The local authority can serve an enforcement notice for lack of consent and force you to alter or remove the
works. Indemnity insurance can cover the legal costs and fees should this happen.
With no independent building control inspection and no appropriate approval, it is possible the work wasn’t
done properly. For example, your loft conversion may not have been built with a safe means of exit in the
case of fire.
Your solicitors should have advised you when you bought of the limitations of indemnity insurance and
should perhaps have suggested you get a survey or a structural engineer’s report into whether the
conversion was safely and properly done.
An application for retrospective building regulations consent may have been another option.
Look at the advice you received when you bought your house. You may have cause for complaint against the
solicitors who acted for you.
These answers can only be a very brief commentary on the issues raised and should not be relied on as
legal advice. No liability is accepted for such reliance. If you have similar issues, you should obtain
advice from a solicitor.
Fiona McNulty is a solicitor specialising in residential property.