Is this room even legally a bedroom?

Harrysmum03

Furts wrote: »

Hi Harrysmum03, welcome to the Forum, and feel free to tick the thanks icon if you think anyone has offered help - a little token of appreciation may calm some ruffled people.

There are many interesting points made in many threads, and there are numerous grey areas. Some are: the bedroom status and fire safety would be viewed differently if it were a three storey house as opposed to a two storey; Fire Regulations guidance did change in the 1990s, so escape windows, open plan living rooms, stairs within a downstairs room were considered; regulations are not retrospective with regards to compliance

Cutting through all this I am suggesting OP is both right and wrong. The room can be called a bedroom provided by some means a person can sleep it in - within reason size does not matter. But the window does not comply. Hence the solution is not to reclassify the bedroom, but to alter the window, or means of escape. The council should be addressing this. However, in defence of the council, most alteration and maintenance work is done to abysmal standards, by contractors working for peanuts, controlled by councils who demand cheap work and then turn a blind eye to the end results. Thus the situation of apparent non compliance occurs.

The concept of a downstairs bedroom is progress - this should be applauded. Most people eat in a kitchen and dining rooms are redundant. Add to this the current thinking on Lifetime Homes and downstairs bedrooms are the way forward. They are for children, the disabled, the sick and the elderly. Indeed, I have built my home with this in mind, including an office which can be changed to a walk in shower room complete with a floor gulley beneath my work station where I am currently typing this reply.

Hope this helps.

Thank you FURTS.

Will see if I can get the council to come and have a look at the bedroom and see if it does or doesn't comply. The size of the bedroom was never an issue just the window size. And means of escape.
The kitchen is too small to accommodate any sort of eating space so will use the dining For that purpose.as we are not over crowded we will use the dining room as a dining room.
Thanks again for your replies

Harrysmum03

Prothet_of_Doom wrote: »

I went to look at a room in a HMO for rent, in the basement, and it had a small stair case built in front of the window, to meet building regulations of it being a fire escape.

Think I'm right in thinking that's known as an egress window.

Ben84

The sitting room is a bedroom? Sounds a bit odd, but technically possible in some situations.

If however the room contains the stairs or is the only access to other rooms, I'd definitely protest about this claim.

Also, if it has a gas fire or back boiler, I'd object too. Open flu gas appliances really aren't a good idea in a bedroom.

Furts

Ben84 wrote: »

The sitting room is a bedroom? Sounds a bit odd, but technically possible in some situations.

If however the room contains the stairs or is the only access to other rooms, I'd definitely protest about this claim.

I was thinking of open plan stairs coming into a living room when I posted my comment - quite common over the last 40 years as a means of saving space and cost. But in this situation OP should be checking that the bedroom windows are egress rated, so that there is peace of mind should a fire occur.