Estate agent marketing 3 bed as 4 bed

[CamdenTownie]

Hi everyone,

We've had an offer accepted on a property and as far as we were aware up until today it had 4 official bedrooms, including a loft conversion.

The estate agent has just called and said that when the survey takes place it will only be classed as a 3 bed as the loft doesn't have building regs.

I don't know what to do, I certainly wouldn't pay £475000 for a 3 bed property, and I won't have any cash left after the purchase to get it passed, I do love the house but obviously I'll only be able to sell it on as a 3 bed.

I'm both cross and upset, I feel I've been misled as well f it was marketed as a 3 bed I wouldn't have even considered it. I'm not even sure if it would be safe for one of the children to use as a bedroom.

My brother has suggested making an offer now based on the fact that it is officially a 3 bed, I don't even know what that would be?

It's going to be a problem if we pull out as we have a buyer in place and I don't want to lose them.

Anyone have any advice?

Thanks

Very dodgy.

As someone already said your lender will probably require an indemnity insurance, but a condition on an indemnity insurance is not to try to regularise it so the problem will continue to exist when you sell the house. I think that if you really really really want to proceed with the transaction you need to have a full structural survey, get a builder to assess the loft and request a price reduction to reflect that the house has not 4 bedrooms but 3 bedrooms and a liability. Regardless of whether you proceed or not I would raise a complaint with the ombudsman since the agent has mislead you.

The EA should be hauled over the coals - get on the phone to the manager tomorrow.

If you do buy it, don't use it as a bedroom, the floor may well not take the weight of the furniture. Many companies won't remedy unofficial loft conversions and it can be more expensive to fix them than to have a new conversion done in another house.

We once went to view a house marketed as 4 bed. After checking out 3 bedrooms, I asked the EA where the 4th bedroom was. He then said it had Planning permission for a loft conversion. Was fuming at the agent, no shame. Pricing and advertising a 3 bed as 4 bed! Same brazen fellow who lied to us about an imminent repeal of the additional stamp duty on second properties!

It's not the estate agent's fault - the vendors will have said it's a four bedroom house a d agents never take it upon themselves to check th legalities in England and Wales; it is always buyer beware and there'll be a caveat somewhere on the listing or the agent's website.

I would speak to the EA and see if the vendors would do a regularisation it may be ok . Regs for lofts have changed alot since 1999. Have they got building regs for other building work ?

That is very naughty of the estate agent and wouldn’t happen in my area with our high street estate agents

Get onto your solicitor pronto. The EA should have immediately clarified this with the vendor so they are both at fault.

And it is the EA fault
They will need to check it’s legal- unless the vendor lied in which case you’ve both been misled

If it doesn't have building regs it won't be insurable as accomadation.

I would work out the cost of legalising the space and take double this or off your offer.

There is some good advice on this thread, but also some absolute nonsense!

If you don't know what you're talking about, probably best not to comment:

@throughtheeyeofaneedle
"There is no point getting an indemnity- it would be invalid if you were aware it needed building regs"
This is total rubbish for a start.

And it is the EA fault
Without knowing more info, it is impossible to be certain.

Get onto your solicitor pronto
What are they going to do about it? It's now up to the OP to decide if they want to proceed with the purchase, and establish whether it is possible to re-negotiate the price to reflect this newly discovered information. There really isn't much the solicitor can do in this situation.

We had this but didn’t find out until just before exchanging- the mortgage company initially reduced the amount they would lend and then two hours later declined to lend without building regs. The vendor got building regs approval (and had to plaster over a lovely bare brick wall ), mortgage company lent the full amount previously agreed and we got the house.

We almost had this problem with our current house. As it happened the surveyor felt that the loft room was habitable and valued it on the basis that it was indeed a 4 bed house. If he had refused to classify the top room as a bedroom then our mortgage offer would have been far lower and we would have had to renegotiate the price or drop out.

I would speak to the estate agent, see what they have to say. If the vendor is not going to be flexible then I probably wouldn't progress any further. If the vendor is realistic about it being a potential issue then I would go ahead with a survey, speak to the surveyor beforehand and ask them to look particularly at this issue. In our case the surveyor did in the end come down on the side of it being a bedroom, though it wasn't totally clear cut. He also gave advice on a couple of minor changes we could make to ensure that this wouldn't be a problem if we sold in future.

People across the road pulled out of a sale for this reason.

You shouldn’t go ahead with this IMO. The estate agent and the vendor lied about something as massive as how many bedrooms a house has. How can you trust them about any of the rest of the transaction? And if they’ve done loads of work, you can bet there’ll be other buildings regs issues.

@LovesLaboursLost
The estate agent lied
From what has been posted on this thread, you do not know enough to make such a statement.
The EA could very easily have been told by the vendor that building regs were in place. most EAs ask the seller to fill out and sign a form covering info like this.
It's only relatively recently that building regs info has been accessible online.

Presumably this is the house
The headline says 4 beds, but the text refers to 3/4 beds and the floorplan is marked with a 'loft room'. Misleading of the EA to not state that the room lacks building regs, but they have left themselves some wiggle room.

I can totally understand why you aren’t happy and feeling concerned. Speaking to local building control may also help to ascertain where it doesn’t comply.

We’ve just had our loft converted with building regs and seeing the amount of steel and new joists/insulation etc that has gone into it to ensure it is structurally sound, complying with head heights: fire regulations: electrical circuits with all the certifications to go with it.

I would definitely do some more investigation and be retracting the higher offer until further notice.

Good luck.

The estate agent was the one who phoned OP to tell her there were no building regs. And if the link above is the house it’s very clear that they knew there weren’t.

This has been a deliberate ploy by the seller and their agent.

I have a friend who had a house with this type of loft room one agent said they would have to sell it as a 2 bed plus loft room- they didn't go with that agent. They went with the agent that would sell it as a three bed and some how get away with it.

Mortgage lending is getting tighter and tighter. 10 or so years ago indemnity policies were chucked around just to get a transaction through. Now it is much more regulated and you need lender approval etc.

It is only 3 bedrooms and will be valued as such.

Speaking to local building control may also help to ascertain where it doesn’t comply

They'll only be able to give that insight if they've inspected the 'loft conversion' at some stage or another.

Also, speaking to building control will remove the possibility of obtaining indemnity insurance in the future, should another purchaser decide that is a satisfactory solution.

Looking at the Rightmove ad, the floor plan refers to a 'loft room' which is fine, but the description refers to '3/4 beds' which is disingenuous at best if the EA knew regs did not exist.

As I'm currently bored at work, and all of this is a matter of public record anyway, if you know where to look, I have just spotted that the current property owner is an architect, so presumably knows full well what they're up to.

It's not that house is it? Because it says 3/4 beds in description. I would adjust my offer op.

To be fair it does repeatedly say three/four beds in the description. I think if it said four beds all the way through it would be different.

Bottom line is you can walk away, or you can ask the surveyor to tell you why it doesn't comply then walk away. A builder would be able to tell you what it woild cost to get it up to code, and you could then reduce your price accordingly.

Many options but you're not tied right now.

There are at least two issues, bar the obvious misleading with the description. One is that your offer needs to come down by quite a lot and the other is that the surveyor will tell the mortgage company it's a 3 bed and they will value accordingly. Good luck OP.

It's listed as a 4 bedroom. But then the description says 3/4 or queries the number of bedrooms, repeatedly.

Red flags. Repeatedly.

Op has been deliberately misled. Or it's vague and misleading. But surely you queried all this at the start op? Asked to see building regs?