Building regs?

[Workingmum34]

My SIL is trying to buy a house at the moment which has a loft conversion that was done ages ago and a basement conversion also done a while ago but that has been retanked with guarantees recently. Anyway turns out neither have building regs- what does this mean? The current owner has been able to buy it and we assume insure it but will it make getting insurance a problem and will the mortgage company still lend on it? The loft has a bedroom and bathroom and the basement has a second sitting room and shower room. Any advice would be ace!

I'm no expert but when we bought our house even though the extension and loft had been done about 8 years prior the building regs weren't checked until we were in the process of buying. Thought that was a legal requirement. Not sure how it slipped through when current owners bought

Did it have planning? Maybe buildings regs can be checked and signed off when it is sold now?

But that's a total guess!

Sorry that post doesn't read well. I meant how did it slip through on your sil's house not mine.

We have house with a loft conversion but it cannot be classed as a bedroom.. Just a loft room that's boarded out. We bought it fine and insured it fine. You just can't sell it as a room..

If neither have building regs then they weren't checked as they were being converted. So might be substandard work (or not ) or not be fire safe ( or not ) quite simply no one knows how good it is - if it were a car it might be a cut and shut - or it might just be car that the hand owner maintained - trouble is you won't know until something goes wrong .

It's a big investment to 'gamble' with - personally I'd walk away unless these aspects were part of a rip out and start again build project.

I think you can get building regs retrospectively, and I would want the vendors to do so before I bought.