Loft bedroom question

[Kalina1]

We are looking to buy a house which has 4 bedrooms, one of which is the loft room. The loft conversion was done more than 25 years ago and was really well done according to our surveyor. However (of course) it doesn’t meet current building regulations (mostly the fire escape requirements (I.e fire door, etc). The loft consists of a master bedroom, bathroom and storage space and it’s one of the nicest use of space I have seen with no visible spaces with limited height (it’s all hidden behind built in wardrobes). The owners at the time received planning permission from the council and we have a copy of it.

My question is if the loft bedroom can be legally classed (and advertised) as a bedroom when selling since it doesn’t meet current building regulations. I don’t have safety concerns, just asking if it can be legally classed as a bedroom.

It only needs to meet the regulations that were in place at the time the work was done.

If everything had to meet the current regulations no matter when the work was done, then half the houses in the country would be unsaleable.

That makes sense. My only concern is the value of the house in case it cannot be legally considered a 4 bed house.

It met the regulations at the time it was done. On what basis would the work be considered not to be legal?

I don’t know if it met the building regs at the time. I have only seen the planning permission from the council but not a building approval certificate. Not sure if it exists (or it existed back in the day).

Completion certificates were issued 25 years ago. If they don’t have it, they should be able to get it from the council.

That’s great to know, thank you. We will ask for it.

My parents lived in a chalet bungalow built in 1960. It had one bedroom in the roof/loft space and a proper (if fairly steep) staircase. There were 5 bungalows in the row built like this. During the 1970's each of the owners had a 2nd bedroom built in the loft on the opposite side of the staircase.
Fast forward to 2017 when we were selling the bungalow after my parents had died and it was being marketed by 2 different agents on behalf of the professional executors. One agent listed it as 4 bedroom whilst the other listed it as 2 bedrooms with 2 rooms in the loft. I queried this (as it looked very confusing on Rightmove) and was told that one agent said the staircase didn't meet building regs (too steep). I pointed out that it met building regs in 1960 and therefore it absolutely did qualify the upstairs rooms as bedrooms - as one of them always had been. They queried it with the agent and it was very quickly changed to 4 bed on the website. As a pp has said, imagine how many houses wouldn't meet building regs if you had to meet the standard of today.

Thank you, How did you prove that the building regs were met at the time? Is it through the building completion certificate?

It's not clear from what you've said whether it actually has a completion certificate? If it was cleared when it was built 25 years ago, then you're fine, it met the regulations then.

If it doesn't have sign off, only planning permission, then it can't be considered a bedroom, and to get it signed off, you'd need to meet current building regs - so you'd need to make changes.

The seller should be able to provide the completion certificate, if it has one.

@Kalina1I'm not actually sure what was used as it was all dealt with by professional executors. It may just have been the original planning permission which was probably with the deeds. My parents had lived there since 1964 so the property title was unregistered so I should imagine the conveyancers had access to the original deeds and documentation.

This is really helpful, thank you. I’m not sure if they have a completion certificate but we will ask for it. I have just double checked the paperwork we do have and it was done through permitted development.