Hi All
Any advice and knowledge gratefully received.
Just in early stages of buying a new house.
Semi-detached house on a private plot with total of 4 houses (2 pairs of semis)
Nice house, and is finished. All looks pretty good to me, has been up for about 5 months.
There are for sure a few possible reasons that the two semis I am looking at have not been sold, other two have and are occupied.
Of the negative points 2 are not possible to change and would be down to personal preferences, but I have been able to overlook, even considering resale in the future. The houses still represent good value for money on the face of it.
The houses were built by a small local builder, and money put up by entrepreneur.
The standard of work looks pretty good, however it came to light as I trolled the Council planning approvals for this development that the two semis are built on the exisiting foundations of a house, started but not finished, in 2003. The footings were put in place but not continued. Change of planning to a pair of semis on same footprint using original footings.
I have a copy of the Completion certificate from the council Building Control and that looks fine.
However on questioning them I asked if the footings were inspected before new work started or is the implication that because the footings were passed in 2003, did that exempt them from todays completion certificate, you can see where this could lead to a problem in the future.
I have not yet seen the 10 year BLP warranty (as completion cert only just issued) after me highlighting it I suspect.
Of course I will be looking to see if there are any exclusions mentioned in the warranty, as the footings are already over 10 years old !!!!
I am assured that the BLP inspectors oversaw the whole build, but in practice have no evidence of that.
Woukd I be right to assume that with a completion certificate from the council that this would be all that is necessary, in the event of an issue down the line (house is built on a slope) that BLP would not be able to shirk and responsibility? Anyone's thoughts?
Another issue is the integral garage is small only 2.7 metres wide. But that is not the major concern, the position of the garages is such that entrance to them is from a shared forecourt which is ony 6metres wide, in front of the garage doors, and I do not think its actually possible to get a car in without considerable effort, even a small car, as the entrance is so narrow.
On reading back in the planning approval documents, the highway department looked at the original plan, which showed the forecourt to be 6 metres and commented that they would not approve unless the width was increased to 7.3 metres. Somehow that has clearly not happened! Can approval somehow be given on a plan that was rejected by highways (it is a private development that does not abut the main highway).
What to do, I don't want to lose the house, but don't want issues with council after buying.
Again any advice welcomed