Home report

upthewall_2

Looking for a little help with a home report dilemma.
I recently had a home report carried out on my house. My house is barratt built, 3 bedroom. However the home report had it as a 2 bedrrom with 1 other room. Assuming this was a mistake, i contacted the surveyors who sent me the following email:

The above property was sold by Barratt as 3-bedroomed house, known as a ‘Palmerston’. During the marketing of the same house type in Wishaw and Newarthill, during July/August 2004, they were obliged to change this to 2 bedrooms and a boxroom or face action under the Property Misdescriptions Acts. They subsequently changed name of the house type to a ‘Glenmore’. At that time there was no effect on the price being asked by Barratt or the values being made by surveyors for mortgage purposes.


This does not seem right to me as we purchased the house as a 3 bedroom. Therefore if we purchased the house as a 3 bedroom, does the above apply to our house?

We did have another survey carried out on the property in 2006 with a different company, which states the house is a 3 bedroom.

Any responses would be greatly appreciated! Thanks

G_M

Why do you care how it is described?
What is the home report for?
If you are happy in your 2 (or 3) bedroom house is that not what matters?

upthewall_2

If I were happy to stay in the house, I wouldn't be concerned about the description at all, however, we are selling our house, so if the surveyor is decribing it as a 2 bedroom house and we bought it as a 3 bedroom house then this is obviously going to make a difference to the potential sale of the property!

In addition, I don't understand how we bought a 3 bedroom house (all of the rooms are used as bedrooms) 6 years ago and now someone has taken the decision to downgrade it to a 2 bedroom.

lincroft1710

I am not sure what you are trying to achieve.

Your home appears to have a room which does not comply either with (Scottish?) legislation or local planning/building regs to be classed as a bedroom. It is therefore probably best described as a study unless the room does not meet requirements for a habitable room and would thus be described as a box room.

It is doubtful you will have any comeback on the builders as you would have bought the house knowing the room dimensions and suitability for your purposes.

As I remember the "Palmerston" was a popular Barratt design available on several developments in England as well as Scotland.

lincroft1710

You posted the same time as me so didn't see your reply. If I were marketing your house I would describe the room as "Study, currently used as 3rd bedroom", providing this statement did not fall foul of any relevant legislation.

Fire_Fox

Why not contact Barratts for clarification?

googler

You can see if there's been any effect on the valuation by looking at the relevant section of the Home Report.

You can understand how/why someone has 'taken the decision to downgrade it to 2 bedroom' - it's stated in the e-mail that you got from the current (better-informed than your previous ...) surveyor - the third bedroom couldn't be described as a bedroom, because to do so would have left the builder in contravention of the Properties Misdescriptions Act. Whether this is to do with building regulations or other legislation, I know not - but that's basically your 'why'.....

upthewall_2

I had that thought earlier about contacting barratts which I will do tomorrow. Thanks.
I understand Barratt were bound by law to advertise as a 2 bedroom from 2004 onwards, however I don't understand why houses buillt before this time are "downgraded" surely that is unfair to everyone who bought a palmerston before that time.

mufi

googler wrote: »

the third bedroom couldn't be described as a bedroom, because to do so would have left the builder in contravention of the Properties Misdescriptions Act.

Which surely indicates that the property was initially sold to the OP, and anyone else who bought one, in contravention of the Property Misdescriptions Act, particularly as the Act was passed in 1991.

tux900

This presumably boils down to the dimensions of said room with them falling the wrong side of an non-defined subjective line. In which case, what are the dimensions of your third room?

Mathew

Kyrae

If its any help... on the Barratts website they're still selling Palmerston houses and they're sold as 3 bedroom houses!