I am currently selling my house and part exchanging it with a builder. They had the survey done last week and awaiting any feedback from this. The house was built in 2007 and had a large cloakroom off the kitchen that we had removed in 2012 to make a larger kitchen/ diner area. I have just emailed my local council to confirm planning permission was not required.
I have received the following response "despite non-loadbearing walls being removed, it appears that the work carried out was to remove a previously Part M compliant WC. The requirement to the dwelling under Part M4(1) is for provision to be made for all people to use the dwelling and its facilities, and to comply, an accessible WC should be provided to the entrance storey of the dwelling. Unfortunately removing this WC constitutes a material alteration and under Approved Document M it clearly states that “the building should be no less compliant with requirement M4(1) than it was prior to the building work taking place”.
Therefore in order not to contravene the Building Regulations the accessible WC should be reinstated"
How likely is it that the surveyor will pick up on this issue, and if so will we have to put a WC back in the original position before we move? Are the council likely to follow-up on my email to ensure the work has been done? It has been 6 years since the work was done - would this mean the council are no longer able to assist the work is reversed?
Thanks for your advice in advance!!