Get it on plan before you go to Market

So, you’ve decided to sell your house. You’ve prettied up the garden, given it a long overdue coat of paint, steam-cleaned the carpets, fixed the leaky taps and the squeaky doors and finally got around to patching that irritating leak in the roof. You think you’ve covered all the bases and you’re ready to go to market? Hold your horses Mr Seller…is your house and improvements on plan??

Many of our clients fall foul of the clause in a sales contract which states words to the following, “The Seller warrants that all alterations, additions and improvements to the Property have been approved by the local Authority and that all plans which are required have been submitted to and approved by such Local Authority”.

Too late once you have an interested buyer, which in itself can be a lengthy process, to discover to your horror that all is not well with your property. Nothing dissuades prospective buyers more than discovering the property with its many attributes they are considering purchasing, is not legal.

The legal implications of illegal dwellings will always revert to the seller. So, rather be prepared and remove the “illegal sink” or the “carport abutting your neighbour’s property” that you never got around to putting on plan, before you go to market. Alternatively, if the improvements have been well planned and are an integral part of your dwelling, now is the time to get all changes on plan and approved by the Local Authority. You may be unpleasantly surprised to discover the extent of additional costs with regards to augmentation fees and/or penalties incurred in getting your “now sold” property’s deviations on plan.

Take control of the process and don’t be caught off guard.