House Purchase - Inhabitable Garage Conversion

[Owlgirl14]

The house were in the process of buying has a part 'garage conversion' and was advertised as being a habitable room ie study/snug/bedroom etc.

The solicitor has already queried building regs with the sellers to which they said it didn't need them.

The survey has flagged up the alterations are unlikely to comply with current building regs and said it is inhabitable and referred to it as a store/outbuilding.

Has anyone encountered this at all?

I can only really see our options being 1) the sellers rectifying it and getting the work done and building reg sign off but doubt they would agree to this 2) Us getting quotes and getting the work done after completion 3) Walking away as we aren't getting what we thought we were/advertised

We converted our integral garage into a playroom 27 years ago. It most definitely did need building regs sign off.

Valuation 15k less than you agreed? Negotiate down.

It is being used as a room currently but it hasn't got any signed building regs when it was done so legally can't be classed as a habitable room.

Therefore to make it into a habitable room it would need to meet current building regs.

Of course you can get a price reduction, without regs it can't be advertised as a habitable room and is worth less.

We had this and the seller got indemnity insurance.

I ws going to say indemnity insurance too.

I think there are at least 3 different issues

1. what happens if the council chase this up and demand changes to bring it up to standard

2. is it structural sound - could it fall down around you ( that's the lintel question )

3. is it really worth paying for it as a room when it's going to be freezing in the winter - is the property overpriced as a result and can you get a reduced price

Sorry - indemnity probably only affects the first point

Whatever you do, at this stage, do not contact the council about it in any way. That's really important.

If you do, it will make impossible to ever get an indemnity insurance.

Yeah indemnity isn't really an option as only covers if the council find out and they want you to covert it back or bring it up to current regs. You are then lumbered with the costs. I also don't want to move into something that may be unsafe/not done to regulations or then have issues when selling further down the line.

I think we've paid over for it anyway on the basis we were getting the additional room and location.

But I don't think it's worth it now,'and neither does the valuer.

I'd be very wary, partly because I don't understand why anyone doing this type of building work wouldn't automatically make sure they had all the relevant building regulations legally covered. To me this is basic stuff: to do the work properly requires signoff, if they decided not to bother, why? This isn't a DIY job with the family not realising they need to inform the council, this is quite major.

The council will have zero interest in this and would not take enforcement action. So an indemnity is pointless.

You can ask the vendor to regularise the works with building control, or reduce their price to allow you to do it, or walk away.

The standards in a regularisation are those in force at the time of the conversion. They would be pretty similar to current regs, just not as beefy insulation-wise.

We had this when we bought our house and the seller got retrospective build regs….was really quick and didn’t delay the sale. This was only a few years ago. The room is very habitable

Do you know inhabitable means the same as habitable?

I assume you mean uninhabitable in places but this has been a very confusing thread!

The regulations for insulation now are pretty high so it may well be insulated just not to current regs. I believe doors need to be wide enough for a wheelchair to fit, but wouldn't have when it was converted. Adding heating isn't a huge cost for one room. I'd get the lintel checked out. Again that can be added. I'd either find a trusted builder to look at the property or ask the sellers to apply for building regs retrospectively.

It wouldn't cost £15,000, even to bring everything up to current regs for a garage conversion.

The regulations for insulation now are pretty high so it may well be insulated just not to current regs. I believe doors need to be wide enough for a wheelchair to fit, but wouldn't have when it was converted.

Doors don’t have to be wide enough for a wheelchair. This only applies to new builds, and even then, it’s not every door. If you apply to regularise, the U values will be for the time of the conversion. Trade-offs and relaxations due to constraints are pretty common with garage conversions. It’s not like building an extension.

and was advertised as being a habitable room ie study/snug/bedroom etc.

lack of insulation and…. NO heating

plus small opening will be counter to fire regs

in short… this is basically still a garage without a car parked in it

I can’t think of anything less “snug” than a garage with inadequate insulation and no heating in January!

Sorry, yes I don't mean it needs to be. Just that when a surveyor says it is not up to current regs that doesn't necessarily mean that it is a cold uninsulated box with a tiny door. I'm trying to say, it's likely not a big deal.

Absolutely right. There isn't a single house on my street that would comply with current building regs. They're all built on uninsulated concrete slabs for a start.

I’m a building control professional by trade and I wouldn’t be too bothered about an unauthorised garage conversion 😂 As long as they drop the price to reflect its status, I’d be fine.

I bought a house with an illegal garage conversion which was okay because it was over 25 years old so didn’t need any building regs…but to be honest it was a waste of space. It was always cold (poorly insulated), awkward shape. We used it as a playroom for DD but she used to bring the toys into the living room and I’d be forever moving them back in the evening. If it affects the valuation and is likely to cause you hassle, I’d think twice about it.

Speak to the council department to see if planning required / or exempt and also to your solicitor regarding the seller paying for indemnity insurance to cover any issues relating to this issue (if possible to insure against).

The biggest problem here is that the EA has probably described this as a habitable room and the seller has let them when it has no heating (plus sign off), and that makes it untrue. Just because the vendor has a sofa in or or whatever in it does not mean it should go on the floor plans.

See also: dodgy loft conversions on floor plans that are NOT listed as a 4th bedroom because they have no sign off, they are either not described at all and just have photos or are described along the lines of occasional room or something very general, by estate agents who actually know what they are doing. They know there is no sign off, so they basically don’t include it as part of the sales spiel.

The problem isn’t just building regs, it’s misdescription. You are paying extra for an additional habitable room. Your bank believes that room to be habitable which is why they have agreed to the mortgage. In removing that space the bank no longer has the full value they were expecting from the house.

Your conveyancer may appear to work for you, but they actually work to protect mortgage lenders. THAT is why they are arguing the toss. If the floor plans say seven rooms and suddenly one is not habitable, they are not doing their proper due diligence for the bank, and could be held liable if one of those rooms is suddenly not seen to be a legally recognised room.

You need to lower your offer because the room is not actually a room. It’s a space that has been made to look nice and several people have turned a blind eye to this.

@marzipanlover81 Exactly, that's what the surveyor is saying that it isn't habitable and has included it in the outbuildings section instead as a store basically.

It's the fact it's advertised as a habitable room e.g: a bedroom. When you have children living in the house, there's no way you'd be able to use it as a bedroom and I wouldn't know it was safe.

@user09876543 thanks, our solicitor seems to think it does need building regs hence going down this route.

They mentioned getting retrospective sign off, which is why I know it wouldn't meet todays regs based on what the surveyor has said in the report.