Loft space used as bedroom - no planning

shays_mum

Avoid! as one going thru a loft conversion, the amount of money it takes to make it safe & compliant is loads!!. Then you have the hassle of the council & party walls (if its needs redoing) etc etc.

PaulJM

shays_mum wrote: »

Avoid! as one going thru a loft conversion, the amount of money it takes to make it safe & compliant is loads!!. Then you have the hassle of the council & party walls (if its needs redoing) etc etc.

I wouldn't say avoid, we've got a usable loft now that was comparatively cheap, when compared with a extension.
As long as you get the joiner to agree the price as the final, approved BC price, and other issues are their problem.
I just wrote a contract, including everything theyll do for me, they'll do for the price, and the payment intervals, and although a hassle, all the issues were seen to by them, and cost me nothing more than the agreed price.

Mallotum_X

The house I bought had the same situation, the loft space should just be considered as storage. Price wise I would not pay more than a similar house without such work done, however we have a good storage space with much easier access than a ladder.

donz23

PaulJM wrote: »

I wouldn't say avoid, we've got a usable loft now that was comparatively cheap, when compared with a extension.
As long as you get the joiner to agree the price as the final, approved BC price, and other issues are their problem.
I just wrote a contract, including everything theyll do for me, they'll do for the price, and the payment intervals, and although a hassle, all the issues were seen to by them, and cost me nothing more than the agreed price.

Thanks for the advice so far. I think we will contact the EA and ask what has been done so far. What do you mean by the BC price?

PaulJM

donz23 wrote: »

Thanks for the advice so far. I think we will contact the EA and ask what has been done so far. What do you mean by the BC price?

I mean at the start, when I got the quote, I contracted the joiner on providing the final price - so even if something came up by building control, he stumped up for it, not me - for example the spindle s on the existing stairs were too far apart...but he had to sort that, cos he'd given me the final price and it was on my contract .

If you decide to buy, if it hasn't put the price up, you call always pay for a structural engineer to work out loads and stuff.
Don't worry about any long term issues, get a reasonable survey and they will look at that.
When we bought ours, obviously the loft hasn't been converted, and the previous owners had put heavy stuff up there, and walked on it a lot, and the survey mentioned that the plaster boarding on the ceiling was cracking. These are the things that can happen, that's why you need a structural engineer to work out loads and steel size to support humans and furniture.