Looking at house with a 9 year old loft conversion

icklejulez

Does anyone know whether a loft conversion completed 9 years ago needs any kind of buildings or planning regulations. Im looking at a house at the moment and the vendor says 9 years ago nothing was needed. Their is a proper stair case up to the loft but no fire door etc to the room at the top. will this be a problem in purchasing and is their any information I should be asking to see? Certificates etc. Ive had that much bad luck in the two properties Ive tried to purchase I dont want pay another survey fee when its obvious information.

Thanks

peterg1965

A call to the local council planning office to ask them if planning permission was given and /or whether building regs where approved might be the way forward. I suspect if it is not a 'proper' room then no planning application would have been asked for. I would say that if this was the case the house could never be marketed by Estate Agents as the loft space being another 'room'. They will probably not refer to it at all in the details. If you purchased the house you could bring it up to the required standards and then get retrospective building regulation approval. This certificate could then be kept with the house deeds.

sham63

If the shape of the roof was altered (eg a dormer window or hip-to-gable extension) planning permission may have been required. Many such loft conversions are what's known as 'permitted development' and do not require permission. If no exterior roof alterations were involved, planning permission would not have been required. This includes the insertion of 'velux' windows - pp not required. By the way I'm basing this on a 'normal' house - not a listed building or building in a conservation area!

However, as the conversion is over 4 years old it will be exempt from enforcement from the Council in terms of planning permission so you're Ok on that score.

Building regs is a seperate matter. It would certainly have required building regs approval if it is being used as a habitable room. If it's just a 'boarded loft' with a staircase then it wouldn't.

Even if it is a habitable room and building regs were not adhered to at the time of construction, it is most unlikely that the Council would pursue you 9 years later (how would they find out about it anyway?).

icklejulez

Thanks for your reply's. One further Question it is as you may of guessed a habital room with a velux window but does not have a fire door or anything at the top of the stair case. Could any of this come up in the survey that may prevent us from purchasing the property and is it advisable to put in a fire door should we purchase the property as it will be my childrens play room. Should their also be a fire route out of the roof? Sorry Ive never had a house with a roof conversion.

eileenfromplaistow

Off the top of my head from our loft coversion 10years ago -
all doors leading onto the stairwell have firedoors with automatic closers
need linked smoke alarms on the ground and first floor
a velux in the loft has to be an escape route

sham63

Is the loft conversion described by the Estate Agent as a bedroom or playroom?

If it is currently a playroom and you intend to use it as such then there is no need to worry about building regs and there will be no problems with the survey. However, when you sell you will only be able to describe it as a playroom and not a bedroom.

If it is described as a bedroom then the surveyor should question the planning/building regs status - but again it shouldn't be a problem as long as your lenders are happy.

I purchased a similar property about 10 years ago - same as yours but also had a bathroom up there! I had the same worries but everything went through OK - also had no problems when I eventually sold it.

Doozergirl

When you say the owner said nothing was needed 9 years ago, does that mean they were the ones that did it? Also, to say that nothing was needed is untrue. It would, without a doubt have required building regulations approval.

Before you have your survey done, I would want questions answered on how the loft conversion was created because they survey is bound to query. A loft conversion needs to have the joists changed as the original ones would only be capable of holding the ceiling below, not the weight of a room above. If they haven't done that, it isn't safe and cannot be classed as anything but storage space.

You should definately have a fire door put in; it can be at the top or the bottom of the stairs. The fact that you plan to use this as a playroom for your children means that you need to be really sure that they are safe up there. If not building regs, then at the very least, the structural nod from a surveyor, a self-closing fire door and a sensible escape/access for a strapping fireman!

jackieb

eileenfromplaistow wrote:

Off the top of my head from our loft coversion 10years ago -
all doors leading onto the stairwell have firedoors with automatic closers
need linked smoke alarms on the ground and first floor
a velux in the loft has to be an escape route

Same here. We did ours about 8 years ago and the council were very strict. We had to have a structural engineer come out too as the joists needed to be changed. I don't think you can advertise it as a bedroom unless you have a completion certificate. My cousin did hers at about the same time as us but she had to say she just wanted it as a lined loft for storage. She doesn't have the fire doors, the linked smoke alarms or the fire escape velux window but she does use it as a bedroom. When she comes to sell it she can't class it as a bedroom. We can.

RufusFrog_2

icklejulez wrote:

Does anyone know whether a loft conversion completed 9 years ago needs any kind of buildings or planning regulations. Im looking at a house at the moment and the vendor says 9 years ago nothing was needed. Their is a proper stair case up to the loft but no fire door etc to the room at the top. will this be a problem in purchasing and is their any information I should be asking to see? Certificates etc. Ive had that much bad luck in the two properties Ive tried to purchase I dont want pay another survey fee when its obvious information.

Thanks

I concur with the other posters, I'm pretty sure the building regs for loft conversions have been in for much longer than 9 years. It can't be considered an extra bedroom in its current state and that should be reflected in the price.

If it is being advertised/priced as a bedroom your solicitor will consider it a defect in the title should insist that the seller either brings it up to spec and gets it certified or, more likely, takes out a buildings regulation indemnity policy to cover you against liability in the future. (I've just checked a letter from my solicitor advising me to take out one of these make-the-insurance-companies-rich things, interestingly there's no indication of what the policy would actually cover!).