Selling a property without Planning Permission

Was the house built pre 1963/4?

Unmortgagable. So will only sell to a cash purchaser, which for nearly all properties will destroy the value.

As stated by mickdw there would be a record if permission was ever granted. My local council keep old ledgers that details were entered into and then there is the manager's orders which is the legal document showing details of the granting by a county manager. These managers orders are duplicated and kept in separate departments.

Is there a reference number available? Has the original applicant been contacted or his architect of engineer or even his solicitor?

I don't see any issue with solicitor for vendor trying to get it sold under whatever conditions exist.

It is for you and your solicitor to look after your interests and for your bank to look out for themselves also.

Other than a declaration stating that the property was constructed prior to planning legislation (1964), and that no works have been carried out since then, I can't see any other kind of declaration being in any way acceptable. It seems to date that they are claiming planning exists so as far any bank would be concerned, I can't see any kind of owner declaration being of any use in that case in the absence of the planning file.

Planning departments DONT destroy records. I suspect your solicitor isnt telling the full story.

I’m not really sure what you’re issue is OP?

Planning departments don't. Councils do however have a habit of things disappearing, sometimes on a wholesale basis. Some councils have very poor records of planning permissions, especially before the 1990s.

Agreed.

I've spent (some would say wasted) 40 years in the business and during that time I have carried out hundreds of planning searches both for myself and on behalf of various law searchers and I never failed to get details of a planning application.

We are always a step ahead of the posse here in Donegal!!!

The original planning docs for the housing estate I live in were AWOL in the council offices for about a decade. I was told they've been found but the public online file is still a scan of a "film missing" card! Reference, confirmation that it was granted, and extremely basic abstract are all that are on that system.

(estate planned late 60s/built early 70s; they have the docs for a rejected extension to the estate from a year or so later)

Myself and my brother bought a house about 5 years ago where they couldnt find the planning permission.

The bank was insisting on it before giving us the loan, but in the end produced a document for us to sign stating that we were aware that there was no planning permission found. We applied for retention which was fast enough and then did the house up and sold it on.

A lot of people stayed away from it because of the lack of PP, so we got it cheap.

Another house we flipped, they couldnt find planning permission either but we (i mean our solicitor) got a letter from then stating that they were aware that planning permission had been given but could not locate it. They didnt even have a reference number. But that letter was fine and we got a mortgage on that too, renovated it and flipped it after getting retention.

Its quite common with older houses as far as i can tell.

Ya I'd imagine your standing with the bank and the knowledge that you were specifically flipping the property at a profit helped but I'm still surprised because there is always the possibility of a planning issue arising and the bank getting drawn into a sh1t storm.

A commercial venture, they the intention is a short term flip is going to be more risky for the bank. An owner occupier is less risk, as they will hold it for longer typically.

@JimmyVik got the mortage without issue as the loan reflected the value. Banks couldn't care whether a property has planning or not. Post saying "impossible to mortgage" miles off the mark. Banks just won't be interested in paying full price for a house that comes with inherent risk. Why would they, its paying over the value.

The advice to the OP regarding applying for retention was based off the initial impression that the OP was selling the property. They'd have to own it to apply for that!

Well you can do that in general for planning permission alright but why would you bother?

You'd be a bit thick to go and pay the application fee to regularize someone else's planning deficiency and then they might either turn around and sell it to someone else, or demand more money. If you bought it subject to it becoming regularized then maybe. But other than that you wouldn't do it. And the seller wouldn't want to sell it to you on that basis anyway. Because if you didn't regularise it, you'd get your money back but the buyer could be an unwanted tenant.