Dream house - loft conversion with no building regs

[RollaCola84]

Hoping the MN collective can help me as Google is proving confusing. I'm house hunting and yesterday viewed my dream house, I had to stop myself making an offer in the car on the way home.

The house is listed as 3 bed with "loft space". The listing is open that this is being used as a 4th bedroom but can't be called one because it doesn't have building reg approval. I'm trying to work out what would be needed to get such approval, to see if that can be reflected in the price. Or whether I should just walk, sadly, away. Is it just fire doors or does the staircase have to be enclosed ? They've installed a new staircase from the landing that doubles back on itself straight into the loft room with no door at either end. The owners say they didn't want to fit fire doors as they thought they looked ugly, so they're well aware of the shortcomings.

I love the house but don't want to saddle myself with a massive problem in future. FWIW I'd be looking at using the loft as an office / hobby room not a bedroom.

Mildura that's not necessarily true. It depends a bit on the size of the property but s lot of buildings inspectors (especially right now) will insist on fire doors on every door opening onto the landing.

It seems that the regulations are open to some interpretation then, and what is compliant will vary depending on the opinion of the specific building inspector who visits the property.

Not really. Some don't know the regs about fire doors shockingly. And there are conflicts between building regs and European standards. But they are being much more stringent in the aftermath of the Grenfell tragedy.

The fire doors don't need to be self closing though which makes them a. Cheaper and b. Easier to live with.

The Planning Portal is the best up to date resource. Building control is outsourced and at times pretty shoddy. Loft conversation companies tell you anything to get the business. Get it surveyed and then you know if it meets the regs or what needs to be done if it doesn’t.

I would not look at a loft conversion without BR approval. You have no idea what short cuts have been made!

Two near neighbours have had loft conversions completed within the last 18 months, and both have received a building regulations completion certificate. Neither were required to replace existing internal doors with fire doors.