House overpriced now loft conversion has no building regs. Advice needed.

00ec25

Craigh1983 wrote: »

The point is as a 2 bed house it is valued at £175,000. Why advertise it for £190,000 when that's is way over the top!

are you really that naive?

when you come to sell it yourself will you offer it for 190 and be as annoyed as you are now when you buyer offers 175 or will you think - what a fool, my buyer has offered exactly what I wanted but thinks they are getting a bargain because they "got" 15k off my totally imaginary starting price which was inflated to allow for a "discount" to be given to arrive back at the price I wanted in the first place

billy2shots

Craigh1983 wrote: »

Hi guys,

It was advertised at £190,000 and we offered £175,000. This was accepted straight the way and we were happy knowing we had £15,000 off to do repair.

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

I think I’ve worked out the problem. I think the OP doesn’t quite understand how mortgages/ house buying woks. No offence OP.

I have quoted the above but they also say in another reply that they no longer have £15k to do repairs (because of the valuation)

The crux. I think the OP was hoping a £190k valuation would allow £175k for purchase and leave £15k for repairs.

They believe renegotiating to £160 would then give them that £15k extra from a mortgage.

Unfortunately mortgages don’t work like that op. They will not lend more than a house is being bought for, e.g you can’t get 110% mortgages.

Lungboy

Doozergirl wrote: »

I need to save my loft conversion/building regs spiel on my phone so I can just copy and paste it. I'm bored of writing it down.

A room is always a room if it is safe. Building control confirms safety but there will be many safe conversion with no certificate. Safety and a certificate are not mutually exclusive .

Pick a thread, any thread. There will be more, but here's some more threads with me ranting:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/search.php?searchid=190300756

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/search.php?searchid=190300947

Neither of these links work for me. I'm interested because I was looking at a 4/5 bed on Rightmove the other day that had 2 of the bedrooms in the loft. Unfortunately the 2 loft rooms are accessed by a single paddle stair which is against regs as they currently stand, and possibly against regs when it was built too.

Doozergirl

Lungboy wrote: »

Neither of these links work for me. I'm interested because I was looking at a 4/5 bed on Rightmove the other day that had 2 of the bedrooms in the loft. Unfortunately the 2 loft rooms are accessed by a single paddle stair which is against regs as they currently stand, and possibly against regs when it was built too.

They're just searches on "loft conversion building regs" against my username. I can tell you now, there's no chat about paddle stairs.

I wouldn't call paddle stairs particularly safe and I wouldn't be classing them as rooms above. Paddle stairs aren't acceptable for two rooms under building regs and never have been.

It does need to feel like a proper loft conversion and that some effort has been gone to on the structural front. Not many people are going to be convinced by paddle stairs - it's a bodge.

AdrianC

billy2shots wrote: »

I think I’ve worked out the problem. I think the OP doesn’t quite understand how mortgages/ house buying woks. No offence OP.

I have quoted the above but they also say in another reply that they no longer have £15k to do repairs (because of the valuation)

The crux. I think the OP was hoping a £190k valuation would allow £175k for purchase and leave £15k for repairs.

They believe renegotiating to £160 would then give them that £15k extra from a mortgage.

Unfortunately mortgages don’t work like that op. They will not lend more than a house is being bought for, e.g you can’t get 110% mortgages.

I see where you're coming from, but I think it's simpler than that.

They were hoping that they could do the £15k of work and still be within the valuation. Now, they think they're going to have spent £15k more than the property's worth.

Lungboy

Doozergirl wrote: »

They're just searches on "loft conversion building regs" against my username. I can tell you now, there's no chat about paddle stairs.

I wouldn't call paddle stairs particularly safe and I wouldn't be classing them as rooms above. Paddle stairs aren't acceptable for two rooms under building regs and never have been.

It does need to feel like a proper loft conversion and that some effort has been gone to on the structural front. Not many people are going to be convinced by paddle stairs - it's a bodge.

That's my feeling too, it does look like a high quality conversion but the stairs mean I'd only ever classify it as a 3 bed, making it hugely overpriced.

GDB2222

Doozergirl wrote: »

I need to save my loft conversion/building regs spiel on my phone so I can just copy and paste it. I'm bored of writing it down.

A room is always a room if it is safe. Building control confirms safety but there will be many safe conversion with no certificate. Safety and a certificate are not mutually exclusive .

Pick a thread, any thread. There will be more, but here's some more threads with me ranting:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/search.php?searchid=190300756

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/search.php?searchid=190300947

Clearly, this is true. BUT:
Building Regs approval is proof more or less that is safe. Without that, and with so much covered up, it will be hard to tell whether it's safe and properly done. Personally, I am not keen on being burnt alive, say, because the fire precautions are not done, but YMMV.
Anyone who's done a major job like that without BR approval, well what other shortcuts have they taken?
You're going to have issues selling.
No BR probably means no planning permission either, so does it meet regs for a habitable space?

If this were being sold at a discount to valuation I might take a view. But it's not. So, there are only downsides, so I'd simply walk away.

I'd also take the estate agent to the ombudsman over the misdescription with a view to getting my costs back.

AdrianC

GDB2222 wrote: »

Building Regs approval is proof more or less that is safe. Without that, and with so much covered up, it will be hard to tell whether it's safe and properly done. Personally, I am not keen on being burnt alive, say, because the fire precautions are not done, but YMMV.
Anyone who's done a major job like that without BR approval, well what other shortcuts have they taken?

And how about if it would have met last year's standards, but they've changed in the interim?

Or if it would have met, but they simply didn't do the inspections?

Or if it did meet, and was signed off, but there's been subsequent changes...? Say a required firedoor was deemed intrusive or ugly, so removed the minute the inspector left?

BR paperwork is a pointer, no more, as to the quality of work.

bouicca21

I know of a conversion that meets standards except that egress is into a room with a door to the outside rather than directly to the outside. Is this unsafe? Depends where the fire is ...

GDB2222

bouicca21 wrote: »

I know of a conversion that meets standards except that egress is into a room with a door to the outside rather than directly to the outside. Is this unsafe? Depends where the fire is ...

If it's unsafe unless the fire is in the right place, then yes most people would think that is unsafe.

I may be a bit paranoid about fire safety, but we had a huge fire, with my son having to be rescued by the fire brigade. So, for us, fire is not just a remote possibility. We had an enormous scare for my son, plus we ended up just with the clothes we were wearing. All our other stuff was burned or smoke damaged.