Buying a house with a half finished loft conversion

[squeekywheel]

We've found a house we like. It's lovely, four beds, conservatory, big garden, good schools etc.

However, it has a half finished loft conversion. Would I be unreasonable to ask to see the plans for it before putting in a final bid? I don't really want to shell out for a survey for a total lemon and I have some suspicions that it won't meet building regs anyway. They haven't applied for approval from the council- I checked.

It's absolutely reasonable.

Is this a full "roof off" conversion or just a "board it out, describe as storage but use as occasional space / spare room" conversion?

For loft conversions, amongst other things, all doors in the house have to be changed for fire doors.

I'd assume it doesn't meet regs and base any offer on having to start the conversion again.

Why are they selling with a half finished job? It's a bit odd because you are obviously not showing your house at its best. You (or your solicitors) should have sight of every scrap of paperwork relating to it, and make any offer based on what it's going to cost to either finish it, or put it back to how it was. Also, your mortgage company may withold some of the money until the work is done to their satisfaction. Or they might not consider it suitable for a mortgage at all. You would need a structural surveyor to give it the once over in any case.

Sounds good as long as the 4th bedroom is not the loft conversion.

We looked at a house with a completed loft conversion but with no building regs certificate. We phoned the planning department and they advised we would probably have to dismantle the whole lot conversion to get building regs approval, there was no paperwork at all, that would have cost more than a lift conversion from new.

So anticipate that it will cost a lot to get full building regs to use as a bedroom. Or just budget for boarding the unfinished lift and using as a storage room.

"They haven't applied for approval from the council- I checked."

If it doesn't meet Building Regulations, you have to assume that the work is not being done properly.

If you want a conforming loft, budget for stripping back, exposing for inspection, and removing whatever unsatisfactory work has so far been done, and starting again properly. This is likely to cost more than if it had been done correctly in the first place. The same goes for a "boarded out storage area" that you want to use as a habitable room.