Loft conversion / party wall

ricky101

Hi,

Been looking through the forums posts on unregulated loft conversions.

Seems you can basically do what you want as long as you do not class the area as habitable..?

However we were looking at a semi the other day and the owner was just completing his loft conversion and you could still see his spliced steels.

Long story short - seems the neighbour was never asked for a party wall agreement when the steels were fitted into the sellers side of the cavity wall .

Should that have been done ? and as it also does not have any b. regs approval would we have any liability if we bought the house , even if we kept it as a non habitable room ?

camperdown9

Hi

I'm no expert and I am sure someone who knows much more than me will come along with a fuller answer.

A few years ago we bought a 1930's semi that with a loft conversation. The conversation had been carried out by someone floor boarding the loft, adding a set of stairs and a window. That was it. The advice that we got was that there was no evidence that this had been carried out properly and that we should purchase an insurance policy to cover this. The loft room wasn't a bedroom, it was a home office and sold (I think) as a loft room rather than bedroom 4.

A couple of years after we had moved in we wanted to turn the loft room into a bedroom with an ensuite. So had some plans drawn up. Contacted some builders and got some quotes. All of the builders said that they would have to treat this as if the loft had never been converted. i.e. They removed the stairs and pulled up the floor. Added the steals and put new stairs, floors etc in. At the time we didn't need planning permission but we did need building regs.

With regards to the party wall. Our neighbours were happy to sign the party wall agreement, but my understand was that they don't have the right to stop you putting the steels into the party wall.

kaya

If there is no approval then you spdiscount the conversion, you pay the price for the house without the conversion as it's not legal.

G_M

Party Wall agreement should be applied for before work starts unless the neighbour has agreed it is not required.

Once work is completed though it becomes irrelevant. The only action a neighbour can take if a PWA is not in place is to seek a court order to prohibit or postpone work, so if the work is finished.....

Building Regulations is more serious. Without it

a) the council could require the work to be undone, or re-done to different standards
b) you have no guarantee the work was done safely (eg not affected the structure of the roof support etc) or to a basic legal standard

Planning Permission may have been required as well, especially if a dormer window or similar was installed.

ricky101

Hi,

Thanks for the replies, just that many properites we are looking at have had loft conversions done and am still a bit unsure about whats 'legal' and whats not.

Am I correct that if a conversion has been done then the seller should have a proper council b Regs form saying all the works are approved.
( have yet to see such a form from the two houses with conversions we have actually visited)

Assume if its not 'signed off' ( correct?) then from a selling or mortgage point of view its not a habitable room, but structurally its anyones guess as to how safe it really is and the cost consequense would be, as the new owners ,ours..

harrys_dad

You can get indemnity insurance against the cost of the Local Authority requiring work to be done in the future (provided you have not yet been officially told that there are no Building Regs) but you cannot get insurance against structural instability. That is a risk you are taking, subject to what your surveyor says, so to my mind it is sensible to offer a price without factoring in loft space at all