Indemnity Insurrence will stop me with ongoing work?

[sulcishere]

Hello all,

I have purchased my 3 bed end of terrace property with a side extension which have a disabled toilet. It has been built for the ex owners mother from government grant.

The extension has been built in 2009, and it's structurally sound following the Structural Engineer's opinion, still Indemnity insurance needed at the purchase as the extension is not signed off by building regulations.

My issue here is that the indemnity insurance is void if I get the council involved to the work I am carrying out on the main house which is in a VERY bad state.

So far I did not reached out to building regulations and I have done with a builder the following works:

1. Removed 2 separating walls at the back of the building (ground floor) between the utility/kitchen/bathroom.
The independent structural engineer confirmed that the brick walls are not load bearing.

2. I have moved the bathroom upstairs above where the toilet was, and the new toilet has been attached to the same soil stack, this was the smallest room out of three on the first floor, which has a ventilation box on the wall, we used this to add an extractor, we added 4 downlights, but no new circuit has been added.

3. All the remaining area downstairs is planned to be a kitchen/diner area. New water pipes, and sockets has been added, as well as downlights. The new kitchen cabinets are on the way.

4. Back doorway where the utility door leading to garden has been blocked up, and the kitchen window has been changed to door.

I do know that we have done a lot of work, the builder seems experienced, I always do my research to do the best way. This house was basically next to inhabitable condition, does need internal door changes in future, back to brick, new flooring, etc.

What are the risks I am taking now, and how difficult it will be to sell if I have to in the future? The property has a big garden in a good location, it will be a nice home when refurbishment taken place.

Any help welcome.

 

[oldbutnotdead]

You need to look at the work you have done and the work you are planning and determine what is notifiable.
1 might be sketchy if it has left no door between the cooking area and an unprotected staircase along with questions about any buttressing function the walls may have been performing
2 although on refurbs there is no requirement to improve accessibility you are not meant to decrease accessibility (so if you have removed the downstairs facilities entirely you could be in bother. Interesting that a grant-aided project did not go through building control- or did no-one look?
3 see earlier about spread of fire
4 structural implications plus external doors are notifiable work.

The indemnity re the previous extension usually only protects you from any enforcement action, not any consequences of poor construction (IE it falls down or leaks). So pretty worthless.
You've been foolish committing that much work without building regs, it could come back and bite you quite hard if you plan on selling the place.
Remember, if you plan to take walls back to brick that becomes notifiable as well (required to consider insulation to refurb standards).

 

[blup]

An indemnity policy that is only valid if you act illegally i.e. don’t notify the Council under building regs? That has got to be wrong.

Blup

 

[^woody^]

When I survey a property with lots of unauthorised work, I deem it a very high risk for a buyer, not so much for the legalities but the fact that someone has just gone ahead and done all this work without even bothering to follow the legal process, so that makes me think what other shortcuts have they taken and what things have they put in place to ensure that he work is done correctly and to relevant standards. All the work will be covered up and very difficult to verify that it is acceptable, so as the person employed to comment on this I just can't give any assurances that the work is satisfactory, and that is what gets reported.

Whilst an indemnity policy may be offered (or may not), it won't warranty a future buyer that the work is satisfactory. The timeframe for the council to take action on unauthorised work is quite limited, and it would have to be pretty bad for action to be taken in the first place, so the value of an indemnity policy is diminished over time - as little as one year after purchase. But the risk from bad building work is there for much longer and does not go away.

 

[sulcishere]

Thanks guys for the reply, the more the opinion the better.

First things first: My plan is always was to play by the rules. I have not notified building regulations because I thought that if they find out on a visit that the extension is not signed off, and I reach out to them for other works, then this will void the insurance.

Me and the builder did have NOT done any shortcut to our best of knowledge.

1. Non Load bearing walls is not notifiable as far as I know. There is a brick wall which separates the staircase with kitchen, the removed walls where diagonall.
2. I think I do not need BR if I move Bathroom to the first floor, as I am not addig anything to the drain system, we did attached the toilet and sinks one storey above.
3. Bedroom to bathroom should be fine also, I have checked that you can add toilet anywhere at the house.
4. No new extraction hole needed, we used the existing one.
5. I am planning to add a new circuit for the rewired kitchen, and will have a fusebox change, all electrics tested, and certificate will be sent to the council.

So far all should be fine as far I am aware of. I am very cautious about the work, but I do understand that there is many unauthorized work has been done which needed removed.

Window to door is allowed in most cases, my neighbour have the door in same location where I added mine, with same layout. The neighbour next to him have the Bathroom on the first floor, I have seen that from outside looking from the street they have the toilet attached same way.

I try to work with my builder around this all, and I have triple check all regulations, the only thing is I am worried about is that if I apply for a change of use and my not signed off extension will come in their awareness then the insurance is void. I have all work documented now with photos and videos. I am not the only one in the road who did the same work. Any thoughts welcome.

 

[^woody^]

Non Load bearing walls is not notifiable as far as I know.

A common misconception. Fire safety? Area of ventilation for the bigger room?

2 "not addig anything to the drain system"
- You are adding a new connection in a different way in a different place. It's notifiable. Plus ventilation.

3. Bedroom to bathroom should be fine also, I have checked that you can add toilet anywhere at the house.
- Fire safety? Plus 2 above

"Window to door is allowed in most cases" - protection of damp, thermal bridging, reveal condensation prevention. Sometimes Radon precautions or suchlike. Buttressing, area of openings, fire spread? It's notifiable.

The trouble with "working with builders", is that they are there to make money for themselves not protect you. They do not know the building regulations - because if they did they would have made sure you complied and submitted an application where necessary.

 

[sulcishere]

The bigger room does have one window also as the door, my neighbours kitchen does not have window at all. I also have a for learning from kitchen to garden, his door lead to a conservatory.

Bathroom window is a proper big window what a proper bedroom have usually, again bigger window should be enough for fire safety.
My neighbour does have the bathroom moved on his house to first floor, to same room.

The builder did notified me about the regulations, where it needed. But I am still trying to find out if many people does have the indemnity insurance, how they do refurbishment. Do they just call the BR for a visit and hope that they do not find that other parts of the building is not signed off?

 

[^woody^]

The thing is, when considering if alterations require building regulations is not just a simple case of "it's not this, so it's that". There are several factors to be considered, and its rare for a builder to have that specialist knowledge. Typically, a builder only knows about what he has done on a past job and bases all his advice and opinion on that - not the background about why it was done/designed that way. No offence to builders.

Nor is it a case of "he's done it, so I can do it". Different properties may have different situations.

Building inspectors are not ogres, and are pragmatic regarding regularising unauthorised works.

 

[sulcishere]

This is a very difficult situation for me, I have bought this home 'sold as seen' words used by my solicitor at purchase. I would like to do it up which will require me the change of use, bathroom upsairs, big kitchen downstairs.

I have invested 25k for the change of use kitchen and bathroom refurbishment. I think I will have to get all work done now as we have a temporary kitchen and difficult living untill everything will be completed. Again, we take extra precautions, and hope to have all signed off if I am not going to sell it easy, will keep it for a few years now.

If anything else to add, please let me know. You guys did helped me anyway. Thank you!

 

[^woody^]

Just submit an b/regs application and get things checked from now on.