Are the number of Bedrooms officially documented?

Glover1862

As the title, are the number of bedrooms a property has officially recorded anywhere ie land registry or in the deeds. I’m looking at buying a 4 bedroom 3 story townhouse, the current agent has it as a 4 bedroom, kitchen/diner downstairs, lounge also downstairs. It’s empty at the moment but the owners made the downstairs lounge into a bedroom and used the bigger bedroom on the 1st floor as lounge.

I found an older listing where a different agent had the property as a 3 bedroom, kitchen downstairs, separate dining room downstairs, lounge on 1st floor hence 3 bedrooms.

The question is what will it officially be documented as, 3 or 4 bedroom and does it impact the value? I’ll need to know when if I apply for a mortgage and getting it insured, although the space does not change and how I allocate the rooms is my choice.

Cakeguts

We own a 4 bed house that sounds a bit like the one you are buying we have had it since it was new so I can tell you the layout when it was built.



Ground floor is kitchen diner, dining room and downstairs toilet.



1st floor bedroom one with an ensuite at the back of the house and in the front of the house the lounge.



2nd floor 3 more bedrooms and a family bathroom.



On the estate where this house is there were other houses that were 3 beds. They were a similar layout but smaller and didn't have a toilet on each floor which is why we bought the 4 bed. Ours is rental house and we bought the one with a toilet on each floor because we thought that it would make it nicer to live in.



The three beds were cheaper than the 4 beds. When they were built none of them had bedrooms on the same floor as the kitchen. That room was described as a dining room.



What you need to check is the price that you are paying for the house. 4 bed houses tend to be more expensive than 3 bed houses but many people wouldn't want to pay extra for a house with a dining room that is being described as a bedroom.

theartfullodger

Bedroom sizes are specified in overcrowding laws - for 2, 1 & 1/2 humans. 1/2 is a child between 1 & 10.

'sfunny how many agents claim to not know about this.

Go and view it and measure the rooms. See what they can legally take - and yes, the law applies to owner-occupiers aldo

Glover1862

Thanks for the replies, the layout is similar to cakeguts and has a toilet for each floor. All the rooms are certainly big enough to be officially classed as bedrooms. I’m just struggling to remember if it is officially recorded somewhere so I can fill the mortgage application correctly, it’s confusing that two agents view it differently.

davidmcn

Nothing "official", no. It would be more common to think of the number of "apartments" i.e. usable rooms which aren't bathrooms or kitchens.
I doubt for the purposes of the mortgage application form it's going to matter whether you call one room a bedroom or a dining room.

[Deleted User]

There are many many originally 3 bed council houses with double receptions, as originally built, that the council now calls 4 bed houses (one of the reception rooms being now defined as a bedroom) so they can fit larger families into them.

If the council can change room types, I don't see why other people should be prevented doing the same thing.

Cakeguts

Glover1862 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies, the layout is similar to cakeguts and has a toilet for each floor. All the rooms are certainly big enough to be officially classed as bedrooms. I’m just struggling to remember if it is officially recorded somewhere so I can fill the mortgage application correctly, it’s confusing that two agents view it differently.

Now what I would suggest is that you compare the price of this house to "real" 4 bedroom houses. I would never call ours a 5 bed because it isn't. It is a 4 bed with a dining room. The way to think about this is to imagine a 3 bed semi with two seperate downstairs rooms. Would you pay more money for it just because one of the downstairs rooms was labelled a bedroom? Or would you still think of it as a 3 bed semi? The problem is that 4 bed houses are more expensive than 3 beds. So it is important if you are buying to make sure that the vendor isn't trying to charge more for the house by calling the dining room a bedroom.



In our 4 bed house if someone was sleeping in the dining room they would have to go upstairs to have a shower because on the ground floor there is only a toilet and washbasin. The showers and baths are on the same floors as the bedrooms. From this you can clearly see that it is a 4 bed not a 5 bed house.

Cakeguts

deannatrois wrote: »

There are many many originally 3 bed council houses with double receptions, as originally built, that the council now calls 4 bed houses (one of the reception rooms being now defined as a bedroom) so they can fit larger families into them.

If the council can change room types, I don't see why other people should be prevented doing the same thing.

What you call them only matters if you are being asked to pay a 4 bed house price for something that is really only a 3 bed. If you had the choice between buying a house with a dining room, lounge and kitchen and 4 bedrooms upstairs would you want to pay the same for one which only had a lounge and kitchen with the dining room being called a bedroom and only 3 beds upstairs?


The only reason why I can see that someone would call the dining room a bedroom when selling a house is to try to get someone to pay more for it than they would if it was called a dining room even though the size of the house is the same.

bouicca21

It’s all in the eye of the beholder. I think my flat was built as a 2 bed with 2 reception rooms. Most people see it as a 3 bed.

In as far as number of rooms affect price, it’s just a case of looking at comparables.

RelievedSheff

We were only discussing this this morning. There are some new build semis being constructed on the estate we have been moved onto which we would consider a 3 bed with a study downstairs but the developers are selling as 4 bed with the attached premium.

We didn't even think the room looked big enough to fit a bed when we had a nosey earlier!

Sea_Shell

You may be on a sticky wicket with insurers, if you buy a policy based on 3 bedrooms and it is found that you're using 4 "upstairs" rooms as bedrooms.

I'm not sure how they'd treat downstairs rooms used as bedrooms.

So if there is a first floor room that could be multi purpose, and your using it as a bedroom, I'd buy insurance on that basis.

As always, best to ring them and check.

There was a case in the news a while ago where a claim was refused, as the attic had been converted to extra "bedrooms" making 7 (I think) rather than the 5 declared to insurers (insurers didn't offer cover to 7 bedroom houses)