Architect Certificate for an extension?

Hi all,

I have recently sale agreed a 4 bed house with a small extension at the rear. Planning permission was not required for this small extension but however my solicitor says that an architect's certificate for exemption is definietly required. But the vendor had bought the house about 10 years ago without an architect certificate. He however had letter from an architect confirming of this extension which his solicitors agreed was sufficient. But my solicitor advised me that I will need an architect certificate if I wanted to sell the house in the future. I am in dilemma whether to pull out of the deal as I will have to bear the cost of obtaining an Architect certificate for the extension. My questions are as follows:

1) Is an architect certificate must for a small extension that does not need a planning permission?

2) How much would time and money would it take to obtain an Architect certificate? My solicitor says it would cost a few hundred euros to get it.

3) Can I safely proceed with the closing of the deal without an architect cetifcate for the extension?

Any advice is highly appreciated.

Many thanks.

Surely it's up to the vendor to supply the certificate of exemption otherwise the title is not complete?

I recently had to obtain one - it cost €280 and took 3 days to get.

If your solicitor is not satisfied to complete sale then it will be up to either you or the vendor to sort out this Cert. It really should not be you in this case.

If its a means of the vendor selling their house is it not in their best interest to sort it out fairly promptly?

Mind you, it's a seller's market. It does sound as though your solicitor is being very cautious about this, which is his job after all.
It sounds from what you say that the extension does not require planning and everyone realises it but everyone is getting tied up in the details.
If you have seen the original cert of exemption, can you go ahead and buy and sort out the problem yourself later. Is it possible that the sale price is lower due to this potential problem and that it is worth sorting it out yourself? Has the value of the house risen by €280 while this problem was being dealt with?
If you think that the vendor is hiding something, ask him to pay for new cert for you which you will add to the sale price. That way, you only pay if the cert is in fact issued correctly (and you may decide to add this to cost your mortgage)
D

The same thing happened to me when buying my house a few months ago. The bank won't release the mortgage cheque if you don't have all the necessary certs for extensions or alterations.
The seller threatened to pull out on us when we went looking for the cert but eventually calmed down and realised they wouldn't be able to sell to anyone without it.

delgirl said:

Surely it's up to the vendor to supply the certificate of exemption otherwise the title is not complete?

I recently had to obtain one - it cost €280 and took 3 days to get.

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Who did you use for this? thanks.

Hi all,

Thank you for all your replies. Just a quick note to inform that I managed to get an Architect Certificate for the extension from the surveyor (He is an Architect) who also did the survey of the property I had sale agreed. It costed me 200 euros and took 3 days to get one.

Many thanks

bacchus said:

Who did you use for this? thanks.

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Hi bacchus, sorry just saw this today - the property is in Gorey, Co. Wexford and we used Arthur O'Leary & Associates, Gorey.

delgirl said:

Hi bacchus, sorry just saw this today - the property is in Gorey, Co. Wexford and we used Arthur O'Leary & Associates, Gorey.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. Never too late....