Advice needed re Solicitors query.

loujay_2

I hope someone can help me as I really feel at the end of my tether.
We are in the process of selling our house, survey, searches done. Had a call today asking me if my stairwell was made of fire retardant brick????? Apparantly my buyers lender is asking this. To try and cut a long story short, our stairs run up the centre of the house and have brick built walls either side to first floor level. On the first floor were stud partition walls either side of the stairwell which we had removed 8 years ago and replaced with spindles. The surveyor commented that we had had structural alteration and was building regs consulted. These walls were plasterboard so nothing was structural so we got a builders report to support this but our buyer wanted building regs in. They came out and laughed, said they were non load bearing studded walls and at the time the work was done complied to building regs. We thought that was the end of it, buyer was happy, solicitor appeared happy but now this. How on earth do I know if the lower bit is made of fire proof bricks? How can I find out and whats the implications if it isnt? Im now worrying, we have a deadline to meet and now this.
Oh the house was built in the 1970's, next door has recently sold, no problems and they have done the same.
Any help and advice much appreciated.

Doozergirl

What on earth are they talking about? Is that a joke?

Bricks go into a fire to be made! Of course they're fire retardant.

lynzpower

Doozergirl wrote:

What on earth are they talking about? Is that a joke?

Bricks go into a fire to be made! Of course they're fire retardant.

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

loujay_2

:T :T :T Thanks Doozergirl, a short answer thats saved my sanity and means everything.
Never thought of it like that, I'll be quoting that to my solicitor tomorrow.
You know its like everything is being thrown at us but everything obscure. We are at the stage where we feel like throwing the towel in.
This phonecall followed one that said everything is fine and you should be moving arround the end of November. I'd just said 'At last things are going our way' them wam. Famous last words eh?
What do you think they are getting at? We were thinking because the studded walls had been removed then we were making it more open to fire speading and were even saying we'd put the damn walls back up.
Buyer is supposed to be phoning me later to discuss as EA werent sure what she was going on about.
Thanks again.

loujay_2

Sorry Doozergirl, looks like I got it wrong:o
Apparantly my buyers lender wants to know if the stud partition walls that were removed on the first floor landing stairwell would have been a firebreak or fire retaining.
Im presuming the answer to this is Yes? Buyer is being very accomodating and has said if this is so then she is happy for them to be put back up... phew
Anyway shes asked me to get a letter from someone? to say they are or they arent fire retaining. Dread dealing with building regs again but looks like Im going to have to.
Are stud partition walls fire retaining?

silvercar

we started getting stupid questions from our buyer's solicitors. I asked our buyer if there were problems and they didn't know of the solicitor's questions. So we told our solicitor to answer "please rely on your own survey" and "please rely on your own enquiries". Silly questions soon stopped!

silvercar

if they weren't fire retaining presumably they don't need to go back up!

loujay_2

Thats what Im hoping. This has all started from a comment from the surveyor and we end up running all over the place trying to find the answers out. Thing is, its the buyers lender whos asking so I suppose if we dont find the answer, then they dont get the mortgage.

lynzpower

then surely they should be badgering thier surveyor. they have no comeback from you- you are not an expert in property, a surveyor is :wall:

good heavens I feel for you

loujay_2

Thanks for replying, buyer phoned me tonight and started with 'its nothing to worry about really' What!!!!!
She has also said if the walls have to go back up then thats ok which is a relief. She did say she'd contact the surveyor but after the comment about structural alteration that obviously wasnt, Im really dubious as to what he will say. He also wasnt interested when she rang him about the originally comment he'd made.
Should I ring building control? Who else could give us a letter? I dont want to lose the sale but as I said earlier it stinks as next doors sale sailed through without a problem.
Our problem is we are buying a repo with an exchange date in 3 weeks so feel I have to do the running around to try and keep everything moving.
Thanks everyone for your help.

Doozergirl

You got a right one with that surveyor!

You've had building regs out who have said that that it would have complied with regs back then. That is enough. They can't request that you make it comply with current regs. Whether there's a wall there won't affect resale value in the slightest and I think they are going way over the top.

Was there evidence of a door having been at the top or bottom of the stairs? If there wasn't, then there's no way the plasterboard would ever act as a firebreak.

If you do have to address this, then you should be going for a firedoor at the bottom, rather than building new walls and putting a firedoor at the top.

Just checking, it is three storeys, isn't it?