mortgages and loft conversions

kataddey

My sister-in-law and her husband have just had an offer accepted on a house that has had a loft conversion. The conversion has added 2 bedrooms and has a 'temporary staircase'. I'm a little concerned that they might encounter problems when getting a mortgage as i'm worried that this loft conversion hasn't been done to full builing regs. I remember viewing a house myself last year that had a loft conversion, but the estate agent couldn't call it a 'bedroom' because of something to do with the access or type of conversion (sorry, a bit vague!).

So in the case of my S-I-L will they say 'its only 2 bedrooms, not 4' and refuse to mortgage?

Has anyone experienced a similar situation, or have any advice?

thanks

addey

timmyt

depends how long ago the works were done, as local authority consents may no longer be relevant for the actual works, and use.

surveyor can comment, they know all about that.

kataddey

Thanks for that info. They obviously intend to get a survey done etc. but i was thinking that if this is going to be a problem they should pull out now and save any un-necessary costs!

Richard_Webster

If it is simply a retractable ladder then there's no way it meets building regs and they can only sell it at a 2 bed price. If the price is appropriate for a 2 bed then lender's surveyor may specifically state he has valued it as a 2 bed house as the loft conversion does not meet building regulations.

hazyjo

It's not a 'loft conversion' then I don't think, it's a 'boarded out/useable loft space'. Definitely can't call it a bedroom if it's not got the right access. If it was converted years ago before the regs were in place, I think they could get away with room height, etc and still call it a bedroom so long as it was deemed safe, but if it's the access that's the problem, I'm 99.9% sure it can't be classed as a bedroom.

The estate agents should know all this and are quite possibly in breach of the misrepresentation act.

'Temporary staircase' seems like a strange choice of wording. It's not that they've just converted it and are going to put in a fixed/legal staircase before completion? Just checking!

Jx