Loft conversions and fire regs

[HelpMeh]

Am currently looking at putting an offer in on a house. It's marketed as a 3 bed, bedroom 3 being a loft conversion. Estate agent says vendors "have the necessary paperwork" however the loft conversion doesn't have a door... It's my understanding that a loft conversion requires a fire door in order to be classified as bedroom? Is this correct?

If we were to proceed anyway can we just install our own fire door and all will be OK?

We already lost a lot of money on a previous purchase that fell through so I'm reluctant to make an offer and pay mortgage fees until I can clarify this point.

Anyone knowledgeable know the answer?

The answer could depend on when the loft conversion work was carried out.

We had our loft conversion done about 8 years ago - all the internal doors (except bathroom) in the house needed to be replaced with fire doors as it's a three storey house now. I would ask them to put a door on anyway - who wants a bedroom without a door?!

Unfortunately we don't know when the work was carried out and I don't imagine it will stay on the market long enough for us to ask 100 questions.

My understanding of current regulations is in line with @TheSmallAssassin, but if the work was carried out prior to current regs, what standard is it assessed by when being sold?

We are happy to install our own door. We just don't want to purchase it as a 3 bed now only for some issue to arise when we come to sell in future - we know we won't stay there long term.

Is this sort of thing likely to be picked up by our solicitor or surveyor?

It's possible that I'm overthinking...

You could make an offer; and then ask the question before you instruct your bank or solicitors? You shouldn’t incur any fees then. We did this when we needed to clarify some building work issues, as the house wouldn’t have stayed on the maker long enough otherwise.

If it was done pre-building regs then there is no requirement to bring it up to current standards afaik. Furthermore it should be pretty obvious nearly 40 years down the line whether there were any structural issues.

If you have smoke detectors in all of the bedrooms and the old doors are solid and a reasonable thickness, you don’t need replacement FD30 doors.

I wanted to keep the old doors in a house i was changing to a 3 story house. There is not just one solution. There should be a building regs certificate if it is a fairly recent conversion.

Ask the Estate Age tsp to email you a copy before you progress.

Check the planning portal to see when it was done and if it was approved.
We recently pulled out of a house because the loft conversion was never signed off. It didn't meet building regs re fire safety & the surveyor said the en-suite probably didn't either.
This was one of the reasons but not the only one. But I certainly wasn't interested in replacing every door.
It has to meet today's standards not the historical ones if you want to class it as a bedroom for resale.

Ours was done in 2015 and the loft bedroom has a door but its not a fire door. We did however have a fire door in the upstairs hallway (next floor down), i think to provide a protected escape route out the first floor windows? Youre best off asking the local council for advice!

If it met building regs at the time it's fine unless you do more work- then that work has to meet current regs. It is not unreasonable to ask the agent to clarify if it was signed off. Your solicitor will ask for the documents as part of the process but you'll have started spending money by then.
When I added a floor to my old house only the door to that floor had to be a fire door.