Planning Permission And Selling Your Home
Renovations can be part and parcel of home ownership, but what happens when it comes to selling up? Graeme Booth, Associate Partner and Conveyancing Solicitor at Farleys explains
When selling a property, homeowners are asked to complete a Property Information Form (TA6) which provides crucial information about the property covering a vast array of areas from property boundaries to any works that have been carried out that would require planning permission and/or Building Regulations approval.
If you’ve completed any work which required planning permission or compliance with Building Regulations, these should be detailed on the TA6 and you should try to provide the relevant documentation to your conveyancer at the earliest opportunity so as not to slow the process down. If you have carried out works for which planning permission or building regulation approval should have been obtained but was not, it is important you are honest on the TA6 to avoid legal action from the buyer further down the line if they discover you’ve withheld information.
In instances where planning permission has been granted but you cannot locate the decision notice, most councils now make such documents available to download through their website. Not all councils have records of Building Regulation completion certification on their websites so duplicates can be a little bit more difficult to obtain.
For certain works covered by Building Regulations though, certificates may be issued by Competent Person Schemes instead of local authorities, such as in the case of gas, oil, electrical and solid fuel burner installations, and window/door replacement. You should ensure when having such works carried out that the contractor is registered with a scheme and, upon completion of the work, they make the necessary submission to that scheme to issue a Building Regulations compliance certificate.
The first port of call if you do not know if the relevant documentation was issued should be the contractors who completed the work. If the contractors have gone out of business, you aren’t able to access the information by any other means, or if you know the work was completed without planning permission/Building Regulation certification, your conveyancer will likely offer an indemnity insurance policy to the buyer’s conveyancers to cover any financial losses the buyer may incur in the future in the event the lack of planning permission or Building Regulation certification results in enforcement action by the local authority. This will of course come at a cost, so if you are in the midst of renovations, it’s always worth planning ahead and ensuring the contractors issue you with the necessary documentation.
One important point to bear in mind in relation to indemnity insurance is that if you have any doubts about whether planning permission or Building Regulations approval should have been obtained for works completed at the property, you should not approach the local authority as this could alert them to the absence of the relevant permission or approval, making it significantly harder to obtain indemnity insurance cover.
Another thing to consider when selling your property is whether you have planning permission in place which you never got around to completing. For example, if you have permission in place for a loft conversion or the building of an extension, this could add value to your property and provide a more attractive prospect for a buyer so be sure to mention it to your agent when you are discussing listing the property.
Whether you are buying, selling, or remortgaging a property, Farleys’ conveyancing specialists are on hand to help. Get in touch on 01254 368040, email: info@farleys.com, or visit our website for more information: farleys.com.
