"chris French" wrote in message
...
We are selling our house, we have a carport (built we assume at or
around the same time as the extension and the garage - late '60's - we
bought the house in 1997)

The buyers solicitor queried if we had any building regs approval for
the car port (we did have the plans etc. approved for PP as it happens
for the extensions). Of course we didn't.

So a letter arrives today saying he is saying that we take out an
indemnity policy because of this (to cover the buyers against whatever
potential liability they would be exposed to). Now in this instance he
seems to be talking out of his arse as AFAICS a carport of 30m^2 floor
area (which I'm sure ours is) is exempt, so will sort that out tomorrow.

But it got me wondering as to what liabilities - if any, someone would
have this sort of situation if BRA was required?. Is there some sort of
open ended liability for things built without BRA (like there is for
listed building consents say)?

Not normally. There is a four year legal limit I believe and in fact a much
shorter time in practice. Thus the policy usually only has to cover the
cost of a solicitor to sort out the legalities and if necessary a
regularisation fee with the local authority.