Dream home has no building regs for loft conversion - please help!

DaftyDuck

Pull out completely and lose my 'dream house'.

and he said he spent over £200k refurbishing it

He would say, wouldn't he? You can build a 4 bed for that, to a decent spec as well.... He did NOT spend £200,000 doing that house up. Neither would it have cost £200,000 ... I'm pretty certain of that.

It's problematic. You've obviously fallen in love with the house, and heart and head don't agree. I think it could prove to be a very expensive mistake if you proceed. There are always other houses...

When buying from a builder who has worked on their own house, you have to take quite a lot on trust. I nearly bought one a builder lived in for five or six years. I now know the new owners and, in that case, I regret not going ahead somewhat, as it was beautifully done, with care and attention to detail.

In this case you have known doubts. He's done a good job superficially BUT if he couldn't do the loft and get building regs signed off, it is not done right.... so what else has he slipped up on, what short cuts has he taken... how costly will they be?

Frankly, I'd pull out. Equally frankly, when the other peed off buyers don't materialise for whatever reason, I would not be putting in an offer. Well, not for only 20k less.

DaftyDuck

Pull out completely and lose my 'dream house'.

shortchanged wrote: »

Seriously, a builder who must have done most of the work himself or at least should have excellent contacts in the business has spent over £200K refurbishing the place!

Are all the taps solid gold or something?

They are likely to be so in his new house... until he's selling it!

geoffky

This has minefield written all over it.And i think you are overpaying...
Good luck...Let the kids sort the mess out when you are gone...

shortchanged_2

Pull out completely and lose my 'dream house'.

He bought it to make money, nothing else.

He is going to walk away with a hefty profit if you pay anywhere near £600K for it.

Don't buy all his guff about he bought it as a house for life and money was no object blah blah.

He bought to make money, pure and simple.

Smerka

Reduce my offer now by £20k - it's more serious than just no loft regs

So the other buyers should have been the one to pursue this since they had cash, so didn't require the lenders to agree? Maybe OP should have thought about this before the ploy. Not continuing means the seller has lost both buyers where as before he would have you as a back up (I doubt the other buyers are interested after what the the seller did).

Shows that sometimes it is better to go with the less risky scenario, than just pursuing more money and now if OP goes ahead the seller will probably get less money than he would have got from the other buyers.

On topic, a dream home can easily turn into a nightmare after you realise the cost involved. I would look at the cost then decide if it is a bargain. Good luck with the tough decision, but I recommend you don't trust the seller too much.

Ivana_Tinkle

housebuyer77 wrote: »

But I do believe him when he says that he has spent £200k and that all the work is top notch. Why would be cut corners in a house that was for him and his family?

It's not for him and his family. He's selling it at an enormous profit.

You're being astonishingly naïve. I'm sure it's because you're a lovely, trusting person but, bloody hell, you're being absolutely taken for a ride. In the nicest possible way, I hope the mortgage company refuses to lend on this place as they'll be saving you from yourself!

DaftyDuck

Pull out completely and lose my 'dream house'.

He did not spend £200,000 on doing that house up. I'd be pretty categorical about that. I don't even think he's spent time and "bits" that would be chargeable to a customer at £200,000.

You are being seriously mislead by the "dream home" concept. Come back down to ground level, swallow a reality pill, then pull out.

This may (4.3% chance) be a bargain of a lifetime. It may also (90.7% chance) be a moneypit. There's a 5% chance (or more) it could be a deathtrap...

shortchanged_2

Pull out completely and lose my 'dream house'.

OP, you could save yourself £7000 off the asking price by telling him he can take the overpriced TV with him.

housebuyer77_2

DaftyDuck wrote: »

He did not spend £200,000 on doing that house up. I'd be pretty categorical about that. I don't even think he's spent time and "bits" that would be chargeable to a customer at £200,000.

You are being seriously mislead by the "dream home" concept. Come back down to ground level, swallow a reality pill, then pull out.

This may (4.3% chance) be a bargain of a lifetime. It may also (90.7% chance) be a moneypit. There's a 5% chance (or more) it could be a deathtrap...

So I kind of expected this type of reaction, and I understand it. I am not naive, and I fully appreciate the seriousness of the issues. But you also need to understand the local property market around here. There is very little on the market, and if you do a price search up to 600k 3 miles from Rickmansworth WD31FX, you will see that what is on the market for that price is nowhere near as nice as this house. For 600k I can get a completely unmodernised 4 bed detached in Rickmansworth which would probably need 50k spent on it and even then is 500sq ft less space and does not have the lovely open plan rooms space. For 600k in Chorleywood, just down the road, you are looking at a 3 bed semi.

I have been looking for 6 months for the ideal house and this one was head and shoulders above everything else. OK so now we know why, but my point is, if it cost me £20k to make this compliant, then if I reduced my offer by 20k would this be that bad business? I don't see how it could cost more than 20k to make it compliant?

As to your comment that he did not spend 200k, I have seen the architects estimate for the major works and it was 70k excluding VAT. I have seen the plans for the old house and it was basically a small 50s 3 bed semi with detached single garage. On top of almost rebuilding it from scratch there is:

- solid oak bespoke kitchen units and island (£20k?)
- a full aga that he claims cost £13,000 and I have seen prices on the internet for second hand ones for £7,500.
- Solid slate flooring with zoned underfloor heating throughout the downstairs (£15k?)
- Fitted bespoke solid oak wardrobes to all the bedrooms
- Three luxury bathrooms with marble tiles, underfloor heating and luxury fittings (£25k??)
- Solid oak doors to all rooms and deep pile carpets to the upstairs (£7,500?)
- Landscaped garden area with solid slate flooring and ornamental pond with lighting that he said cost £5k
- Chimney refurb and multi fuel burner, new gas boiler, central heating and two large megaflow cisterns in parallel (£10k?)
- Four sash double glazed bay windows, two solid stable doors, massive bi-fold double glazed doors to rear and 6 more double glazed windows at the rear, 3 velux windows in the loft. (how much is all that? 20k??

Just those items above add up to over £100k, so that's about £190k right there without trying too hard to add it all up...

So at £310k plus £190k you get to £500k and that's without any uplift in the market since he bought it in March 2005.

I'm not trying to naively defend the vendor but if you look at it objectively like that then is it that bad really? I mean if someone does do up a house to that level wouldn't you expect to make some kind of profit on it? Is that wrong?

shortchanged_2

Pull out completely and lose my 'dream house'.

housebuyer77 wrote: »

As to your comment that he did not spend 200k, I have seen the architects estimate for the major works and it was 70k excluding VAT. I have seen the plans for the old house and it was basically a small 50s 3 bed semi with detached single garage. On top of almost rebuilding it from scratch there is:

So are you saying that the now single dwelling were two separate houses when he bought it.

i.e he bought the 2 semi's and knocked them into 1