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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to think this house is an accident waiting to happen?

279 replies

Inertia · 01/10/2023 21:47

Just noseying on Rightmove - how did any of this get past building regs? I thought the lack of handrail on the stairs was bad enough until I saw the landing!

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/140675273#/media?activePlan=1&channel=RES_BUY&id=media22

OP posts:
Thread gallery
7
onebornsecibd · 02/10/2023 15:26

wutheringkites · 02/10/2023 12:10

I guess this is one way of making sure you're never asked to have the grandkids overnight.

100% why they did it

WiddlinDiddlin · 02/10/2023 18:35

TheSpikySpinosaurus · 02/10/2023 08:03

Bloody hell. Stairs and landing are illegal. See eg www.fastbuildsupplies.co.uk/knowledge-hub/guide-domestic-stairs-uk-building-regulations-part-k/

How did the owners get them past building regs?

And the carpet, wallpaper and curtains are fugly. You'd need a customer-made carpet for that's size of house, and it would cost THOUSANDS. No thanks.

Oh easy - build it with bannisters/balustrade in place - get it signed off - remove them.

My Dads house contravenes various building regs relevant to the time he built it, but ... he built it... as he wasn't getting a mortgage on it, and none of it was so bad it would be ordered to be pulled down.

He has a landing with an insecure plexiglass barrier that isn't safe - two half-flight staircases with no bannister, and two doorways that are not regulation height and have an angled beam through the top of them - not an issue for him, he's a hobbit.

It might cause whoever has to sell the place some issues or whoever buys it, in the fullness of time, but it won't affect him!

80skid · 02/10/2023 19:50

Aside from the stairs, looking at the floor plan, it's a really well designed and thought out house. Beautiful home for someone who can sort the stairs and the dodgy blinds!

celticprincess · 02/10/2023 21:48

O wow. The carpet would set my vertigo off the I’d definitely fall down the stairs if I hadn’t fallen off the landing!!

Hooplahooping · 02/10/2023 22:19

Gosh I know taste is subjective but being hospitalised after a fall would be a welcome relief from living with those remarkably placed Doric columns in the sitting room…

tillytoodles1 · 02/10/2023 22:26

No handrail or staircase rail. I feel sick at the thought.

Tessabelle74 · 02/10/2023 22:27

That carpet gave me vertigo, not what you need on that landing!

greenismyfavouritecolour · 02/10/2023 22:34

I just have so many questions!

ErrolTheDragon · 02/10/2023 22:41

Hooplahooping · 02/10/2023 22:19

Gosh I know taste is subjective but being hospitalised after a fall would be a welcome relief from living with those remarkably placed Doric columns in the sitting room…

Ionic not Doric.
But yeah. Weird.

Hooplahooping · 02/10/2023 23:02

@ErrolTheDragon Haha - I hesitated and thought F it. I won’t double check. No one will care... I stand corrected severally!! 😆🙏🏼

Albioncreed · 02/10/2023 23:06

I feel very uneasy after looking at those photos. Legs like jelly now

Mummytotheboy · 02/10/2023 23:14

The carpet is giving me family run hotel by the sea in the 90s.
Lovely house but I'd want an extra quarter of a million just to make it not hideous.
I fell down my standard stairs because i had flip flops on. Imagine the carnage I'd create in there!

TheFifthTellytubby · 02/10/2023 23:52

There was a TV drama a while back about an architect who designed and built a house that had a staircase with no banister because he didn't like them, then promptly fell down the stairs and died on the night that his family moved in. Can't remember what it was called.

Ilefttownonsaturday · 03/10/2023 06:22

Wouldn't it be difficult to get a mortgage on that house? I can't see any lender agreeing to finance this without safety modifications being made first. That house won't sell quickly or at all in its present condition.

Ilefttownonsaturday · 03/10/2023 06:24

They also have carpet in the bathrooms which is a bit grim, why do people do that?

Saschka · 03/10/2023 08:13

Ilefttownonsaturday · 03/10/2023 06:22

Wouldn't it be difficult to get a mortgage on that house? I can't see any lender agreeing to finance this without safety modifications being made first. That house won't sell quickly or at all in its present condition.

Would the lender even know? We got a full survey, so the lenders just did a virtual valuation. Never set foot in the house, just looked at Zoopla sold prices.

martinisforeveryone · 03/10/2023 11:43

TheFifthTellytubby · 02/10/2023 23:52

There was a TV drama a while back about an architect who designed and built a house that had a staircase with no banister because he didn't like them, then promptly fell down the stairs and died on the night that his family moved in. Can't remember what it was called.

Now you've said that it's ringing a very faint bell, but I can't think what it was. That'll bug me now.

Inanun2 · 03/10/2023 14:16

It’s obviously been styled and decorated some time ago, swags and tails were height of fashion in 80’s I think and loads of people had carpet in bathrooms. It is very dated and old fashioned but I quite like the layout, it’s quirky.
Are you all going to keep up with fashions ? Report back in 20 years and I bet half of us will have furniture and decor which is dated in our houses too. ( I have now but not quite 80’s)

Would be def adding some sort of bannister though !

Crunchymum · 03/10/2023 14:32

I didn't even notice the gaps in picture 24!!!

I mean no banisters and railings is one thing but this is insanity.

5128gap · 03/10/2023 14:41

Stairs have a glass wall by the looks of things. See how the stair wall paper doesn't look the same all over? Its seeing it through glass. Landing probably has it too.

martinisforeveryone · 03/10/2023 14:47

There's no glass on the stairs or landing, the variation in the wallpaper is caused by the light through all the windows. Besides, there are absolutely no fixings anywhere.

TheFifthTellytubby · 03/10/2023 19:05

martinisforeveryone · 03/10/2023 11:43

Now you've said that it's ringing a very faint bell, but I can't think what it was. That'll bug me now.

Show quote history

It was bugging me too, so I tracked it down - Finding Alice starring Keeley Hawes.

martinisforeveryone · 03/10/2023 19:46

Thank you! @TheFifthTellytubby I don't think I watched all of that, but was definitely aware of it. Can rest easy now.

WildBactrian · 11/10/2023 07:16

The figurines on the mantelpiece in 16 😖

Photographsandmemories · 11/10/2023 07:19

I'd be on my hands and knees worried about a freak crosswind.😅

AIBU to think this house is an accident waiting to happen?