House advertised a 3 bed but 3rd bedroom (attick room) has no building regs

zennor4

Please help,

We have recently had an offer accepted on what was described as a 3 bedroom bungalow but have since found out that the converted attic room has no planning permission or building regs. To be fair planning permission may not have been required but building regs should have.

The seller has taken out an Indemnity insurance policy to cover himself but my question is, should the estate agent have advertised the property as a 3 bed?? After all, if it said 2 bed plus store room we wouldnt have even looked at it.
We have been advised that when we come to sell, we can legally only describe it as a 2 bed which would probably be atleast 20000 less on the open market, therefore potentially making a huge loss.

At the very least I want a full structural survey (paid for by the seller) to confirm its been built properly and is safe , but should we now be going back and asking him to significantly drop the price based on a 2 bedroom property?? We know that it wouldnt pass current building regs and it would cost to get this approval.

Also, is it illegal for the estate agent to advertise it as a 3 bed, unless they genuinely didnt know?

Our mortgage survey has been done and approved which i find strange as surely they would have picked up on this, unless they dont check to see if regs have been granted.
Our solicitor also doesnt seem too worried about it being advertised as a 3 bed.

Feel let down and worried so far by all parties involved.

I should add that although we have so far shelled out nearly £1000, we are not desperate to buy as we are chain free and very good buyers which would add to bartering power!

Grenage

Unless you particularly like that house, I would walk away, for all the reasons you describe.

davidmcn

zennor4 wrote: »

We have been advised that when we come to sell, we can legally only describe it as a 2 bed

Who gave you this advice?

When was the conversion done?

noahette

We had to have building regs sign off our loft conversion classed as a 3rd bedroom. We were told that a mortgage company would value it lower and that it was now classed as illegal and action can be taken if a seller/estate agent is found to have used false advertising.

Dan-Dan

Did you not see any pictures and/or floorplans before arranging the viewing, when you did said viewing, did you not use your eyeballs to see what was what?

ElsieMonkey

Not sure about legal side, but it does sound like the Estate Agent has messed up with a description that stretches the truth! I have seen a few houses like you have described but are always advertised as 3 bed with loft room for example (rather than 4 bed), I guess to cover their own backs. Personally I wouldn't want to pay 3 bed prices for what is really a 2 bed property (I wouldn't want anyone/children etc. sleeping in a loft room that doesn't meet current regs for safety reasons - some may disagree with me). It will cost you to have the loft kitted out to meet current regs and therefore be able to truly sell it in the future as a 3 bed. I would go back and negotiate on the price, deducting the money it will cost to have the work done to make it a true 3 bed. The estate agent may have not advised the sellers well so I'm not sure it would necessarily be the vendors to blame, but I would be annoyed at the estate agent since they are obliged to describe properties accurately and not be misleading. In this case the misdescription could cost you the difference of 10s of thousands of pounds! If the vendors won't negotiate I'd pull out.

AdrianC

When was the conversion done?

There are very strict legal windows in which the council can take any action against failure to sign-off BR approval, or (a longer period) against failure to get planning permission.

If the conversion was done outside those periods, then it's pretty much irrelevant whether the work had approval or not - and the indemnity is a waste of money. If it's still within the period, then the indemnity policy will cover the cost of defending any action, which is vanishingly unlikely anyway.

As far as a survey goes - you can ask... But no survey will tell you what BR would tell you - because much of what's inspected is now hidden behind plasterboard etc. You say you know it wouldn't pass BR - how do you know this? If it was converted a while back, how is that even relevant? The relevant test would be whether it would pass BR at the time of the conversion.

If you know the work has been done to a poor standard, why did you put an offer in on the house in the first place?

ElsieMonkey wrote: »

Personally I wouldn't want to pay 3 bed prices for what is really a 2 bed property (I wouldn't want anyone/children etc. sleeping in a loft room that doesn't meet current regs for safety reasons - some may disagree with me).

And if/when BR next changes, will you then refuse to let them sleep there, because it will no longer meet the then-current regs?

ElsieMonkey

AdrianC wrote: »

When was the conversion done?



And if/when BR next changes, will you then refuse to let them sleep there, because it will no longer meet the then-current regs?

No, of course not, but the difference is if I did the work and had it done properly and had the paper work to prove that it was done properly (to the standard required of the day), then the next buyer can be satisfied to a certain degree. I wouldn't personally pay a premium (i.e. 3 bed price for 2 bed property)for a property where work was NOT carried out to the required standard on the day that the work was done fitting for the purpose/use of the room.

AdrianC

What if it was converted 40yrs ago?
What if it wasn't converted by the vendor, and there's no documentation to say when it was converted?

lincroft1710

Save yourself a lot of time and trouble and find something else.

martinsurrey

AdrianC wrote: »

There are very strict legal windows in which the council can take any action against failure to sign-off BR approval, or (a longer period) against failure to get planning permission.

Building regulations actually have unlimited time to act, if they can demonstrate that the building poses a danger to the public or its occupiers.

now in all likely hood a loft conversion would never be this bad, but don't think you can build anything and after a few years you are 100% in the clear.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1984/55/section/77