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Hi, we are in the process of purchasing a Victorian terraced house. We did a private survey on the property and it is mentioned that there are works done to the main wall and internal wall removed need to have planning permission for that. But the current owners do not have documents and they say it was done even before they bought which was 20 years ago in 2003. In that case my surveyer suggests to get regularisation for that. Which sellers not ready to do saying since they didn’t do any work for last 20 years from the time they bought. My solicitor also says sellers don’t need to legally provide that if the works done 10 years ago. But in council it lets us to apply for regularisation if the work was done after 11 nov 1985. But we have no proof when the work was done. We checked with the neighbour who has been living from 1994. He also says the property remained the same from his time and he do not have any document for his property too just has hm land registry document. Probably the property is strong enough since the work was done may be even 30 years ago. Can we take my solicitors word and proceed buying or insist on going for regularisation? If regularisation is applied will they grant the certificate for the works done more than 30 years ago? If we buy, is this going trouble us when we want to sell or reduce the value of the property? We like the property but don’t want to get into a situation where we can not sell in future. Kindly someone suggest please.

Hi, I wondered I'd anybody might have experience or advice on an issue I'm having. I recently bought a house off of relatives and they had removed one of the two first floor chimney breasts. The remaining stack was sitting on timber in the attic and was done something like 30 years ago. Before we started doing the house up, I wanted to get it secured and all above board with building control. I got a SE to do designs, and they recommended gallows brackets. The council confirmed they were allowed under some conditions and I was advised I could start the work whilst waiting for them to process my regularisation application. The work was done and looking at it I'm happy and it's clearly very secure. The council then came back and said they were worried about whether the mortar would hold the weight and asked for confirmation that the wall was in good condition (which the SE stipulated must be the case to the builder). The builder confirmed this was the case but the council wanted a statement from the SE. I had to pay an extra £150 for the SE to inspect the work done and they then confirmed in a statement that the wall was in good enough condition. The council then came back again and said that they want a pull out test conducted - something I'd never heard of before. I called a company today about this who have quoted £575. So I'm feeling a bit peeved that the council had me spend the £150 when they didnt accept what the SE said anyway. The £575 just feels like a disproportionate cost, when the work is clearly fine (and is more secure than it has been for the past 30 years!), and I really don't have the money for it right now. I've asked them why they haven't accepted the SEs designs and confirmation of the good condition, and I'm waiting for the response. Is there anything I can do to challenge this request? Or is this reasonable and just something I have to get on with? Has anybody else had any similar experiences? Any advice would be much appreciated! Thanks.