Unauthorized Development

mike_cork

Currently sale agreed on a property.

Today the solicitor came back with this- " The balcony and Velux windows are an unauthorized development"

The Velux Windows/Balcony have been in situ in excess of 7 years and the owner has not received any enforcement notices 

(1) Should we just pull out now/how serious is this?

(2) Will our lender decline to provide a mortgage loan offer in this case or does that vary hugely?

The reason i am asking on boards is i doubt i will get a hold of my solicitor before the long weekend and this will drive me nuts thinking about what to do!

Leg End Reject

To the best of my knowledge an unauthorised development is always unauthorised, even if outside the enforcement period and a bank won't give you a mortgage.

Check with your bank or broker and contact the estate agent. The vendors should apply for retention, if you do get a mortgage and ever decide to sell the issue will still be there.

DFB-D

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121287798#Comment_121287798

This is correct.

Also, no further development will not be considered exempt for any further development on the property, e.g. an extension which would otherwise have been considered an exempt development is no longer exempt.

That is the legal situation, however practically, it may not have an impact bearing in mind that the local authorities may have no knowledge that unauthorised development has taken place, but I would consider there is a loss of value.

I think to rectify, you need to obtain retention permission or rectify, it is exempt development to have a rear roof window (from memory). The balcony if to the front might be harder.

mike_cork

Thanks lads for the response.

Regarding the balcony the seller has an an engineers certificate which says he would consider the balcony exempt from the planning rules. This cert was provided by the previous vendor when this house was bought by the current owner (9 years ago).The balcony is at the rear of the property.

The main issue seems to be the velux windows- these windows were installed prior to the current vendor purchasing the property.

The same engineers report I referenced above states that at the time of the report (2014) the windows had been installed by a previous owner.

frank730

I was in similar situation when buying, the seller provided architecture opinion on compliance, both my solicitor and the bank were satisfied. the attic was converted with 2 velux windows but not classified as a room, everybody was ok with it.

MrsBean

I was told one of two velux windows was an unauthorized development (side one), and that we'd need certs for an extension done 30 years ago, and an attic conversion - we were in a panic thinking this was the end of the road and we'd have to walk away from purchase, but it turns out no, it's all grand. Vendor provided an architect's opinion on compliance with building regs and an opinion on exemption from planning. Both our solicitor and the lender were satisfied, as were we. Seems a fairly standard issue, but could depend on the lender. Best of luck!

mickdw

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121296342#Comment_121296342

You were lucky in that an architect felt it fell within what he she was happy to certify qualified as Exempted Development.

In the majority of cases, you would be looking at a retention application.

mike_cork

My update on this:

Managed to get hold of both my solicitor and engineer on Friday.

Spoke with my solicitor and she was pretty confident that neither issue would be a problem from a bank lending pov....then spoke to my engineer who clarified that the velux windows aren't actually a problem after all!

Quote from the engineers response to me on Fri:"You are allowed to alter the internal roof space. Therefore the deluxe windows are exempt from planning"

The balcony has been confirmed though has being an unauthorised development (it is 20+ years old).

wildwillow

Remember that if want to sell on that those problems will be yours to sort. I wouldn’t buy until the balcony has planning.

ted1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121289072#Comment_121289072

If it was that easy they could have submitted it to the council who would have confirmed it.