What happens if LBC was never issued...

[overlander matt]

Still moving on with the house purchase. One month to go now... I am still a little bothered by the absence of LBC history associated with the house and wonder what the consequences will be. I am reluctant to say that changes have been made by the current owners (they bought the house in the 1980s) without approval but how can one be sure? Who's to say changes weren't made by the previous occupants - it's all in the distant past. Anything removed is long gone and we will do our best to preserve and improve the house for the future.

The property listing states "Interior has original Adam style fireplace to east room and mid C19 marble fireplace to west room, with segment headed niche to east side". This doesn't mean a great deal to me - there are two rooms with fireplaces that don't look terribly old. One perhaps has an oldish surround which has been heavily painted but has new brickwork and hearth. I don't think it's appropriate to post any photos of someone else's house here at the moment but I doubt that what is there corresponds to what is listed... What would you suggest? I don't feel that I want to demand anything from the sellers and I am committed to the purchase now.

Thanks in advance. I am very much looking forward to getting started. On the chimney and fireplace front, 8 of the 11 fireplaces have been boarded up so it should be interesting to see what is hidden behind... Looking forward to sharing a few photos too.

Matt

 

[Abi Cott]

Technically according to the letter of the law you can be required to rectify what they have removed at your own expense or face prosecution.

In reality this very rarely happens.

There are options for indemnity insurance, which hopefully will scare the bejesus out of the previous occupants and prevent them doing that sort of stuff in the future, but probably wouldn't protect you a great deal.

You pays your money and you takes your chance.

I specifically discussed a few items like this with my Conservation Officer. She was more interested in what I was going to do to rectify the issues than she was in the legal stuff, but that's one individual in one office in one county.

 

[Jamieharnett]

I bought my house last May, before completion I arranged a meet with the conservation officer as I knew there had been works completed they hadn’t had listed consent.

The house had work completed a few months beforr I purchased which had been completed due to previous sellers surveyors report resulting in the mortgage company refusing to lend. A party wall had been installed which probably more a legal issue as no party wall agreement had been put in place, injection damp proof and replacement of skirtings downstairs to 350mm mdf strips! A wall had also been removed as some point between the lounge and dining room had to create a lounge-diner this has been done many years before and you could see the bulge in the wall and wallpaper ran right through with numerous layers of paint.

On the visit with conservation officer he was not happy regarding to damp proofing treatment and told me he would follow this matter up, I followed up the visit with an email detailing this and other info discussed and asked him to confirm my understandings were correct of our meeting.

Our conservation office is a very nice chap and very considerate but like most conservation officers he is over worked and can never seem to give a definitive answwe, that said I’ve made 4 LBC myself and never had one refused. One LBC was to remove a section of a original lathe and plaster wall to create a door opening!

I think unless something drastic has been changed without consent within the last 5/10 years then you could be in for a problem. The little bits here and there would be unrealistic to make some one reinstate something that originally has already been removed?

 

[88v8]

If PO has removed and sold listed fireplaces they could be prosecuted. Presumably the CO has photos?

I suspect that other than such specified interior features, one is much more likely to encounter problems if there have been changes to the exterior, particularly facing any public roads.

As regards interiors, the years we spent looking for an unspoilt old house showed very clearly that behind an attractive exterior one often finds a few 'period features' marooned in a desert of pastel cubism whence all character, patina and age have been banished, listed or not. In most cases, little in terms of 'conservation' can be done; recreation of what was lost would be conjectural, Disneyficatory. Alas.

PO here did some interior stuff without permish. Nothing that bothered me. One just has to take a view.
In the end, one is buying a house, not a paper trail.
Different if it were GII* or GI. There, I would want dots and commas.

Ivor

 

[overlander matt]

Thanks for your replies. I was not keen to insist on an indemnity policy for covering any correction of unauthorised work. I had my suspicion these were a bit of a worthless exercise so thank you for confirming this.

I think we will be unfortunate if we are punished for the misdemeanours of previous owners. I have no idea what records/photos might exist in the CO's archive. The previous owners did their work in the 1980s and allegedly with the support of various grants so I would imagine there was some respect of the LBC process but probably in a time when there were fewer photos taken. I am hoping that our intentions to carry out considerable repairs to the property will ultimately be seen as more beneficial than making us put right any previous unauthorised works.

Ultimately, the building is what it is when we move in and we cannot change what has gone before. Only try to take better care of it in the future.

Looking forward to getting started...

Matt