First Time buyer - no planning permission!

[ellie2409]

Hi there,

Can't believe I am writing this but we have just bought a house and only now just found out that the two storey extension the house has no planning permission or building regs or completion certificate. The solicitors completely missed it and claim they didnt even know about it! (They are lying as they have been informed by several parties including the mortgage lender that there was an extension.) We also have a toilet that is possibly plumbed in to a surface water pipe instead of foul which we could be fined for apparently.

When probed they came back and said there was planning application for the garage to be converted (was two bedroom terrace with garage, now 4 bedroom house) but it was rejected! They also advised the seller to take out an indemnity policy for the cost of the entire house, when they told us it was only for the windows as there was no fensa certificate for them.

We would never have bought the house knowning there was no planning permission, we really dont know where we stand now - does anyone think we have grounds to take action against them given that we were sold a house not knowing that the extension was illegally built? This will also affect my business as a childminder and potentially we might lose the extension completely as we are not sure the garage foundations are enough support and unlikely to gain retrospective planning permission.

[drhouse]

This is something you need to take legal advice on and ideally from someone other than the solicitor who did your conveyancing. You may well have a claim against your solicitor so start there.

[Fantafelix]

Hi yes I agree. The solicitor should have picked this up. Sorry mate

[ellie2409]

Thank you both, we ahave started the process with a formal complaints letter, we are expecting to hear by Tuesday. Unfortunatly things have gotten worse as we have just found out that the 'indemnity insurance' certificate we have is not real and that they never took the insurance out. Now we have no back up and the house has subsidence!