Advice on building regulations

[greenleaf1]

This is such a good board, and I’m hoping someone here can help out.

DH and I are looking for a house in Cambridge. There’s not a lot coming on the market that’s good for us, but we saw a house last week that was just great. Ticked all the boxes! There’s a loft extension, and as we were looking round it the estate agent said it was done a while ago. Don’t know exactly when - maybe 10 or 15 years ago? He said it would probably not comply with building regs today. The stairs were twisty without much head height. That doesn’t bother either of us - it’s a lovely house, but should we be concerned about this? We don’t need a mortgage to buy it, but we’d obviously want to keep the option open of reselling it at some point. I can’t imagine how everything older could possibly comply with modern building regs, but this house does seem to be on at a lower asking price than other similar ones, and it seems the agents don’t have as many offers as I thought they would. I’m wondering if this is an issue!

Any thoughts please?

Sounds like it doesn’t count as an official room just a storage room. The regs have not changed that much in 15 years.

The risk is that you wouldn’t be able to advertise the loft extension as a room and you shouldn’t be paying for it as an extra room unless it does meet building regs.

If you pursue the house you can ask for copies of that BR approvals. If it doesn’t have any, the Council will not enforce against the lack but you would need to do the work to upgrade it and get it signed off if you wanted to advertise it yourself as a usable room. It’s probably something you’d want your surveyor to give an opinion on.

If it had br at the time it is a habitable room. Although with the stairs and head clearance it seems unlikely. Council won’t enforce after this time.

Thank you. This is helpful. It sounds like the estate agent shouldn’t be marketing the loft room as a fourth bedroom then? I wonder how many people will actual pick up on this - we wouldn’t have noticed if the agent who showed us round hadn’t mentioned it. Would it be an issue getting a mortgage if there was a part of the house that didn’t comply with building regs?

Is the loft conversion being sold as a bedroom? Lots of houses have attic rooms which don't comply with regs and they are labelled as 'home office' or 'play room'. You would want to be sure that the price reflects that. Lots of lenders are giving this area more scrutiny. We had to evidence BR compliance for our buyers to get their mortgage offer, before the solicitor had even opened a file.

Thank you! This is super helpful. I’m going to take this up with the agent. There is a big difference in asking price between this house and other “four bedroomed” properties in the same area, and this totally explains why.

It definitely shouldn’t be marketed - or priced - as a bedroom. Buy it as a bonus room but don’t get lumbered with an over priced three bed sold to you as a four bed - mortgage companies don’t stand for that.

X-posted with the previous poster.

Our house has a "loft room". It wouldn't meet building regs as a usable room. Converted about 20 years ago by previous owner. We can't be made to do anything about it, due to time. But nobody in their right mind would see it as a suitable bedroom.

You need to decide if the house as it is is worth the asking price, and if it would work for you, just as any other property I guess.

Thanks for this. It sounds like in our case the estate agent should absolutely not be marketing it as a fourth bedroom. This is all good info,

I think it would nowadays need a fire door and have 2.4 metres at it's highest point in terms of head clearance. Obviously because its historic you don't have to jump through any BR hoops, my understanding is though they wouldn't have needed planning permission for loft room. In that context it should be fine to sell in future years, not sure about if it can officially be labelled a bedroom, again the proviso to be called a bedroom is at least 76sq ft of space.

@CuarloDeFonza

I think it would nowadays need a fire door and have 2.4 metres at it's highest point in terms of head clearance

You think wrongly.

OP

You don't know that it wasn't signed off 15 years ago, do you? Asking randoms on Mumsnet is not the way to go. Asking the estate agent is not the way to go either, for they generally know very little!

The thing to do, is ask the vendor!

And, OP, very few houses built more than 20 years ago would meet current building regs. They don't have to. They had to meet the building regs that were current at the time of construction.

Think about it. If buildings had to meet current regs, who in their right mind would buy a Victorian or Edwardian building? But they sell, and usually at a premium! Amazing, considering that they don't meet current building regs!

The vendor may not know either, they might have only been there a short while and the loft may have been done prior.

Even if they'd only been there a short while, the question would have been asked by their solicitor/conveyancer when they bought the place.

Yes, but 15 years ago, those twisty windy stairs with little headroom would still not have met BR at that time. Not, 2.4m but I think about 2.1m minimum.

OP mentions that that price is very different to the other 4 bedroom houses in the area. It is possible that the price is actually about right, already adjusted accordingly to reflect the lack of BR for the loft space.

But nobody knows. All of this is supposition. The OP needs to find out some actual facts.

15 years isn't that long ago - was it signed off by building regs then or not? If it was, it's fine to be sold as a bedroom. It doesn't need to meet current building regs at point of sale.

Did it get planning permission at the time? If no, then surely it is just a basic loft and not a room.

Thanks everyone, and yes of course I’ll get more info from the estate agent and the vendor. Will keep you posted 👍

You could look online to see if anything is listed for it. Not sure where you're based but where we are, we can look online at planning and building control and see what's been approved so might be worth looking at your local council's portal to see if anything comes up?

You can do a search on your council planning system for the address, most go back more than 15 years.

It rather depends if it got Building Regs at the time of conversion, or not.

If it did and the vendors can prove the paperwork, then its fine. Just because old regs have changed, doesn’t mean its not legal.

If they cannot show you the Building Regs approval, then they either have to get retrospective, or not sell as a fourth bed.

If you live the house why not make an offer conditional to proof of paperwork. Put the onus on the vendor.

Otherwise the offer is lower.

My loft was marketed as a 'storage room' when I bought my house.

Basically it was done 30 years ago and is not suitable to be used as a room. A former owner apparently kept his train sets there and added cupboards for storage.

The agent should not market it as a bedroom/living space if it does not have the right paperwork.

As an aside - our previous house was built in about 1780. Obviously br irrelevant! But when we bought it (and sold) the survey noted a "potentially dangerous" non compliance (all exit doors from house went through the kitchen). The owners before us had altered a window so you could exit from it in a fire, so it didn't feel unsafe to us.

This is an excellent idea. Thank you.