Garage Conversion BR

Spartacus_Mills

TightGit wrote: »

I have touched on this previously , but bare with me.

I have just bought a house with a room advertised as a study. Turns out it was the garage originally.

No building control was applied for. Solisitors didnt pick it up , nor valuers etc..

Should they have ?

The conversion took place 20 years ago so negates the need for them really but i am in two minds wether i have been ripped off for a room in terms of value on the house. And i am also worried about resale.

I have spoken to the council today ( ddint mention the address )

And the guy there mentioned that if it was converted before april 6 2006 then they would have told the previous owner not to bother with building control as insulation etc.. would have been adequate anyway ?

Help !! its making me feel sick

Why not convert it back to a garage ?

You don't have a problem then.

TightGit

Spartacus_Mills wrote: »

Why not convert it back to a garage ?

You don't have a problem then.

I thought this forum was mainly sensible.

I bought the house as is. I like it the way it is. I dont want a car parked in this "garage".

If people concentrated on trying to answer the questions i actually asked then this wouldnt be half as boring

Richard_Webster

Did you have a basic valuation for the mortgage lender or a more detailed survey for yourself?

Did the valuation/survey mention the conversion?

Solicitors are not mind readers nor are they architects/surveyors. Why should they be expected to know that there was a conversion? They can't be expected to make a site inspection to see that the house differs from others in the road - assuming it does.

popty

I don't think you need to worry, it was so long ago that permissions were not required.

CLAPTON

a solicitor doesn't make a site visit and so can't be expected to pick up that the room was converted
as you instantly noticed you could have asked the solicitor to check that the necessary permissions were in place

what sort of survey did you pay for?

System

It was done 20 years ago. Whatever rules it did or didn't break, it doesn't matter now. No one can make you do anything or pay anything. The house you have bought is exactly the house you saw, and presumably liked.

Why not just get on and enjoy it?

TightGit

Richard_Webster wrote: »

Did you have a basic valuation for the mortgage lender or a more detailed survey for yourself?

Did the valuation/survey mention the conversion?

Solicitors are not mind readers nor are they architects/surveyors. Why should they be expected to know that there was a conversion? They can't be expected to make a site inspection to see that the house differs from others in the road - assuming it does.

Just a hunch, and i value your first hand experience.

Would a solicitor not compare the plans/title deeds to the property description ? Just to make sure for instance the house is a 5/6/7 bed as desribed rather than a 2 bed apartment for example ?

Or is this kind of thing that obvious that its not undertaken.

sunshinetours

Why not answer Richard's own questions (its OK I can already guess the answer)

The council have said its OK , the house is as you viewed it, you like the way the house is.

The only part of your original post is should the valuer have picked it up - the answer to that is yes possibly, but depends on what report you paid for (hence RW question)

The main issue would really be is the conversion done to a decent liveable standard and are there any construction issues (adequate insulation, heating, ventilation, fire escape route etc). Again something you should have highlighted to your surveyor pre purchase if it worried you

rlc22

TightGit wrote: »

Just a hunch, and i value your first hand experience.

Would a solicitor not compare the plans/title deeds to the property description ? Just to make sure for instance the house is a 5/6/7 bed as desribed rather than a 2 bed apartment for example ?

Or is this kind of thing that obvious that its not undertaken.

There is nothing in my deeds to say that my house is a 3 bed house with a garage (that I've just finished converting into a room as it goes), so there is no way that the solicitor would know from those documents that alterations have been made.

There should be somewhere in the property information form to say if any conversions have taken place, although the solicitor is reliant on the vendor to complete these accurately. Did the vendor mention the garage conversion in this document?

Richard_Webster

Quote:
Originally Posted by TightGit
Just a hunch, and i value your first hand experience.

Would a solicitor not compare the plans/title deeds to the property description ? Just to make sure for instance the house is a 5/6/7 bed as desribed rather than a 2 bed apartment for example ?

Or is this kind of thing that obvious that its not undertaken.
There is nothing in my deeds to say that my house is a 3 bed house with a garage (that I've just finished converting into a room as it goes), so there is no way that the solicitor would know from those documents that alterations have been made.

There should be somewhere in the property information form to say if any conversions have taken place, although the solicitor is reliant on the vendor to complete these accurately. Did the vendor mention the garage conversion in this document?

1. The Land Registry entries just give the address of the property and they do not describe it as a house, flat, 2 bed, 3 bed, terrace, detached bungalow, garage, office etc, etc

2. The plan will be a copy of the OS extract which could be 30 years old and may show the footprint of the building. The Land Registry aren't interested for their purposes what is built on the land so a house that has been much extended will not necessarily show as such - all that is important are the plot boundaries - with some new builds no building shows at all - merely a plot of land! In this case, if the garage had been converted the footprint wouldn't change anyway.

3. A seller should complete the Property Information Form properly but regrettably people all too easily read questions like "Has any building work been carried out at the property?" as meaning "Have you carried out any building work...?" About 10% of PIFs I see have this mistake!