Buying a house with dodgy DIY / no regs

Lennon

I'm a FTB looking for a bit of advice.

We have seen a house we really like but the owner has done a couple of things themselves which I am a little bit concerned about. We have just done a second viewing and another party is apparently also interested in making an offer so we need to decide what we want to do.

I have a couple of concerns though:

1) The vendor has self installed a wood burning stove. No chance it will have been done to any kind of regulations and I did ask if they had to do anything with chimney but they appear to have basically just stuck it in. It would have originally been an open coal fire place so the chimney is there but in what state I don't know.

Clearly I would have this looked at by a professional before using it or even just have it removed - but will this cause a problem during any kind of survey ? Would it need to be removed first?

2) There is a loft conversion with no building regulations which was done many years ago. It is not listed as a bedroom but they are using it as one (they actually have 4 single beds up there). The price of the property reflects the fact this is not a bedroom and is in line with other properties on the street.

We would not be using this as a bedroom, I have some plans to use it as more of a study but obviously a little bit concerned about the lack of regulations. As I have no plans to use it as a bedroom i'm not massively concerned about having it verified for the sake of it but I am concerned about any potential structural issues. What should be next steps be here ? Sorry if this sounds like a stupid question but this is all new to me. Would it be wise to pay for a structural survey or would I get enough information in a homebuyer report to decide how to proceed further?

With 4 people living up there I guess it is structurally sound but i'd rather not guess !

chickaroonee

Are you completely wedded to this property?

The last person I would buy a property off would be someone who has a dodgy loft conversion that sleeps four people and had installed their own wood burner without any regards to building regs. Just think about the bodges (and there will be many) that you can't see.

mummyroysof3

I would be very wary about this property...do you have a link? The loft isn't too much of an issue if you don't want to use it as a bedroom but you would still need it checked out to make sure it was safe to use at all for anything other than storage. I know nothing about wood burners so can't comment on that

Debt_Free_Chick

Lennon wrote: »

1) The vendor has self installed a wood burning stove. No chance it will have been done to any kind of regulations and I did ask if they had to do anything with chimney but they appear to have basically just stuck it in. It would have originally been an open coal fire place so the chimney is there but in what state I don't know.

I know one has to be careful with "information on the internet" but this link from what appears to be a bona-fide supplier suggests that what the seller has done could be OK.

"Most of our customers fit their stove and or flue liner / system themselves. You do not have to use a professional installer if you are competent to do the work yourself. If installing the stove into an existing fireplace/chimney and not using a new chimney liner then the installation is very straightforward for a person with average DIY skills."

2) There is a loft conversion with no building regulations which was done many years ago. It is not listed as a bedroom but they are using it as one (they actually have 4 single beds up there).

Again, there are lots of these up and down the country. Many of them may have been converted before the current building regs were in force - and might not even have needed building regs sign-off.

Difficult for us to comment too much as we haven't seen the property. However, if you're uncomfortable, then maybe this property isn't for you.

Lennon

Interesting on the stove, thanks for that - sounds like it could be ok but it's not been signed off by anyone as the vendor made reference to maybe needing to remove it.

There is a link to the property below but it doesn't show much. There's no pictures of the attic room to look at:
http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/28658541?search_identifier=c69c00ae53d66ba50dcbaeaca4da4122

We can look elsewhere but this is our favourite for the area and within/under budget. Due to our budget we are leaning towards nice area less nice house rather than the other way round and this ticks the boxes. Funnily enough it's the attic room I like because it gives us extra space to use other than the bedrooms!

Yorkie1

Debt_Free_Chick wrote: »

I know one has to be careful with "information on the internet" but this link from what appears to be a bona-fide supplier suggests that what the seller has done could be OK.

"Most of our customers fit their stove and or flue liner / system themselves. You do not have to use a professional installer if you are competent to do the work yourself. If installing the stove into an existing fireplace/chimney and not using a new chimney liner then the installation is very straightforward for a person with average DIY skills."

The bit which you didn't quote from that article comes next:

"If you complete the work yourself then the local council Building Control should be informed and they can then inspect the work on completion to sign it off."

The OP states that there is no B Regs sign-off for the installation. There is therefore no way to tell whether the woodburner, or the chimney, is an uncontrolled fire waiting to happen.

Again, there are lots of these up and down the country. Many of them may have been converted before the current building regs were in force - and might not even have needed building regs sign-off.

Difficult for us to comment too much as we haven't seen the property. However, if you're uncomfortable, then maybe this property isn't for you.

There are several issues with loft conversions: insulation, structural safety (joist strengthening), and fire safety. I bet the property doesn't have a safe, fireproofed exit from the loft?

The combination of potentially lethal cowboy installation of a woodburner, with a dodgy loft conversion and no safe exit from the room (I assume), means I wouldn't touch this one with a barge pole.

gazter

Your solicitor will pick up on the lack of building regs, and inform the lender, who will probably insist on the very least, an indemnity.