Buying House without Building Control Approval for loft conversion

CPT

Hi all,

we have found a property we are interested in, had an offer agreed and it has since turned out that the loft has been converted without Building Control approval.
The vendor or estate agent have not been upfront about it and tried to get away without disclosing the information.
The asking price does not reflect this problem and whilst we managed to negotiate the price down due to other issues in the house, this new price still does not reflect the property value without the loft (which we did not know about at negotiation stage).
The loft conversion is not compliant with building regulations and approvals can therefore not be retrospectively applied for.

Whilst it may be possible to renegotiate the price based on this, I am worried about the mortgage.

I have held back on the mortgage application as the application itself will cost several thousand pounds as I am not sure whether I would even be able to get a mortgage.
I have discussed this with the mortgage lender and they do not know. Some other banks are a bit more positive, but not conclusive.
Is a missing building control application/permission a show stopper?
Will I be able to get a mortgage or is it not worth wasting money?
One might claim the loft is for storage only, but the ensuite in the loft is a bit of a give away.
Not sure how to play this.

I could go for a mortgage without upfront fees, however this will significantly impact on the interest rate I can get and will cost me tens of thousands of pounds further down the line.

Any advice?

abankerbutnotafatcat

I was in the same situation except that my vendor/EA were upfront about it and the asking price therefore reflected it. They even provided me with a quote from a local firm to get it compliant which gave me an idea of the cost if I wanted to go ahead myself.

The valuer valued it on this basis too and agreed with the asking price. It didn't cause any issues for my mortgage provider (Halifax) either, I was just informed during conveyancing that as the loft didn't have building regs I couldn't use it as a bedroom and I would be invalidating my insurance if I did (can't remember if it mentioned breaching the mortgage but I know that the bank's primary concern is that the property is worth what they think it is worth and the valuation confirmed this).

HTH

Yorkie1

The loft cannot be counted as a formal room on the selling particulars, so if it is currently being counted as a bedroom, you should deduct one bedroom from the particulars.

The main problem you have is that you do not know what corners have been cut. For example, fire safety, insulation, structural safety - loft joists are not as strong as floor joists, and you don't know whether they were properly strengthened to take the weight of people, furniture and an ensuite, or not. A survey won't be able to tell you these answers as you need to open up the walls / floors to check.

I don't know if it will be a show-stopper for a mortgage company, but you might find that they value it lower based on the reduced 'room' number, leaving you to either negotiate the price down further, or make up the difference in cash.

Is this really the only house which is a possibility for you?