Is my house signed off or not

[Tilly]

My house was built in 1987 as part of a 36 plot development scheme, in 1988 pp was passed for a 2 storey extension the property was finally completed in 1989 and signed off as one. In 2006 it was repossed and auctioned. The acting solicitor could not find building regs approval for the 2 storey extension and put an indemnity policy on it. I bought it 1 year later. My solicitor said that it was a very marketable property. It also had pp passed for a concervatory in 2002. So is the house signed off or not. Going to the council would invalidate the policy. How do I prove that it is ok

[Richard Webster]

There are two issues as far as a building regulations are concerned:

1. Will there be some structural failure that will cause damage or loss?
2. Will the Council take enforcement action?

On 1:
What did your surveyor say about the work when you bought the house? Did he find any signs of non-compliance with the regulations? If he didn't why are you worrying? If you bought an older house you would probably find that there were things about it that wouldn't meet modern standards, would you be worrying about that? After 18 years how likely is it that a problem will now emerge?

On 2:
The indemnity policy only covers enforcement action and not structural condition. After 18 years if the Council now wanted to take enforcement action they would first have to gather evidence of non-compliance and then seek an injunction in the County Court requiring you to remove the extension.
The National papers might be interested to publicise a waste of Council resources on a stupid exercise such as this and the Council would be made to look very silly. They wouldn't do it, would they?

[Tilly]

Thanks for your prompt reply