no building control on my floored loft

GEmum18

hi there

I currently in processing or selling my home as a 3 bedroom as the floored loft with fitted staircase has no building control certificate (northern Ireland) . house advertised and sold as 3 bedroom to take this into account. it's technically 4 bedroom.

prob is now the buyers mortgage company want building control cert even tho these works were carried out before my time and it was never an issue when I bought the prop over 4 years ago , again as sold as 3 bedroom.

anyone any advice as I really don't want building control demanding I remove staircase

thanks in advance

Aylesbury_Duck

It isn't technically a 4-bed. It might practically be used as a 4-bed but it's technically a 3-bed.

If you can't provide a certificate then you may be asked to provide an indemnity policy.

What has been done to make it safe to use as a bedroom? Is it literally just a boarded loft with a permanent staircase or has it had one of those dubious "loft conversions"?

sevenhills

Aylesbury_Duck wrote: »

What has been done to make it safe to use as a bedroom? Is it literally just a boarded loft with a permanent staircase or has it had one of those dubious "loft conversions"?

Maybe it was classed as safe when it was constructed? The OP was rather vague about how long ago this was.
Solicitors now ask for paperwork relating to boilers, electrical certificates, Fensa certificates, building regs and planning, everything gets more complicated. But very little of that was needed a few decades ago.

Aylesbury_Duck

sevenhills wrote: »

Maybe it was classed as safe when it was constructed? The OP was rather vague about how long ago this was.
Solicitors now ask for paperwork relating to boilers, electrical certificates, Fensa certificates, building regs and planning, everything gets more complicated. But very little of that was needed a few decades ago.

True, but regs aside, I'd still rather know if it was safe to use as a bedroom or not before I actually did.

dunroving

Get an indemnity policy before anyone contacts the local authority. This and similar questions have come up a few times recently.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5850355/help-selling-a-house-with-floored-attic-no-building-regs&highlight=attic

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5835583/attic-conversation-selling-no-paperwork-help-please&highlight=attic

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5851131/checking-if-lean-to-can-cause-an-issue-when-selling&highlight=lean

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5838892/experience-applying-for-letter-of-comfort&highlight=comfort

paddedjohn

Why would you need building certs when you aren't advertising it as a fourth bedroom? It's a 3 bed house with a posh loft.

System

The issue here is that you have made structural alterations to fit a staircase in, the use of the room is a secondary concern, if it's just storage that's fine but the roof trusses will have been cut to accommodate a stair and that requires local authority approval.
The thermal insulation envelope of the house will also have been altered, again something that requires permissions

dunroving

paddedjohn wrote: »

Why would you need building certs when you aren't advertising it as a fourth bedroom? It's a 3 bed house with a posh loft.

Because structural alterations have been made. If you removed the roof but didn't advertise that you have a rooftop patio, you'd also need building certs.

Gloomendoom

Perhaps a favourable report from a structural engineer would suffice.

dunroving

Gloomendoom wrote: »

Perhaps a favourable report from a structural engineer would suffice.

It might. It didn't in my case, hence why I am so insistent on these threads that people consider getting indemnity insurance before contacting the local council.

Unfortunately, some local authority Jobsworths are such sad losers that they seem to enjoy being puppet master over situations that really don't merit the heavy hand.

System

but you misunderstand the role of indemnity insurance - it's only there to protect against enforcement action from a local authority, it's not going to help if the structural alterations make the house fall down - where structural alterations have been made relatively recently I would insist on at least a report from a structural engineer