A buyers Dilemma.

Posted by: Dave Hartley on 17 May 2005

Hi Folks,
A friend of mine is in the process of buying a house which he hopes to move into by the end of this week and at this late stage a problem has been identified:-

I’m buying a property which has a detached garage. The land is leasehold and it appears that there was no planning permission for that Garage. The solicitors have advised me that if I were to knock the garage down and re-build it,as I intend to as it has asbestos material, then I would have to re-register it whether or not the original garage was recorded as it would be built of a different material . The leaseholders have quoted £975 to register any building work for a garage which I have tried to pass onto the vendors who have refused to pay this charge.
They are now saying that the garage had permission but they accidentally threw the paper work away and they will sign a document declaring this.(However I know that the garage was erected before the current owners moved in.)
I have asked my solicitor if this declaration would prevent me from incurring any penalties, if in fact the original garage did not have that said permission.
My solicitor has advised me that this declaration would be adequate to avoid any penalties.

Any thoughts on the solicitors advise would be greatly appreciated.

Dave
Posted on: 18 May 2005 by Lomo
Dave, with all due respect isn't that what you are paying him for?
Posted on: 18 May 2005 by bigmick
In general, declarations like this are fine in theory but one is then faced with the hassle and potential disproportionate cost of tracing, enforcement and recovery. An undertaking from the sellers solicitor would be more preferable.

If your solicitor has established that planning permission was actually needed, the council planning dept should have a record, so in this instance, I'm not sure why one would bother with the declaration.

Whilst the leaseholder will expect that planning permission has been given if needed, his registration fee is a seperate matter. If you wish to carry out structural works, most leases will stipulate that you will need leaseholder consent and that there will be a leaseholder registration charge for this. This may or may not be the case in this instance and if the registration charge you refer to is somehow specifically to do with the abestos disposal then the issue to me is unclear and you should investigation further and seek clarification before you proceed to purchase. If this is a standard registration charge then your solicitor should clarify this with direct reference to the relevant section in the lease.

Bottom line is that Lomo is correct in that your solicitor needs to cover all these bases, but most importantly where there are any queries, you must obtain any and all advice, such as that regarding the validity of the declaration, in writing.