House purchase and building regs
Discussion
Am seeking a bit of expertise from PH's finest legal minds.
I'm about to buy a new house. It's 13 years old and was first sold as a new build in 2001. Since then it's been sold twice and we will hopefully be the fourth owners of the house.
However the current owner cannot find the building regulations completion certificate that should have been issued when the house was built in 2001. Our solicitor says we cannot complete the sale without it because without a BRCC, we could not insure the house and therefore the bank would not lend us the mortgage.
The bank are unaware of this issue and have made a full offer of mortgage after a satisfactory survey.
The local council have not yet been asked if they have a spare copy.
Solicitor advises that an indemnity is of no use since it only protects against enforcement action by the council, and not against any claims arising out of any defects with the house as regards building regs.
A few questions for wise PHers:
1) The house would have had a 10 year NHBC warranty when finished in 2001. Is this sufficient to show that the house complied with building regs when it was first built? Can this be used in lieu of a BRCC?
2) Is my solicitor telling the truth? Do we actually even need a BRCC on a 13 year old property that has already had 3 previous mortgages on it?
3) Can I instruct my solicitor to proceed without a BRCC? The bank have not asked for one and neither have the insurer. I feel that the solicitor is trying to cover her own backside rather than do what is in my interests.
4) Do house insurers even care about a BRCC being present? I've never been asked for one previously.
5) If we do need a BRCC, how do we get one?
I should add that the house is in its original condition and no additional planning/building work has been undertaken since then, so there has been no requirement for any additional BRCCs to be issued.
I'm about to buy a new house. It's 13 years old and was first sold as a new build in 2001. Since then it's been sold twice and we will hopefully be the fourth owners of the house.
However the current owner cannot find the building regulations completion certificate that should have been issued when the house was built in 2001. Our solicitor says we cannot complete the sale without it because without a BRCC, we could not insure the house and therefore the bank would not lend us the mortgage.
The bank are unaware of this issue and have made a full offer of mortgage after a satisfactory survey.
The local council have not yet been asked if they have a spare copy.
Solicitor advises that an indemnity is of no use since it only protects against enforcement action by the council, and not against any claims arising out of any defects with the house as regards building regs.
A few questions for wise PHers:
1) The house would have had a 10 year NHBC warranty when finished in 2001. Is this sufficient to show that the house complied with building regs when it was first built? Can this be used in lieu of a BRCC?
2) Is my solicitor telling the truth? Do we actually even need a BRCC on a 13 year old property that has already had 3 previous mortgages on it?
3) Can I instruct my solicitor to proceed without a BRCC? The bank have not asked for one and neither have the insurer. I feel that the solicitor is trying to cover her own backside rather than do what is in my interests.
4) Do house insurers even care about a BRCC being present? I've never been asked for one previously.
5) If we do need a BRCC, how do we get one?
I should add that the house is in its original condition and no additional planning/building work has been undertaken since then, so there has been no requirement for any additional BRCCs to be issued.
The building control people at your local council should have a copy I'd have thought but your solicitor is being a knob I suspect, not uncommon in my experience, either stalling you or trying to justify his existence (is he holding anyone's money?) unless there has been specific alterations done under the building control officer since it was originally built. I doubt your mortgage lender will give a s
t and your insurers will just not pay out if am investigation on a claim shows the house was not built to regs.
t and your insurers will just not pay out if am investigation on a claim shows the house was not built to regs.FredClogs said:
The building control people at your local council should have a copy I'd have thought but your solicitor is being a knob I suspect, not uncommon in my experience, either stalling you or trying to justify his existence (is he holding anyone's money?) unless there has been specific alterations done under the building control officer since it was originally built. I doubt your mortgage lender will give a st and your insurers will just not pay out if am investigation on a claim shows the house was not built to regs.
This is my gut feeling, just need to make sure I'm in the right before I challenge the solicitor.t and your insurers will just not pay out if am investigation on a claim shows the house was not built to regs.We had to buy an indemnity to cover a few alterations that had been made to our place for which the vendors were unable to produce a building regulations certificate. I doubt they ever applied for or had sign off for the work give what we've uncovered subsequently 
The indemnity didn't cost much.
But as already mentioned if the certificate you're after if for a new'ish build I'm sure you'd be able to get a copy from the council. If it's an established / large building firm might be worth chucking them an email as they may have a copy on record.
The indemnity didn't cost much.But as already mentioned if the certificate you're after if for a new'ish build I'm sure you'd be able to get a copy from the council. If it's an established / large building firm might be worth chucking them an email as they may have a copy on record.
I've got a a NHBC certificate for my 10 year old house but I'm sure I don't have anything from LABC.I'm pretty sure you'd have one or the other, not both, why would you need two inspectors to sign it off. As mentioned check at the council to see if they have any records, even if they do its all but useless after this amount of time anyway.Solicitors/surveyors are getting beyond a joke at covering there arses now.
Little Lofty said:
I've got a a NHBC certificate for my 10 year old house but I'm sure I don't have anything from LABC.I'm pretty sure you'd have one or the other, not both, why would you need two inspectors to sign it off. As mentioned check at the council to see if they have any records, even if they do its all but useless after this amount of time anyway.Solicitors/surveyors are getting beyond a joke at covering there arses now.
+1 Why would you get a building regs cert on a new build house? Only thing I had & needed were the cert from NHBC, one for the electrical installation & one for the gas. That was in 2009. Unless this was some one off plot & not a major builder??Surprise, surprise, the bank weren't interested about the missing 13 year old certificate and released the money for completion today. Solicitor was completely wrong and we've just wasted two weeks waiting for a certificate that might not even have ever been issued let alone actually be needed.
Took a snotty e-mail to the head of the firm and an unannounced visit to their offices to get it sorted but fortunately no matter now.
Took a snotty e-mail to the head of the firm and an unannounced visit to their offices to get it sorted but fortunately no matter now.
Sparta VAG said:
Surprise, surprise, the bank weren't interested about the missing 13 year old certificate and released the money for completion today. Solicitor was completely wrong and we've just wasted two weeks waiting for a certificate that might not even have ever been issued let alone actually be needed.
Took a snotty e-mail to the head of the firm and an unannounced visit to their offices to get it sorted but fortunately no matter now.
AIUI Dave has the general gist correct http://www.nhbc.co.uk/NHBCPublications/LiteratureL... and NHBC act as the approved inspector.Took a snotty e-mail to the head of the firm and an unannounced visit to their offices to get it sorted but fortunately no matter now.
As an aside if there were no BRCC or NHBC certificate you could resolve the situation by getting an intrusive survey and report from a surveyor to hopefully say that as far as it is possible to assess the house complied with BRs when it was built.
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