Selling a house with unconsented works

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zuzuflub

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#320235 21-Jul-2025 18:51

We have owned our home for eight years and during that time we have made several non-structural changes to the layout. These include removing internal partition walls and replacing a window with a door, using the existing lintel. As these changes did not require building consent, we did not apply for one.

However, the current layout of the house no longer matches the floor plan held by the council. Our real estate agent is now unwilling to list the property due to this discrepancy.

What are our options in this situation?

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#3396000 21-Jul-2025 19:07

You can sell the property as is but you are required to disclose the works. If the works did not require consent you should be able to prove this to a purchaser. If your prospective agent can't help with this get a better agent.

Whether or not the purchaser, and their insurer, accepts this is a discussion point during the sale process. Proactive disclosure will help a great deal. You could also get a PS3 from the contractor/s and/or a safe and sanitary report.

eracode

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#3396025 21-Jul-2025 21:19

Was the work done by a pro tradie or did you DIY?

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mattwnz

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#3396027 21-Jul-2025 21:25

IANAL. But maybe you could contact your council without identifying your property to see how they can help you.

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#3396050 22-Jul-2025 05:48

try a few other agents

the thing with property is, someone will buy it if the price is right

where are you based?

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#3396055 22-Jul-2025 07:47

To make life easier selling, talk to the council and follow their advice. If the changes were by a proper builder, shouldnt take too much to sort.

Agent sounds a bit of a newbie and probably has never encountered this situation.

Once you have them or someone else on board willing to help sell it you have two options :

1) Be honest and ensure the agent discloses the changes (or they may say if someone asks, they'll advise about it but otherwise wont say anything - bit of a dubious way of selling as it could come back to bite you)

2) Say nothing to anyone, and hope the buyer isnt someone like me who is happy to go through 300 pages of property reports etc ;)

As a buyer, I did #2 (hehe) on a property and found there was so many changes to it, it wasnt funny. And none of the changes were known by the council. This included a deck, removal of external door, new external door in new locations, non-consented bathroom, external ground drainage which lead to street gutter AND they had cut up the sidewalk to do this. I queried the agent on all these changes, and they came back "seller advises was all done legally and dated before laws changed requiring documentation etc". I walked away. I checked the dates etc and everything was done AFTER the change.

Was a pity, was a damn nice house otherwise....... but we're very happy where we are now :)

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#3396086 22-Jul-2025 09:01

The key is proving that no consent was required. Internal wall moves could be consent required if those walls were load bearing or bracing. Changing a window/exterior door impacts weatherproofing and there are planning rules around windows and doors so I would have thought that needs a consent.

How old is the house? Are the plans lodged with the council sufficiently recent to answer the above questions? We once reno'd a 1910 house (never again!) and the scanned images of the original plan looked like hand drawn outlines - practically zero detail. On that reno we were told by our builder that some stuff didn't need consent but come sale time that became a sticky subject and we went back and got a Certificate of Acceptance for the changes (mostly partition wall changes but we did move around some plumbing). Wasn't too hard as we had all the drawings and producer statements but cost money.

When we were looking at buying our current house we pointed out an unconsented bathroom alteration and the agent was then forced to make this known to all potential purchasers. This meant that banks would be most unwilling to offer a mortgage on it. As cash buyers that really gave us the upper hand but it means we will need to re-renovate that bathroom with a building permit and consent before we ever sell it.

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#3396089 22-Jul-2025 09:07

xpd:

As a buyer, I did #2 (hehe) on a property and found there was so many changes to it, it wasnt funny. And none of the changes were known by the council. This included a deck, removal of external door, new external door in new locations, non-consented bathroom, external ground drainage which lead to street gutter AND they had cut up the sidewalk to do this. I queried the agent on all these changes, and they came back "seller advises was all done legally and dated before laws changed requiring documentation etc". I walked away. I checked the dates etc and everything was done AFTER the change.

Was a pity, was a damn nice house otherwise....... but we're very happy where we are now :)

As mentioned above, we were in a similar situation although the alteration in question was limited to one bathroom. Raised the deficiency and the vendor came back with the "doesn't need one" response. We replied that our advice says otherwise. At that point the agent accepted reality and gave the vendor the bad news - all purchasers would be advised that there is an unconsented alteration and this was noted on the sale and purchase agreement. That's a red line for bank mortgages. We elected to bid at the auction and won the house at a considerable discount. We will have to strip out the bathroom and renovate it with a new consent.

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#3396109 22-Jul-2025 09:40

Hi - another option is to just go ahead & sell your home privately. This gives you the opportunity to discuss things like this directly with any interested parties, they can see you aren't being dodgy and will enlist a builder to check things, and a lawyer to sign off things anyway - whether you were working with an agent or selling directly.

If you are comfortable selling a car yourself and are OK at negotiation then it's an enjoyable process. With TradeMe, etc it is easy to get in front of interested buyers - we've bought & sold privately a few times. As a photographer/videographer I believe that the images do a lot of the work in attracting buyers (yes, I'm biased), and I set up a website to offer my services to help people sell property themselves

http://www.privatesale.nz (did I mention I'm biased towards private selling...?). Good luck.

mdooher

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#3396129 22-Jul-2025 10:30

Apply for a certificate of acceptance from your local council, or if the work was done prior to 1991 then get a "Safe and sanitary report"

Matthew

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#3396315 23-Jul-2025 04:16

mdooher:

Apply for a certificate of acceptance from your local council, or if the work was done prior to 1991 then get a "Safe and sanitary report"

OP says “We have owned our home for eight years and during that time we have made several non-structural changes to the layout.”

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

mdooher

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#3396891 24-Jul-2025 20:49

eracode:

mdooher:

Apply for a certificate of acceptance from your local council, or if the work was done prior to 1991 then get a "Safe and sanitary report"

OP says “We have owned our home for eight years and during that time we have made several non-structural changes to the layout.”

then they can go with option one, unless the they think the work was done previously... who is to say? so hard to tell.

Matthew

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#3396897 24-Jul-2025 21:20

mdooher:

eracode:

mdooher:

Apply for a certificate of acceptance from your local council, or if the work was done prior to 1991 then get a "Safe and sanitary report"

OP says “We have owned our home for eight years and during that time we have made several non-structural changes to the layout.”

then they can go with option one, unless the they think the work was done previously... who is to say? so hard to tell.

??? No - they have been there eight years and they did the work during that time. How or why would they think it was done previously? It is not so hard to tell when it was done.

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#3397017 25-Jul-2025 12:18

Imo this is a relatively common scenario. Buyers are not necessarily concerned about it depending on the change and type of property, although some will be regardless, perhaps more so in some areas and price ranges. I'm guessing you've struck an agent who has a customer base or market segment that has a low tolerance for it, or otherwise just avoids any complications.

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#3397018 25-Jul-2025 12:19

gzt: Imo this is a relatively common scenario. Buyers are not necessarily concerned about it depending on the change and type of property, although some will be regardless, perhaps more so in some areas and price ranges. I'm guessing you've struck an agent who has a customer base or market segment that has a low tolerance for it, or otherwise just avoids any complications.

Or who is inexperienced, lazy or useless.

eracode

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#3397019 25-Jul-2025 12:21

gzt: Imo this is a relatively common scenario. Buyers are not necessarily concerned about it depending on the change and type of property, although some will be regardless, perhaps more so in some areas and price ranges. I'm guessing you've struck an agent who has a customer base or market segment that has a low tolerance for it, or otherwise just avoids any complications ....

... and/or is not desperate for listings.

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

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