Building reg problems

muskethound

Hi,
I have read every thread relating to this on here but still struggling with this dilemma so would appreciate any insight.

We are first time buyers and we have had an offer accepted on a bungalow with a loft conversion. The property is sold as 4 bedrooms, including the 2 in the loft, however, our solicitors have found that there is no building regs certificate for the loft conversion which was done 25 years ago.

Following advice from our solicitor we asked the sellers to get a retrospective building reg certificate. Our sellers agreed to this but then said that they can't get one as the council aren't interested in inspecting a conversion this old. They have offered us indemnity insurance.

We asked the sellers to pay for a structural survey to show that the loft was done to a good standard and they refused on the basis that it would be a lot of work to do to current regs (which I know doesn't make sense).

We would like to put an ensuite in the loft so I phoned the council to see whether we would need a building regs certificate for this considering the loft doesn't have one and they said well actually the whole loft would need a certificate and they would definitely come out to inspect a loft conversion this old.

So basically the sellers or their solicitor hasnt been honest about this and not particularly helpful for us to find out whether it is even structurally sound.

Our options are now to
1. Buy with indemnity insurance and do it all ourselves. We cant imagine how much the costs are for this option as we would need to pay for a structural survey to get an idea of this but we dont know whether to spend any more on this house at this stage. Our budget is quite limited.
2. Pull out of the sale.

Any advice or insight would be appreciated, thank you

lincroft1710

If the council are aware of the fact there are no building regs for the loft, you cannot obtain indemnity insurance.

muskethound

I didn't give them any details about the house when I spoke to them, not sure if the sellers did when (if) they spoke them so that should be ok.

Cakeguts

There is another problem. If the house was sold as a 4 bed house and 2 of the beds are in the loft conversion you need to make sure that you are not being asked to pay the same amount of money as you would for a purpose built 4 bed bungalow. You also need to compare the price to a purpose built 4 bed house. A 2 bed bungalow with a loft conversion that is 25 years old that may or may not have met building regs then should not cost the same to buy as a purpose built 4 bed property because it isn't a 4 bed property it is a 2 bed property with a loft conversion.

So do you want to buy a 2 bed property where someone converted the loft 25 years ago in such a way that you might have to spend a lot of money on it? This isn't a 4 bed property it is a 2 bed with a loft conversion.

Thrugelmir

muskethound wrote: »

We would like to put an ensuite in the loft so I phoned the council to see whether we would need a building regs certificate for this considering the loft doesn't have one and they said well actually the whole loft would need a certificate and they would definitely come out to inspect a loft conversion this old.

Then the decision is yours at your cost if this the plan.

Hoploz

Currently there is no problem with the loft conversion. It was done many years ago, quite possibly before modern building regs existed. the council would indeed have no interest in spending their resources inspecting something done so long ago. They would have to work out what regulations were applicable at the time of building the conversion, and it's really not worth their bother.

If you want to make alterations then you will need to meet modern building regs. I'd be very surprised if that meant changing the whole of the loft conversion to meet today's standards. That would be like saying if you put a new bathroom in elsewhere within the original house, you'd have to get the whole house up to modern building regs standards, as it was built long ago as well.

It's a decision you need to make - do you buy this house or do you buy something else instead. Have a structural survey if you would like confirmation there is no movement from historic building practice, but they are unlikely to be able to unearth enough to determine exactly how it was built.

You are likely however to need to upgrade parts of the loft to meet certain regs for safety, eg wired in smoke alarms, fire escape hinges on windows, possibly fire doors etc. but you would benefit from this modernisation, happy in the knowledge your home is safe. Anyone would want that.

muskethound

Ok thank you for your replies, it has given me something to think about, I think we will look into the cost of doing it ourselves and making a decision based on that.