Professor Property Advice

We are hoping to buy a 1930s semi in St Albans.  The house had a
two storey extension in 1977 and the council have details of the
planning application but not anything in relation to the building
regs.

I have searched on the internet and I presume that this should
have been covered by The Buildings Regulation Act which was
revised in 1972 and covered all of the UK and Wales but we
currently have no proof that this was not carried out by a cowboy
builder.

What should we do?

We were hoping to exchange next week and complete on 16 March so this is quite urgent.
Any advice would be gratefully received.

I would expect that you are doing everything you should. Talk to the council and if necessary get their take on what they are willing to agree.

I suppose there are two issues here:

A: would the work if carried out today; qualify for approval?
and
B: Can you get approval or proof of it? Perhaps you (or preferably your seller) could engage an approved building inspector to get this for you?

If the answer to a: is no then you should put the onus on the seller to sort it out

If the answer to B; is No then perhaps you should reconsider your purchase in the light of this new information

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