Loft conversion and building regulations

[TheGhostOfMargaretPast]

We are thinking of purchasing a property. It doesn't have any building control regulations paperwork for a loft conversion, the vendor's are executors of a probate sale. What do you do in these circumstances? Can you use the room as a bedroom? What kind of work is normally required to bring a loftroom up to current BR standards?

We are concerned regarding fire/floor strength/insulation.

Don't do it. We bought a house with a loft conversion that didn't have building regs but were assured it was so old it didn't need it. Just paid out the best part of £40k to have it ripped off and redone as the damn thing was pushing the side wall of our house out, was completely uninsulated, wiring was actually dangerous, space was unusable (freezing in winter, boiling in summer) as anything but poncy storage. I could go on about how there were no supporting beams under the floor, just the ceiling joists, the fact that all the electrics and lighting were run off one spur from a socket on the first floor, the open tread stairs of death were literally suspended from TWO BOLTS and could have collapsed at any point, yadda yadda yadda. We had three surveys of that house and none of them picked any of this up. So my advice would be only to buy it if you can afford to completely redo the loft conversion.

I would be very cautious. Perhaps start with the local building regs/ planning department.
As soon as you buy the property it becomes YOUR problem. At the moment it is the vendors problem, encourage them to sort it out and clarify the legal position. It may be that you can agree a reduced price to compensate for the cost, if you want the property that much?

I would also be very cautious.
Fire regs are not too bad (may need a few new doors and mains wired fire alarms) and insulation is something you could upgrade with a bit more cash.
But if there are not enough supporting beams (RSJs?) under the floor, and there has been no architect involved in measuring the loadbearing qualities (whatever that is called), I would not touch it.

We had a loft conversion using just the existing floor space, and had 2 massive steels put in. Building regs came about 4 times and checked on everything, from the steels to the fireproof encasings of the steels, down to the treatment I gave our downstairs doors to make them fireproof.

They aren't legally considered 'habitual', it cannot be counted as a bedroom when being re-sold, only as a 'loft room'.

We went through all this one year ago and had to pull out days before completion. It was a nightmare. We lost money.