Moved into the (ex- local authority) house in 2004 and it had what appear to be the original wooden doors/frames from when the house was built - In Scotland if this makes a difference.
Its a strange layout as the front of the house had two doors adjacent to each other, utilising the same main door frame. One door led to the hallway and the second (that opened outwards) to a storage area that then itself led into the kitchen. This storage area is nothing more than a pantry and meter cupboard as its narrow near the door (just wider than the door itself). Note that the kitchen (rear of the property) has an external door too.
After a couple of years of been in the house, we replaced the wooden doors (and the remainder of doors/windows in the house) with uPVC - the front doors were replaced in a similar fashion, two doors, one opens inwards to the hall, one opens outwards, again using the same frame.
Transpires that the uPVC doors/windows and their fitting was, to be honest woeful - we may as well have had a hole in each door/window that much air came through them. So, in 2014 we paid for a local company to change them. At this time we decided to have the second 'pointless' door blocked up. It meant that we could use the storage area for a laundry area.... we put the washing machine / dryer in front of where the door was.
The 'double door' area was framed out with timber and the area where the door was is uPVC panels to the outside, a good thick layer of kingspan in the timber framing and then plasterboard to the inside. The remaining main door is a composite door. This was all done by the same window/door company who are a well respected company and are part of the local council 'trust a trader scheme'.
Move onto present day and we are selling the house. Its been questioned (by our solicitor thus far), if we have any paperwork from the Local Authority for the changes. We do not - so the question is, should we have got LA consent before getting the door blocked up, can it be done retrospectively and if so, how.
From my initial googling I believe that maybe it should be my means of a building warrant - which would be for us to show that the changes are in line with the building regs in force at the time and I think in line with energy efficiency too. The searching I am doing makes me ere towards BW not required, it's a change to existing door openings, the thermal value of the replacement in that area will be better than of the uPVC door that it replaced etc. And, in any event, its not permanent in that it would easily be restored to be two doors if ever needed. The company doing the works never made any reference to a BW been required - one would have thought (as they are the experienced ones) that they would have wanted to see this before they started works.
Do we just say to solicitor, no we have no paperwork and hope that is acceptable?
Its a strange layout as the front of the house had two doors adjacent to each other, utilising the same main door frame. One door led to the hallway and the second (that opened outwards) to a storage area that then itself led into the kitchen. This storage area is nothing more than a pantry and meter cupboard as its narrow near the door (just wider than the door itself). Note that the kitchen (rear of the property) has an external door too.
After a couple of years of been in the house, we replaced the wooden doors (and the remainder of doors/windows in the house) with uPVC - the front doors were replaced in a similar fashion, two doors, one opens inwards to the hall, one opens outwards, again using the same frame.
Transpires that the uPVC doors/windows and their fitting was, to be honest woeful - we may as well have had a hole in each door/window that much air came through them. So, in 2014 we paid for a local company to change them. At this time we decided to have the second 'pointless' door blocked up. It meant that we could use the storage area for a laundry area.... we put the washing machine / dryer in front of where the door was.
The 'double door' area was framed out with timber and the area where the door was is uPVC panels to the outside, a good thick layer of kingspan in the timber framing and then plasterboard to the inside. The remaining main door is a composite door. This was all done by the same window/door company who are a well respected company and are part of the local council 'trust a trader scheme'.
Move onto present day and we are selling the house. Its been questioned (by our solicitor thus far), if we have any paperwork from the Local Authority for the changes. We do not - so the question is, should we have got LA consent before getting the door blocked up, can it be done retrospectively and if so, how.
From my initial googling I believe that maybe it should be my means of a building warrant - which would be for us to show that the changes are in line with the building regs in force at the time and I think in line with energy efficiency too. The searching I am doing makes me ere towards BW not required, it's a change to existing door openings, the thermal value of the replacement in that area will be better than of the uPVC door that it replaced etc. And, in any event, its not permanent in that it would easily be restored to be two doors if ever needed. The company doing the works never made any reference to a BW been required - one would have thought (as they are the experienced ones) that they would have wanted to see this before they started works.
Do we just say to solicitor, no we have no paperwork and hope that is acceptable?
