Conversions are some of the most interesting properties around. A barn turned into a beautiful home, an old office building now a block of flats, a Victorian school brought back to life as apartments. But when it comes to selling or mortgaging them, there's a catch that trips people up more often than you'd think.

Most conversion properties don't have a structural warranty. And if the work was done in the last six years, mortgage lenders are going to ask for one or a Professional Consultants Certificate.

Why conversions miss out on warranties so often

NHBC and similar warranty schemes are set up around new-build developers who register their sites from the start. Conversion projects are typically done by smaller developers, private buyers, or individual builders who aren't part of that ecosystem. The warranty question often just doesn't come up until a lender raises it, sometimes years later. A PCC is the standard solution, and it's what lenders expect when there's no warranty.

Get us in before the work starts if you can

If your conversion project is still in the planning or early stages, the best thing you can do is bring us in now. A monitored PCC means one of our RICS-regulated surveyors visits at each key stage of the works, keeping a record of how the conversion is progressing and confirming it meets the required standard as it goes. Once the work is complete and the final visit is done, we issue the PCC within 1 working day.

This is the most straightforward route to lender acceptance, and it removes any uncertainty about whether documentation will be sufficient at the end. For developers working to a sales programme, it also means your units are certifiable the moment they're complete.

Conversion already done? We can still sort it

A lot of the time, by the time someone realises they need a PCC for a conversion, the work is long finished. That's fine. We can inspect the completed property, review whatever paperwork is available, and issue a certificate from there. The more documentation you have (planning permission, building regs approval, structural reports), the smoother it goes. Missing documents aren't automatically a blocker, but they can slow things down.

Types of conversion we work on

• Barn conversions - agricultural buildings converted to residential
• Commercial to residential - offices, warehouses, retail units
• HMO conversions - houses or buildings split into multiple units
• Church and institutional conversions
• Coach houses and outbuildings brought into residential use
• Flat conversions - houses converted into two or more flats

If yours doesn't fit neatly into one of those, just ask. We deal with unusual projects regularly and it's rarely a problem.

Conversions have their own quirks

Old buildings behave differently from modern new builds. There can be damp issues, unusual structural arrangements, older materials, or changes that happened gradually over the years. Our surveyors have specific experience with conversion projects, so they know what to look for and how to document it properly in a way that satisfies lenders.

Pricing and turnaround

We issue PCCs for conversion projects from £950 per unit, dropping to £600 per unit for six or more units. Average turnaround is 7 days for retrospective certificates, and within 1 working day of the final visit for monitored ones. We cover conversions across England, Wales, and Scotland.