Terry Fields wrote:
A thread is running over on uk.legal re the above topic. This may have
all sorts of impact on DIYers and others.

Apologies if this has been posted before.

The OP is reproduced below:

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NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2007 07:02:23 -0500
From: Postman Pat
Newsgroups: uk.legal,uk.finance
Subject: Building Regs compliance disclosure all the way back -
unworkable?
Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2007 13:02:22 +0100
Organization: NoSpam



Recently, conveyancing solicitors have been checking on whether any
alterations have been done, and if so have they met BR.

An explanatory leaflet I have just seen from one solicitor says that
while a Section 36 notice could in the past be served at most 12
months after the work was completed, a test case in 2000 has changed
this and now ALL alterations, no matter how far back, can require
proof that building regs (presumably as they were at the time!) were
met.

They say that a mortgage lender will not lend on a property unless
this has been verified by a surveyor. He will presumably compare the
original builder's plans (if available) with the current state.

One can get insurance but these policies are conditional on the
Council's attention not having been drawn to the alteration, or to any
subsequent enquiry.

It appears to me that this is an unworkable system. Almost any house a
few decades old will have had alterations. Possibly trivial ones like
a rewiring, or walls removed, etc. If the lenders really won't lend,
this is really going to cause havoc.

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No, it merely adds a few hundred to the solicitors' bills and a few
hundred to the cost of transaction as you take out insurance where no
paperwork exists.

Jobs for the boys.