Could split bedroom pose issue with mortgage approval ?

NinaSwiss

I am in the process of purchasing the house (http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-25337802.html) which was advertised as a 3-bed but you’d need to walk into one of the rooms to get into the other.

I suspect it was originally a 2-bed as the partition used to split the bedroom felt like a hollow wood.
My intension is to either knock down the partition and use as a roomy 2-bed house or turn into a proper 3 bed(all rooms with their own access) at some point.

Is this likely to pose an issue on the conveyancing/ mortgage approval? I’ve heard somewhere that all rooms in a house need to have their own exit to the landing but not sure if this only applies to new builds.

tim123456789

Only insofar as whether it is or is not a bedroom will affect the value.

Apart from that the mortgage company don't care if you're buying a one bed or a 4 bed property.

They only insist on it having the things that indicate it is residential and not commercial property

System

Looking at the plan, I am more inclined to think that they have extended bedroom one by using the corridor that possibly ran between one & three. And also put that cupboard in to replace one that was at the end of the corridor.

Looking at the windows at the front of the house says to me that bedroom 2 & 3 have always been there. It is pretty standard that some internal wals are only stud partitions


Or am I being too imaginative?

sandsni

There are fire safety issues with a "room-off-a-room" (particularly if it is a bedroom). I don't know about mortgages, but I do have a recollection of it potentially being a problem (long story, I have a room-off-a-room in a pre-1850 house. It's no longer used as a bedroom, but I don't have a mortgage anyway so it didn't affect me personally). It may also cause problems with your home insurance. I would definitely get professional advice on it before making any decisions.

JimmyTheWig

What an interesting floorplan.
Looking at the history of the road on Zoopla, number 37 (admittedly end-of-terrace) is similar to what !!!!!! suggests but number 40 (a semi, like yours OP) has a very odd arrangement of doors.

Other than the doors in number 40 it looks very similar to yours. I'd suggest that what you have is the standard but the people at number 40 have changed theirs. Can't see theirs being the standard.
Let us know if you ever find out!

In terms of the mortgage approval, the only problem will be with a valuation. The bedroom arrangement will put off many people (e.g. a family with a teenage boy and girl) so the valuation will probably come in lower than if the rooms were all accessible from the landing. But presumably the price already reflects that (if not, why are you buying it with this arrangement, out of interest?) so it shouldn't be an issue.

LeafGreen

I don't think it will be a problem for either buildings insurance or mortgage. There are lots of terraced houses in Norwich for example that have 1 bedroom at the front and another and the back, with the staircase up the middle. Then another smaller room off the 2nd bed that is either a bathroom or study type area (or whatever). I have never heard of problems with these

Obviously the problem with that is guests have to traipse through a bedroom to get to the bathroom. To get round this, many of these houses have a bathroom downstairs right at the back, off the kitchen. Again, not ideal if you need to get up in the middle of the night!

Example:- http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-40609271.html

NinaSwiss

Thanks for the responses guys,

The survey is end of this week so hopefully it should all go well as I really like the place and they accepted at about 10% less than asking price .

Property was vacant at veiwing but the EA had no idea (amongst other things).

I did speak to the neighbor (other half of the semi with the same layout) who invited me in to see what she did with hers.
she expanded the inner room, taking space from the outer room and knocked a passage between the airing cupboard and the outer room.
This meant the outer room(that is next to stairs) is now smaller.
somehow it all works beautifully. She still has the airing cupboard (houses boiler) in the same location.
In all the excitement I forget to ask if her original layout was a 2-bed.

I'm not so bothered about the layout as I will either make the 2-bed into a 1 bed or get it properly split into a 2 bed with each room having a door.

I'll be living there alone with a lodger so the extra room will be a home office/guest room/storage. The vendor accepted 197, it's well maintained and the best of all the properties I've seen in my price range for the general area but I hope the mortgage company are ok with it.

There are 2 terraces on Brockwell close(1/2 minutes walk away) which I suspect had a similar layout and sold for less (190k and 193k ) as 2 bedrooms but Im happy to pay more as its a semi with own side access.

Strapped

We sold a house with an identical layout, although this was more than 10 years ago. It was originally a 2 bed, with the front bedroom split. Didn't pose a problem for the 1st time buyers who bought it. I know they planned to take out the hot water tank and create a corridor to the "3rd" bedroom through the airing cupcoard and the wardrobe of the other bedroom.

NinaSwiss

Strapped wrote: »

We sold a house with an identical layout, although this was more than 10 years ago. It was originally a 2 bed, with the front bedroom split. Didn't pose a problem for the 1st time buyers who bought it. I know they planned to take out the hot water tank and create a corridor to the "3rd" bedroom through the airing cupcoard and the wardrobe of the other bedroom.

I considered that as it looks like that’s what the owners of this have done ( http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-40761629.html ).
But that would also mean loosing the storage space and also having to pay for a new combi boiler to replace the tank system. It might also be a costlier option… I will re-evaluate after completion once I’ve there abit.

I’ll update on the outcome once the survey has been carried out. I was hoping to speak to the surveyor before/after the survey(I was concerned about a crack in the ceiling of a built in wardrobe and wanted to make sure he assesses it) but was told I cant be there or contact him till after the report is written.

ash28

!!!!!! wrote: »

Looking at the plan, I am more inclined to think that they have extended bedroom one by using the corridor that possibly ran between one & three. And also put that cupboard in to replace one that was at the end of the corridor.

Looking at the windows at the front of the house says to me that bedroom 2 & 3 have always been there. It is pretty standard that some internal wals are only stud partitions


Or am I being too imaginative?

We bought a house years ago that was actually originally a 2 bed house like this:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-37622674.html

What we actually bought was one with the upstairs like this:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-37528540.html?premiumA=true

There are lot of 2 bed houses there that have the main bedroom running along the front of the house with 2 windows. And a lot of those are now 3 bedroomed houses.

It was a great size for 2 bedder but a bit on the small side for 3.

olly300

ash28 wrote: »

We bought a house years ago that was actually originally a 2 bed house like this:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-37622674.html

What we actually bought was one with the upstairs like this:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-37528540.html?premiumA=true

There are lot of 2 bed houses there that have the main bedroom running along the front of the house with 2 windows. And a lot of those are now 3 bedroomed houses.

It was a great size for 2 bedder but a bit on the small side for 3.

So basically if the OP gets rid of the cupboard and takes some space of bedroom one, so there is an entrance from the hall into bedroom 3 they will have a legit 3 bedroom house.