Certificate of lawfulness..ADVICE PLEASE!!!

[marisa]

I am selling my property with a garage conversion. This was done over 9 years ago. I have been told I need a Certificate of Lawfulness, unfortunatly I have no evidence of the work that was done and no receipts ect!

Is there any way I can get around this? Ive been told I can make an affidavit but they will not just except this on its own. I have a buyer for the property and this is now a major concern. Any advice greatly apreciated...

Marisa

[Kaz]

Hi Marisa

A bit more information would be useful.

Was the garage conversion done during your ownership of the house?
If so, I don't understand why you haven't got any paperwork. Didn't it need planning permission/building control involvement?

Your solicitor should be able to advise you. Maybe you could get retrospective PP if it was required or possibly even an indemnity insurance policy to give to the buyer.

[Marcelbrowner]

Any garage conversion, or other modification to the property requires permissions!

[Richard Webster]

The work would have required to have complied with the Building regulations and that can't be avoided.

As far as Planning is concerned, it either didn't need planning permission at all because no change of use was involved and substituting a window for a garage door doesn't generally need permission, or if there was an express condition on the original permission for the construction of the house preventing garage conversions without express consent then the work would not become immune until 10 years have elapsed so 9 yaers is no good.

[theplanner]

For evidence, statutory declarations from neighbours, old photos, aerial photos may suffice - they can all be used to support a Certificate of Lawfulness. You will need to prove 4-10 years of existence depending on your circumstances.

Equally, it may be that an argument can be put forward that the conversion of the garage does not actually constitute development that requires planning permission, which in turn means that it is lawful by default.

[twitter@salispropnews]

building control can be overcome by your conveyancer trying to offer the buyer legal indemnity insurance for lack of building regulations

ask the buyer why they consider such a certificate is needed, as that is planning and garage conversions do not generally need that...but again legal indemnity may be sufficient

good luck

[Richard Webster]

Use as a single dwelling-house in planning terms includes a number of activities: sleeping, eating, relaxing, doing the garden, storage of items related to the residential enjoyment etc etc. You do not need planning permission to convert a dining room into a bedroom, from a place where you eat to a place where you sleep, why should you need permission for changing the place where you keep the car to a dining room or whatever - they are all part of the same use. In most cases therefore there is no material change of use requiring planing permission involved at all.

If building work is involved in making that change this will will require conformity with the buidlign regulations and in a few cases the work as a "building mining or engineering operation..." might require planning permission, but usually it is permitted development, not requiring express permission.

So certainly I would be asking the buyer's solicitors why they think that planning permission is required. The main possibility here is that the original permission contained a condition requiring express permission for the conversion of a garage to a habitable room, so they may want to see the original permission to check such a condition is not there..