Owning your own home

not the whole truth, but possibly part of it.

Two couples have already offered asking price, one is a chain-free cash buyer.

About your offer...?

any recommended firms for conveyancing?

Fwiw, my gf and I put an offer well under asking (12%) back in Jan on a place that had been advertised for a month. Our offer came up a bit, but still under asking (6%) which was still declined. Said we didn't want it enough to pay much more, explored other options which fell through (will tell that story later maybe).

Revisited the idea a month later, saw property still live, emailed to re-offer 6% under asking and it was accepted immediately.

Where are you based?

wimbledon

Hands down the best conveyancing solicitor I've used was Caroline Sherry from Glazer Delmar in Dulwich. Came recommend by forum royalty @mashton . Absolutely worth every penny.

thanks!

We had Harpreet Virdi (who works with Caroline) who was absolutely excellent too. So much so that my brother is using her with his purchase now.

i called them - awaiting quote
appreciate input

Hi all, I wonder if I can trouble the wise minds here for some advice regarding building control sign off certificates (or lack of) for a loft conversion and rear extension. It's now 3 months since our offer was accepted on a place and it appears that the completion certificates for the works do not exist. The loft was done under permitted development in 2016, and the extension had planning approval in 2011. Obviously the alarm bells are ringing but how much of a deal-breaker should this be? I know we can get indemnity insurance but I don't think this helps in the event of the work not having been done properly. Has anyone been through a similar situation?

Yes, I have agreed a price now; slighly higher than my first offer but I'm quite happy with the outcome.

Possibly, I could have held out and got it at my original offer in a few weeks time, but I am quite keen on this particular place. And I don't like uncertainty. And I'm not very good at negotiation...

It's definitely more of a buyers market now.

Sometimes the approval certificate takes ages to come through. I had my loft converted last summer and still haven't had the cert through although I know the inspections were all done and it's been passed. I'd be asking for the details of the building control surveyor that was responsible for it and email him to ask him if it's been passed in principle or not.

2 days.

forum royalty

I knew I liked you.

I'll bet on you for TCR6 now.

Thanks, that's interesting to know. We'll try to find out who it is

I think that's the difference. I don't know where you're based but our search covered blackheath and Greenwich so we knew we would find somewhere similar if the first one fell through (and we were on hols for most of the time) so we were happy to call their bluff.

I must have learned more than I thought about negotiating during my year of misery as a contract recruiter after uni.

It might be possible to have it inspected by building reg's and have it certified retrospectively? Although how they do that with everything been plastered over and hidden I don't know. Might be worth trying to get any engineering dwg's and calcs too.

As far as I understand it, indemnity insurance only covers you if the council decides to come after you, of which the probability is slim to none. It won't cover you if for whatever reason you find out the house is not up to scratch and needs work.

I found out very late I the process that our loft extension didn't seemingly have any permission despite being told by the estate agent and vendor that it did. By this stage in the process, we were over invested in the property (and needed somewhere bigger for the children) that we cracked on and took out the insurance.
Been here a year and no one has asked us to take it down yet. It's very well built (and been up for over 10 years) so I have no reason to suspect there's anything wrong with it and believe we came to the right conclusion.
Trust your own gut instinct. If you think it will be problematic in the future, maybe reconsider.

Can't be inspected and signed off without opening up works.

Good to get some different opinions, thanks. I guess it boils down to whether we accept the risk or not... Why can't people just do things properly?!

You could use it to negotiate further on price?

"So yeah. My offer assumed you'd get your shit in order. It turns out you haven't."

Yeah what Howard said. If they have this problem with you they will have it again with the next buyer.

Did you have a survey done, any distress noted?

If the loft has been done properly, and it's been done relatively recently, I'd be very, very surprised if it wasn't inspected by building control.

If the loft has been done properly, and it's been done relatively recently, I'd be very, very surprised if it wasn't inspected by building control.

I personally wouldn't accept the risk of buying a house without the building consent; you could make it a condition of completion that the thing is signed off which would only make it their problem I guess but would allow you to proceed along the way to completion.

There's no sense in you running around trying to get their signoff when the sale could still fall through for some other reason - all you'll have done is a massive favour for them for their next sale and removed your own leverage in the deal.