"loft space"

robholygrail

Thanks, we really like it as it had all the things we wanted such as good size garden, log burning stove, character and of course 'two bedrooms'.

I am not sure if we revise our offer how much to take off. It was valued by the surveyor at £1k less than our offer but I think that we would want more off as we had based that on it being a two bed and not one!

Doozergirl

It's being sold by John Shepherd?! :eek: I really would have thought far better of them!

Have you seen the other houses in the terrace? Is it possible that this 'loft conversion' might be original? It would certainly be possible for the room to have inadequate beams etc for current regs if it were original to the house?

Otherwise I have no idea what John Shepherd are playing at! The person that told you that all agents exaggerate should be sacked! It is not fine for them to assume anything either. A disclaimer doesn't exempt them either. If they are not sure, they should not say. I'm going to have to find an explanation of the act now...

Libra1975

the only thing I would be wary of is the shared access, we saw one house where the shared access was 1 foot from our kitchen door and the neighbour kept her bins there! yuck and smelly!

robholygrail

We haven't looked at other house in the terrace personally although our surveyor has. The loft conversions aren't original as the houses are 200 years old. We are not sure when the conversion was done on this one.

Two doors down has a conversion too although it was sold last year with ' loft space'.

Incidentally, the surveyor also said that the 'conservatory' could not be termed a conservatory as it had been made open plan with no door from the kitchen and an original window removed. This would mean it wouldn't pass on fire regs!

Doozergirl

http://lawcentres.helpserve.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=106&nav=0

"The offence under the Act is one of strict liability - it is not necessary for the prosecution to prove that there was an intention to mislead in order to secure a conviction - but only that the statement was false or misleading."

It would be trading standards that prosecute, by the way, not you, so you shouldn't incur any cost.


You need a word with the Boss and then if that doesn't help, you need a word with this lot:
http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/Web/corporate/pages.nsf/Links/07DDBDABB2E6BD5180256CFA003EC7A6

robholygrail

Thankyou for the info Doozergirl. I have read through that and think that I agree that the advertising was misleading. I will try to contact trading standards to see what they say about the matter.

I would have thought that the agent knew exactly what they were doing as they always visit a property before putting it on the market and should be reasonably expected to have experience of this kind of conversion.

PasturesNew

Yes. I believe this is illegal under the Property Misdescriptions Act.

It is something your solicitor should pick up on though - they should have asked for the paperwork - and when there was none, raised it with you as an issue. Your mortgage lender I'd have thought would have noted this and may have changed your lending based on it.

You should be paying for a 1-bed house, not a 2-bed house.

A quick look on rightmove for your area will show you the differences in price for 1-beds and 2-beds to give you an idea how much you should be paying.

The vendors must know this is an issue and must be rubbing their hands with glee that it's not been queried.

Good luck

robholygrail

I am trying to get hold of the solicitor as they haven't seen a copy of the survey as yet.

We are thinking that even if we did get it cheaper that when we go to sell it on that there will be much less of a market for one bed houses rather than two bed houses.

Libra1975

Libra1975 wrote: »

According to my vendors the loft space needs more floor to ceiling ratio(!)and a dormer window to comply with regulations. It doesn't have a door either but that's just my observation. It does have a proper staircase however and you are right it has eaten into the smallest room but that's not a problem as that would be the room we turn into the bathroom if possible.

As for the height thing, I can stand in most of the room and I'm about 5'10 I would say the highest bit is approx 6'4.

Rather than start a new thread this is just really a continuation of my original question. We won't want to make an offer on this property if it turns out we have to do a lot of work to turn the loft room into a marketable room but apparently to find this out we have to have a survey done which isn't usually done until after the offer. Does anyone know a way of us finding out this type of information before we make an offer?

Thanks.

PasturesNew

robholygrail wrote: »

Two doors down has a conversion too although it was sold last year with ' loft space'.

Number 42 sold on 13/11/2006 at £187k

36 sold 04/03 at £136k
38 sold 05/03 at £150k

http://www.mouseprice.co.uk/Search_Property_Sale.aspx?Postcode=CV37%209XZ&Street=&Town=