Removed load bearing wall to make kitchen bigger

[Djwilliams37]

Hi
Around 18 years ago we had another bedroom installed above the kitchen extension and a dining room to the side of the kitchen with the existing kitchen wall dividing the 2 rooms. The upstairs bedroom was supported on steel work that sat on top of part of the wall. This steel work was required as the council were being very unreasonable giving planning permission so the bedroom was cut short by around 0.5m from the end of the kitchen wall.

The wife a few years later wanted a larger kitchen so we set about removing the wall. I didn't go to the council for permission etc. I did however seek advice from a structural engineer who came to the house and told me the size of beam to support and what to do to the wall to support the beam. To get the kitchen to fit the beam would need to be supported solely by the wall with no pillar sticking out. The existing inner wall of concrete blocks was removed and a dpc used to line the outer wall. The new inner wall was built using engineering blocks which were built up from the foundations. The wall was then filled with a concrete mix to form a solid pillar.

I did have a problem and was unable to get any paperwork other than drawings from the company. I believe the engineer had a lot of personal problems so I ended up not paying for the service. The work was done around 15 years ago and everything has been sound
I am now wishing to sell the property and wonder if anyone has any advice of how I should go about avoiding any problems this may cause with the sale. I have a conservatory installed so the wall is not open to the elements. I got planning permission for the conservatory
Cheers
Dave

 

[He who knows]

Tell the truth if asked on any questionnaires.

Its too late now for the council to do anything about your failure to comply with the law 15 years ago, so you are safe there.

A buyer's solicitor will likely ask you to stump up for one of those utterly useless indemnity policies which do nothing except enrich the buyer's solicitor via commission. You'll just have to suck it up.

If you aren't truthful you will have given misleading information to induce a sale to the value of hundreds of thousands. Basically fraud.