No commencement notice submitted.

[KOW]

We decided few years back to gift three quarter acre site to son.
In 2019 son got planning permission.
Employed architect engineer for planning compliance etc.
Start building July 2021 and just finished last month.
Engaged solicitor only two months ago for site transfer who requested me to gather up relevant map letter of compliance copy of commencement notice etc.
To cut a long story short the architect forgot to send in a commencement notice. He is not contesting that he messed up.
Spoke to the Council and the fact that all levies etc were paid over a year ago they were happy enough the architect was at fault. They said they would be unable to issue a commencement notice at this stage. They have no issues with the build.
They suggested I talk to architect and get him to apply for retention to formalize the situation to save any hazzle around a sale etc in the future.
I spoke to my solicitor about the situation. A site transfer to my son will incur stamp duty of roughly 6k. Two thirds can be claimed back when construction is complete which it is. The solicitor says the claw back is only possible with a copy of the commencement notice something I have not got and cannot get.
I have a letter of compliance for the house from the architects company.
Spoke to architect this afternoon and trying to work through the mess.
Looking for comments around the following.
1. Is retention the only way to formalize the situation especially around the area of selling property in some far off time.
2.Is there any way of claw back on stamp duty without commencement notice.
3. Eager to not start another Ukraine war or get bogged down legally what should I be asking of the artichect.

 

[GingerH]

We decided few years back to gift three quarter acre site to son.
In 2019 son got planning permission.
Employed architect engineer for planning compliance etc.
Start building July 2021 and just finished last month.
Engaged solicitor only two months ago for site transfer who requested me to gather up relevant map letter of compliance copy of commencement notice etc.
To cut a long story short the architect forgot to send in a commencement notice. He is not contesting that he messed up.
Spoke to the Council and the fact that all levies etc were paid over a year ago they were happy enough the architect was at fault. They said they would be unable to issue a commencement notice at this stage. They have no issues with the build.
They suggested I talk to architect and get him to apply for retention to formalize the situation to save any hazzle around a sale etc in the future.
I spoke to my solicitor about the situation. A site transfer to my son will incur stamp duty of roughly 6k. Two thirds can be claimed back when construction is complete which it is. The solicitor says the claw back is only possible with a copy of the commencement notice something I have not got and cannot get.
I have a letter of compliance for the house from the architects company.
Spoke to architect this afternoon and trying to work through the mess.
Looking for comments around the following.
1. Is retention the only way to formalize the situation especially around the area of selling property in some far off time.
2.Is there any way of claw back on stamp duty without commencement notice.
3. Eager to not start another Ukraine war or get bogged down legally what should I be asking of the artichect.

I don't have a direct answer for you but I am not sure retention is relevant. You got planning permission to build a house of a particular design - you built the house to that design. There is nothing to apply for retention for. Commencement notices relate to the Building Regs - a different code.

 

[newirishman]

Was looking through my documentation from extension works back in 2015/2016. I got some emails from BCMS reg commencement, but I cannot see that a commencement notice was on the list of documents required by the solicitor when we re-mortgaged about 6 months later. The Solicitor was extremely diligent in his works - even cleaned up a few misses from previous solicitor when we bought the house originally.

All that was required from the architect was the 'opinion on compliance with planning permission'.

 

[Horatio]

I would be seeking to independently verify that the letter of commencment is indeed a requirement. I know your Solicitor has said it is - that is what I would verify independently or perhaps ask him to direct you to the exact rule for your own reference. That's where I'd start.