House with no loft wall - what to do

Horseunderwater

When we bought our semi D, we had a mortgage retention of around £700 - so we had to put one in. Had to move neighbours cold water tank too as it was on our side. It is purely to stop fire spreading & to prevent a burglery from unscrupulous neighbours. Yes it does happen. A builder friend did it for us. That was 1992.

wallbash

SailorSam wrote: »

I think at the very least i'd be putting some sort of hasp & padlock on the loft door. Without that you're house would be dead easy to break into from next door. But then you think about all the stuff we all store up there, i'd really want a wall even if the neighbour wouldn't go halves. A simple chipboard thing wouldn't be difficult to fix up.

Grandpa has survived for the past 60 years, without a lock!
Chipboard wall would be a complete waste of time/effort and cost.
A breeze block ( yes the old fashioned name) wall would be as cheap and at least fireproof .
But again not a grandpa problem


Going back to the fire risk, guessing years ago the house would have been heated by open fires, is this still the case? OR has a fire risk actually been greatly reduced?

wallbash

we had a mortgage retention of around £700 -

Count yourself lucky my retention was over £5000 in 1985.

mart.vader

SailorSam wrote: »

I think at the very least i'd be putting some sort of hasp & padlock on the loft door. Without that you're house would be dead easy to break into from next door. But then you think about all the stuff we all store up there, i'd really want a wall even if the neighbour wouldn't go halves. A simple chipboard thing wouldn't be difficult to fix up.

Not much good for fire prevention, though !

shaun_from_Africa

wallbash wrote: »

Grandpa has survived for the past 60 years, without a lock!

I would hazard a guess that 60 years ago, houses getting broken into were nowhere near as common as today, and if your Grandpa's place did get done and the insurance company found out that there was free access from the property next door, they may well decline any payout as one requirement for insurance is usually that all doors and windows have locks fitted.

A reasonable hasp and padlock won't be expensive or difficult to fit and a few £s now could save a lot later.

Before the new neighbours move in, it might be worth actually getting up in the attic space and having a good look around just to make sure that there isn't anything valuable up there that could go missing.

Lord_Baltimore

The current neighbour is trying it on. They want to sell and it's their problem. The 'ol feller won't want to spend his dosh on a wall in the loft so they can go whistle.

He's about to get a loft wall for free

specialboy

Quizzical_Squirrel wrote: »

Just bear in mind that this is also the only chance you'll get to have half the wall paid for if you/your grandfather need it.

If the neighbour doesn't build this wall but a house sale goes through anyway, future neighbours may be light-fingered or have mischievous children.

Or when your grandfather dies, you may yourself have trouble selling without this wall and the neighbours might not want to pay for their half.

Any future neighbour is going to have the same problem so grandpa should just sit tight and let them get on with it.

davidmcn

specialboy wrote: »

Any future neighbour is going to have the same problem so grandpa should just sit tight and let them get on with it.

He (or the family) might be the next to sell though.

But I doubt it's really a deal-breaker - the surveyor will have flagged it up as something desirable, not something which makes the house unmarketable. I suspect the prospective buyers would agree to go ahead (and probably never bother getting the wall put in either).

wallbash

But I doubt it's really a deal-breaker -

Not many things are, my gripe is Fensa , I know no one who didn't buy a house because of a worthless piece of paper.

m_13

The Crime Prevention Website says there are several thousand burglaries a year involving people coming through a wall or loft hatch: http://thecrimepreventionwebsite.com/security-inside-the-home/686/entry-through-walls-and-ceilings/

I remember a friend having all her Christmas presents stolen from around the tree when she lived in a terraced house and somebody broke into an empty house in the row and then burgled all the other houses via their loft hatches.

When I bought my first terraced house in 1988 I had to put in a wall to protect from fire and smoke.