Buying house with internal walls removed - building regs etc..

marcg

Looking at your plans, I think it likely the walls removed weren't loadbearing - the shorter span is from front to back to the remaining wall between the kitchen and living room. It wouldn't make sense to span side-to-side since this would complicate the structure around the stairwell. (btw This is the opposite of my first post where I misunderstood and thought the wall between the kitchen and living was the one removed.)

Lift the carpets and check the direction of the floorboards - if they are side-to-side then the joists underneath are front-to-back and bearing on the remaining wall downstairs.

The remaining walls in the bedrooms - are these solid or hollow? They may be brick, in which case they would have needed supporting - hence the need for steels - but they won't be supporting the roof or doing any job other than to separate the rooms. You could lift a floorboard next to these walls (if they are solid) and see what's left underneath them.

Or, a structural engineer should be willing to give you piece of mind (ie not on paper) for £100 or a written report (so you can sue him in the future) for about £500.

Plus, the fact that the chimney stacks are properly supported on concrete lintols suggests the other work is likely to have been done properly.

GSXRCarlos

Ok, thanks for the layout

it may be the case that the floor joists are suspended from front wall to int. wall, and from int wall to back wall.

the upstairs int. walls may then have been built off the floor and not be load bearing walls.

can you check the loft and see if any brickwork extends into the loft?

you'd expect to see internal structural walls supporting the roof/ceiling joists

hettyr

hi

we are in the process of selling a house with a loft conversion, this has building regs which were put into force just before the house went on the market in october 2009, we have a full staircase, an internal fire door, and all other doors leading on to hallways are self closing, we also have interlinked smoke alarms, the conversion has a velux window which the solicitors acting for the people buying are wanting to know if we have building regs for it, or a covenant?, or that we are willing to pay an indemnity insurance. the solicitor is the same one that we are using for selling the property and for buying our next house. we have supplied all the title deeds to the solicitors form when the house was built, why do we need building regs just for the window when we have them for the whole conversion and how much can we expect to pay for the indemnity insurance if we have to, we are totally confused and extremely worried as we have already dropped 15 thousand from the asking price and really cant afford any more costs.

thanks
heather and john

Fire_Fox

Why are you using the same conveyancing solicitors as your buyer? Has the solicitor not explained why he thinks you need separate building regs for the velux window?

hettyr

hi

we are using the solicitors that work in conjunction with the estate agents who we are selling our house with, our buyer are also using the same ones, the actual question is,
please provide building regulations approval in respect of the velux window or alternatively please confirm indemnity insurance will be provided at your clients (us) expense.

they also want a copy of the building regulations approval in respect of the loft conversion, which they already have, they are asking questions which have already been answered by us in the initial questionnaire, we are just a bit concerned that the loft conversion has been passed by the council and we have spent money to make it comply with health and safety issues and they still seem to think we need building regs for the window. they havent said why they think we need seperate regs for the window

thanks
heather and john

Fire_Fox

I'd find myself an independent, personally recommended conveyancing solicitor who is looking out for my best interests NOT one who is also being paid by the other party AND getting a kickback from the estate agent when the sale completes! If you had an unbiased solicitor I suspect you would not be railroaded into paying for an indemnity policy that sounds completely unnecessary.

Doozergirl

I'd go back to the solicitor and tell them that the building regs for the Velux should be included in the certificate for the loft conversion. Building control would not sign off on a loft conversion without the correctly sized and positioned windows for the upstairs space - it would have been mandatory, like those self closing doors would have been at the time. They don't have a huge list of what they've checked on the certificates, just that it all complies under the heading of 'loft conversion'

This is a problem I come across quite a lot - to be fair to solicitors, they aren't building control inspectors, but perhaps they shouldn't act like they are when they are asking for a certificate. They should ask whether there should be one - but that doesn't sound scary enough. I'm often sent on tedious wild goose chases for bits of paper that I've never heard of - it's nothing new that you're being asked for something unecessary, nor that they are asking the same questions. The answer to any question that has been answered would be "I refer you to my email of/form dated" just to show them that they're going over old ground - hazard of using a conveyer belt conveyancer!

I think if you go back to them with something along the lines of my first paragraph then you should be fine. No indemnity is required - you would not have got sign off for the conversion if the window wasn't right.

marcg

Presuming the Velux was installed at the same time as the rest of the conversion then (as an architect) I concur with Doozergirl. Tell them to stick it up their...

hettyr

thank you doozergirl and marcg, the window was installed at the same time as the rest of the conversion, which was in 2002, we got the regs this year just before the house went on the market, we accepted the offer on the 19th october and have only just got to solicitor stage because of the buyers messing around, if we hadnt paid out for the survey on our new house we would have told them where to go. what we dont get is why the solicitor is messing around when they are doing it all, buying, selling and buying the new house, surely she talks to herself and wouldnt need to ask us these questions if she had read all the paperwork which i took there myself instead of posting just to make sure it got there.

marcg

Call the council, speak to the duty officer at Building Control (building regs rather than planning) and have them confirm that the approval certificate includes the velux window installed as part of the works. Or just call the solicitor and tell them you have spoken to building control who are asking why such a silly question is being asked...