Open Plan Conservatory - help!!

[lunaraine]

We are due to exchange contracts on our first house. However, there are no building regs for the conservatory. The sellers have an indemnity policy ready to go - I dont trust the wording, but that's something else.

There is no internal door to the conservatory. They removed the kitchen/back door and finished all the edges, so not even a frame. Neither is there a door from the kitchen to the rest of the house. How serious is this? Potentially, What could the council make us do? It was built 2005 and the company has gone bust.

HELP!

[buildersmate]

Normally a conservatory of less than 30 square metres in floor area does not require Buildings Regulations approval, however you are correct in assessing that if the old external door has been removed from the original house (where the conservatory access now is) then BR approval is required. This is because the extension is no longer regarded as separate, but has became an integrated part of the house.
BRs are there to protect you, the homeowner, not some random bureaucrat at the council. BRs ensure that the structure is built strong enough so it won't blow down, that damp won't rise up through the floor via the use of a DPM, and CRUCIALLY in the case of a conservatory that the house meets minimum standards for heating insulation.
This third one is the real killer for conservatories. Whilst they wonderful at taking a thermal gain from the sunlight in Spring and Autumn (providing a useful free addition heating source that can shift into the rest of the house with the connecting door open), in the Winter conservatories just soak up heat and are virtually impossible to keep warm. That is precisely why BRs say that the old external door mustn't be removed - in the winter you are going to find it really cold and you can't close it off. So the rest of the downstairs is going to lose out as well.

[buildersmate]

It doesn't matter how much double or triple glazing you've got in it, the simple fact is that a glass / translucent surface is at best about 10x worse as an insulator than the conventional roofing constructions used with fibreglass or similar. Any heat is just going to disappear through the roof on a cold winter's day.
The technical answer to your question is that you can buy an indemnity policy which assures that the insurer would pay for the necessary improvements in the event that Building Control found out about the situation and demanded that the house comply. I'm not sure on what basis you don't trust the wording - it should be backed by one of the big insurers - Norwich Union (now Aviva) were big in this particular market, and it should say something similar to what I suggest. Show your solicitor - that's what he/she's there for.
But best of all, make sure you factor in the cost of refitting an external door and frame back in this gap - say �500 - and knock it off the price you offer. This is otherwise going to give you a big head-ache come December.