Structural fire safety survey on a loft conversion

[Kareng74]

We are un the process of buying a chalet bungalow which had 2 bedrooms upstairs. Our sellers have been in the property for 23 years and the conversion was done before that.
They have no paperwork and now our morgage provider has asked for a structural survey on the upstairs.
Has anyone experienced this? I am worried that major works will be needed as I know building regs would've been different 23+ years ago.
Due to work/schools we don't have endless time.

Firstly bless you. I am trying to sort and sell my deceased parents' house and having various nightmares so I really feel for you. I don't pretend to have any real knowledge in the area, apart from what I am learning now.

However, what I would say is it is not likely that major work is not likely to be needed just because building regs have changed. Masses of properties are bought and sold everyday, some that were built over a century ago, and if everything always had to be updated every time building regs were changed, many properties would need half rebuilding before sale. Realistically that would mean a large minority of houses could not change hands without major work and this just isn't the case.

There is, of course, a possibility that the structural survey will actually find something unsound about the property, but if this is the case, you would need to do major work sometime - better now when it could maybe be on the vendor's dime, or you could decide to pull out if it was major major, than after you've moved in and something goes wrong and it all has to be done on your dime and possibly you have to find somewhere to live in the meantime!

I would have thought that the situation with upstairs bedrooms being added to a bungalow would be little different to a 2 storey house or purpose built chalet bungalow. They would just need to ascertain that there is a door between the sleeping areas and downstairs plus windows suitable to be used as fire escapes.