No record of planning or building regs before 2001

[Babs_B]

I am looking to buy a 1860s house that has had work done to it at some point prior to the current owner moving in. The current owner bought the house in 2006, without any record of planning or building regs. I have contacted the council and they have no record either, but that their records only go back as far as 2001. The works are:
Loft conversion
Infil extension to connect house and workshop
Workshop changed to habitable room, now attached to house.

Is there any way to check whether works were legal, given that the council has no record? If not, will I face future problems with insurance, etc? I plan to build an additional 1st floor extension myself, on top of the infill, so what problems might arise if I can't track down the documentation?

 

[oldbutnotdead]

The works are legal if they've been standing in clear view for that length of time (photographs are useful evidence of stuff like that, even family snaps from the current owner with dateable stuff in them.). Whether they were done properly is another matter entirely but since they're still standing they can't be that bad. Presumably you've had a structural survey?

Building on top of the infill- if building control have no record of it then you'll have to expose the foundations to ensure they're up to the extra load of an extension and possibly the walls (to see what they're made of).

And I'm not sure what the position would be on your extension (pd vs pp) since by the sound of it much of the pd allowance may have been used.

 

[Nakajo]

"So what problems might arise if I can't track down the documentation?"

None. Once you have possession, a structural engineer will be able to advise on a structural solution.