Cert of Planning Compliance on a 30 year old semi D

Hi all

Just have a quick query re a house sale I’m going through at the moment…..

The house in question is 30 years old and is in a popular estate in south Dublin. I signed contracts last week and the purchaser has also signed (so intent on both sides is not a problem). One caveat was placed for closing - the purchaser’s bank have stated that they require a statement from an engineer that the original house conforms to planning. My solicitor has said that this is very unusual especially given the age of the house and the fact that it has been bought and sold 3 times at least since it was built but said there is nothing I can do - unfortunate was the word used. She said that the banks are tightening their controls and now want this document to be submitted before they will allow the purchaser to close.

We had put an extension on the property about 4 years ago which we have a valid cert of compliance for planning and building regs purposes. This we submitted along with the rest of the relevant documentation and there was no problem with this.

I’ve asked an engineer to do the work for us so he has to request the planning details from the council and verify the planning on the original building. This is not unusual in newer houses he said but given the age of the house, the Council may not even have the original plans and the building should be exempt from planning in any case given its age…. It seems like we will be forced to incur a significant expense for something we may not be able to deliver (ie if the council have no plans)….

Has anyone else ever come across this before?

Thanks,
DeBarr

I know someone who was in a similar situation a few years ago. (maybe 5 years ago). It was a house in a housing estate in Tralee, I think the sale was delayed for a few months until the planning issue was sorted out. I'm not sure, but the house would have been 35/40 years old.

Did you not need a planning permission for the extension by any chance? if so, the planning from 4 year ago would also include the complete plan for the house.

Hi bacchus

No we didn't need planning for the extension - it was well within limits and have certified that planning was not needed.

DeBarr

We have just been through something similiar. We needed a cert. of compliance for a planning applic. that had been submitted by a previous owner. When we bought the house it wasn't an issue but as we tried to sell the house the purchasers solicitor needed it for the sale to go through. Our engineer had to check back through files at planning office, visit site and sign off that it was constructed per the planning permission. This was done within a week. The plans of house should be in storage or on micro-fiche possibly. This should not be a big problem just more expense!

Best of luck and hope all works out

We have just been through something similiar. We needed a cert. of compliance for a planning applic. that had been submitted by a previous owner. When we bought the house it wasn't an issue but as we tried to sell the house the purchasers solicitor needed it for the sale to go through. Our engineer had to check back through files at planning office, visit site and sign off that it was constructed per the planning permission. This was done within a week. The plans of house should be in storage or on micro-fiche possibly. This should not be a big problem just more expense!

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I had the same when purchasing my current house. Took less than a week to sort out and did not delay the sale.

Thanks for the replies guys. I suppose the big worry is the council don't have the original plans for the housing estate it in storage but I guess we cross that bridge if/when we come to it.

A week turnaround sounds good - we were supposed to close this Friday but only got notified of this issue when we went to sign contracts last Friday afternoon.