If a house is listed as 2 bedrooms but you can see a bed in the loft...

[ProbablyNotNo]

...what's the deal? Is it safe? Is it just a regulations thing? What should I ask the owners?

I'm considering a 2 bed terrace which has a loft conversion but really I need 3 bedrooms.
Thanks

I’m assuming it’s not got pp and/or building regs.

It's a bonus room. They can't call it a bedroom but nobody can stop you from sleeping in it if you buy it.

We had a house like that. The conversion was old, so didn't fit modern standards of what is legally a bedroom for buying and selling (the skylight was too small).

There are certain standards you have to have in a conversion that allows you to class it as a bedroom. My guess is that these standards haven’t been met. You can use it as a bedroom, but when you come to sell you can only sell it as a two bedroom house

Yeah it just means the conversion doesn’t comply with building regs- most likely something to do with the access to it.

Are there proper stairs? A door to the loft space? Windows up there?

If so and no other issues i’d be fine with it tbh, but obviously if you sell in the future you’ll have the same issue.

It's probably to do with the stairs.

My father had a two bedroom bungalow with a big attic room. It had a window, but the stairs were wooden fold-down stairs (like a grand version of a loft ladder) rather than permanent stairs.

When the house was sold, the estate agent said it could not be marketed as having three bedrooms because of the lack of proper stairs.

Bedrooms also have to have a window - so that could be another option if this one doesn't.

My house is like this. DS uses it as his bedroom but I can only class my house as 3 beds if I decide to sell it. It works for us.

Agree with others - it also depends on what is stopping it being listed as a proper bedroom. If it's something like putting in a velux window or increasing insulation then that might be something you could think about doing and allow it to be signed off as a proper 3 bedroom house.

In my experience though of a loft conversion they are more interested in things like internal fire doors on every habitable room in the house, head height at the top of the stairs and structure of the staircase, all of which cost a lot more to bring up to building control standards. There are reasons for building control - the rules are there to keep you safe if there is a fire and make sure you can get out. Or that you are sleeping in a room with correct insulation, and aren't having to duck to get down the narrow, steep stairs.

We had a house like this. The conversion and staircase had been fitted 25 years previously, & a modern sign off was refused because there was an inch under recommended head height at the top of the stairs and to comply with new fire regs we would have needed to fit fire doors at every other level of the stairs. We chose to use and then sell without doing the extra work and it was fine. Described on particulars as a carpeted insulated loft space.

I think what people are missing also is that if a loft conversion has been done since building control was a "thing", and met the standards that were in place at the time the work was done, that is absolutely fine. Things DO change over time, with larger windows, or more insulation or whatever and people aren't asked to retrospectively pull out windows or add more insulation to conform.

Not having building control sign off means that whoever did the conversion didn't bother with that part of the building process and it would make me worried that it was a bodge job in general.

Thanks all. Lots to consider. I feel a bit less clueless when I ask the estate agent now.