to save going through an already stressful period of selling the property again we have been renting initially, then buying a campervan and living on various campsites for 2 months and now we are renting again, which isn't easy when you have 2 dogs and obviously this is proving very expensive and not ideal.
You ask what use is this to me now? we are in our late 60,s and i,m fed up with dealing with incompetent, greedy, estate agents/solicitors, surveyors etc, and clueless people that just care about themselves and to hell with everybody else, and a house seller that i strongly suspect done a lot of major structural work on his house without obtaining BC permission otherwise why blatantly fail to produce valid certificates when asked, so i want him to realise that he,s no exception to everyone else who comply with rules and regulations, call it revenge if you like, i think i have every right to want revenge on someone that just knowingly extended our horrendous house selling/buying experience, so i wanted to find out how to go about finding whether my suspicions were correct, and if so, notify his council, by the way, the reason for us wanting to move was to be closer to our daughter who had our 1st grandson nearly 3 years ago and we wanted to look after him whilst my daughter could work part time, by the time we actually move he,ll be going to juniors school.

 

[geraldthehamster]

Just being vindictive then.

By the way, if the work was done more than a year ago, the council can't act against him in any case. The time limit has expired.

Your gripe may well be with your conveyancer, for asking for unnecessary paperwork.

 

[blup]

Having completed several sales/purchases in various capacities recently I noticed people are much more likely to reduce their offers at a relatively late stage in the process, so don't exclude that as a possibility if works don't appear to have BC approval but are not a major concern on any structural survey.

You are at a big advantage not having a sale conditional on your purchase.

Frustrating as it is, don't waste any more energy on what's fallen through.

Blup

 

[^woody^]

Don't hate the player, hate the game.

 

[noseall]

Don't hate the player, hate the game.

Correct.

Non-compliance has developed nicely into a money making machine for conveyancing solicitors and insurers. Even when work done to a house doesn't fall under building Regulations. I've lost count the amount of times people have phoned me asking why work I have done to a property (BC not needed) was not certificated.

If you really like a property then buy it.

 

[Chunkytfg]

Just being vindictive then.

By the way, if the work was done more than a year ago, the council can't act against him in any case. The time limit has expired.

Your gripe may well be with your conveyancer, for asking for unnecessary paperwork.

We've just bought somewhere and our Conveyancer didn't ask at all about BC certs on a house that has had 4 extensions

 

[Leofric]

We've just bought somewhere and our Conveyancer didn't ask at all about BC certs on a house that has had 4 extensions

Might not comply with building regulations then Didn't they mention possible planning consents either

 

[Chunkytfg]

Might not comply with building regulations then Didn't they mention possible planning consents either

They were done in the 90's so even if they don't there isn't really anything that can be done. Plus the house is basically being gutted anyway so it's all going to be signed off after i'm done.

All the work that needed planning consent had it in place.

Basically the house has had an adjoined outbuilding extended and converted into a kitchen which had consent. Then it had a garage built with consent. Then a rear extension to be used as a kind of granny annexe that had consent. There is a small porch on the front that doesn't look to have had consent but would fall under PD rules nowadays anyway and a small rear make shift conservatory/sun room that we are currently getting a retrospective LDC for so we can then apply for permission to take it down and rebuild it slightly smaller to match the shape of the extension and convert the whole back of the house into a huge kitchen/ diner.