Flat doesn't meet building regs

LittleOne83

Just looking for a little advice please.

I'm currently in a private rented basement flat with a macerator toilet. My landlord has been in the process of selling but the sale didn't go through as the valuation showed that as this is the only toilet building regs are not adhered to and thus making the property uninhabitable (or words to that effect). It was stated that if there were to be a power failure there would not be a working toilet. The regs state that macerator toilets should be installed only when there is access to a normal gravity type toilet.
Is this actually illegal?
Does my landlord have a responsibility to put this right?
Just wondering what your thoughts are on this.
TIA x

BitterAndTwisted

How is your landlord going to be able to put it right? Presumably theres no sewer to connect it to but where is the waste-water going to from the kitchen sink and bath?

Perhaps none of this conforms to current building regs but it might have done at the time the flat was built or converted?

One way of looking at this, is that as long as a buyer is hard to find you won't be evicted. Result!

jc808

If its a basement flat, I presume no gravity to connect to a sewer = macerator needed = no breach of regs

poppysarah

In what circumstances do Building Regulations allow installation of a macerator?
The Building Regulations: Part G permit the installation of a macerator only if there is access to a gravity discharging WC.

http://www.simplifydiy.com/bathroom/macerator

G_M

Since we have no idea when the flat was constructed and the macerator toilet installed, nor when these particular Building Regs came into force, we cannot comment of whether there is a breach.

BRs only have to be complied with at the time the work is done - no one can do installations on the basis of possible future new BRs! And if every property had to be upgraded every time the BRs changed, we'd all spend our whole lives upgrading our properties!

poppysarah

G_M wrote: »

Since we have no idea when the flat was constructed and the macerator toilet installed, nor when these particular Building Regs came into force, we cannot comment of whether there is a breach.

BRs only have to be complied with at the time the work is done - no one can do installations on the basis of possible future new BRs! And if every property had to be upgraded every time the BRs changed, we'd all spend our whole lives upgrading our properties!

There are some really good common sense rules though. Like having a loo that flushes even during a power cut.

bris

poppysarah wrote: »

There are some really good common sense rules though. Like having a loo that flushes even during a power cut.

Thats what a pail is for.

RobertoMoir

poppysarah wrote: »

There are some really good common sense rules though. Like having a loo that flushes even during a power cut.

Oh quite so, wouldn't want to live in a place that didn't have that facility myself, but the point about building regs not being relevant was well made.

Are there any similar rules for a property being rentable? And why did the tenant choose to stay there in the first place, presumably knowing about this, only to think its a problem now?

BitterAndTwisted

Eh, during a really severe power-cut the pumps at the water-company's installations wouldn't be working either, so no flushing lavs and no drinking-water coming out of taps either. Never mind a water-main going in a street nearby.

Owain_Moneysaver

Lots of houses don't comply with building regs. It's not uninhabitable for rental purposes as long as the toilet continues to work.

For sale, however, the prospective buyer does not want to take the risk that the council might take enforcement action if there has been a breach of building regulations.

UK. D-i-Y Saniflo humour.

saversfriend

I purchsed a flat 2 years ago and the only toilet here works with a macerator.

I did a major refurb before I moved in and building regs refused to let me keep the macerator and said I needed to out in a "real" toilet. I questioned how I could get excrement through a waste pipe which was half an unch thick and eventually building regs let me keep it.

This is what they should have done in the first place and building regs are not supposed to be applied retrospectively and the flat was built in the early 80s, before macerators were prohibited without a real toilet.

Having lived here for two years, I have not regreted buying a place with a macerator. It was annoying during two powercuts but not teh end of the world - you could still use toilet, but put the lid down and flush when power came on.