Hi,
Apologies if this is long.
We are currently in the process of buying a house which was built around 1997.
We questioned why the owners of the house didn’t have consent for taking a load bearing wall down and replacing it with a lintel. Instead of just saying they didn’t have approval and getting an indemnity, they asked the council if they needed consent (which they were told they did need) and now they can’t get an indemnity.
So they went down the process of getting approval and the council told me not to worry it’s a case of they needed to expose the lintel so they could see the fitting and all being ok it would be signed off. The council were round within a couple of days of receiving the paper work... all was going well!
However, the guy from the council said he wasn’t sure if it needed a bracket, he needed to check this with a structural engineer. He said if it didn’t all would be fine.
The structural engineer confirmed there wasn’t a need for the bracket.
We waited a week for the approval and annoyingly the council asked for the calculation for the foundations. The seller provided these and they were all ok. Now the council has asked if there is a metal plate (sorry if that’s not the right term) in the foundations. The seller has said of course there is there was a brick wall there originally, the council have said they want proof and also need to know the substrate the foundations are laid on. The seller is going to remove a few bricks this weekend to expose they metal. I’m not sure if he’s going to manage digging to the substrate. Is this a thing? Is there anyway round this?
Has anyone heard of this before? Could they ask for anything else after these have been confirmed? I’m worried my chain is going to fall apart or the owner is going to have to re-build a wall at this rate. Everyone I have spoken to has said it’s usually a straight forward look at the lintel and it gets signed off but it’s like they are making this an awkward situation as he didn’t have consent at the time.
Is this going to take weeks to sort or could we still be ok to make stamp duty deadline?
Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. I’ve packed the house and have a new born, a house move on top is driving me mad.
Apologies if this is long.
We are currently in the process of buying a house which was built around 1997.
We questioned why the owners of the house didn’t have consent for taking a load bearing wall down and replacing it with a lintel. Instead of just saying they didn’t have approval and getting an indemnity, they asked the council if they needed consent (which they were told they did need) and now they can’t get an indemnity.
So they went down the process of getting approval and the council told me not to worry it’s a case of they needed to expose the lintel so they could see the fitting and all being ok it would be signed off. The council were round within a couple of days of receiving the paper work... all was going well!
However, the guy from the council said he wasn’t sure if it needed a bracket, he needed to check this with a structural engineer. He said if it didn’t all would be fine.
The structural engineer confirmed there wasn’t a need for the bracket.
We waited a week for the approval and annoyingly the council asked for the calculation for the foundations. The seller provided these and they were all ok. Now the council has asked if there is a metal plate (sorry if that’s not the right term) in the foundations. The seller has said of course there is there was a brick wall there originally, the council have said they want proof and also need to know the substrate the foundations are laid on. The seller is going to remove a few bricks this weekend to expose they metal. I’m not sure if he’s going to manage digging to the substrate. Is this a thing? Is there anyway round this?
Has anyone heard of this before? Could they ask for anything else after these have been confirmed? I’m worried my chain is going to fall apart or the owner is going to have to re-build a wall at this rate. Everyone I have spoken to has said it’s usually a straight forward look at the lintel and it gets signed off but it’s like they are making this an awkward situation as he didn’t have consent at the time.
Is this going to take weeks to sort or could we still be ok to make stamp duty deadline?
Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. I’ve packed the house and have a new born, a house move on top is driving me mad.
