House with no Building regs for loft

JessJ23425

Hi,
We are house hunting and came across a very nice property we're interested in that has a "loft room" along with a shower and storage cupboard up there.

I've read around about it on this forum and others and can confirm they are not trying to sell it as an additional bedroom and the value as such is assuming it is simply a loft space as there is no building regulations sign off. The agent made sure to clarify that as they can't confirm it meets fire safety standards either.
The conversion was done before the current owners bought the property, I found an ad on Zoopla from 2015 of it being bought with this done then also and it appears it's been used as a bedroom with no issue since then anyway.

Thanks

jimbog

The price should reflect that it's not a bedroom - i.e comparable to houses without a loft conversion available locally.
To use it as a bedroom would compromise the safety of those who use it

ElephantBoy57

JessJ23425 said:

Will the survey we already plan to get done tell us whether it's actually safe? Will we get a mortgage still with this?

A survey will not tell you if its safe, they will not remove plaster or anything else in order to inspect the structure.

In regard to being safe. It will not pass fire regulations because it is open plan, with no doors that would slow down the progress of a fire. Edit, Maybe a fire door is not needed at the bottom of the stairs?

Not sure about getting a mortgage, could be difficult.

davidmcn

ElephantBoy57 said:

JessJ23425 said:

Will the survey we already plan to get done tell us whether it's actually safe? Will we get a mortgage still with this?

It will not pass fire regulations because it is open plan, with no doors that would slow down the progress of a fire. Edit, Maybe a fire door is not needed at the bottom of the stairs?

Not if there are doors upstairs, no. Problematic examples would be ones where there is no door at top or bottom of the stairs. I can't see anything particularly worrying from the photos.

OP, do you know nothing about the age of it other than "not later than 2015"? The vendors should be able to tell you what the previous owners said about it?

Not necessarily a big issue from a mortgageability point of view, your solicitor will be able to advise further.

JessJ23425

jimbog said:

The price should reflect that it's not a bedroom - i.e comparable to houses without a loft conversion available locally.
To use it as a bedroom would compromise the safety of those who use it

Indeed it does already, it's listed as simply loft space/room not a useable bedroom. We would personally have no interest in using it as such we are just trying to make sure it's structurally sound and not going to collapse!

Is there a reason this would be done without getting building regulations all sortee? I've seen some quite shabby loft conversions but this seems quite good to me?

davidmcn said:

ElephantBoy57 said:

JessJ23425 said:

Will the survey we already plan to get done tell us whether it's actually safe? Will we get a mortgage still with this?

It will not pass fire regulations because it is open plan, with no doors that would slow down the progress of a fire. Edit, Maybe a fire door is not needed at the bottom of the stairs?

Not if there are doors upstairs, no. Problematic examples would be ones where there is no door at top or bottom of the stairs. I can't see anything particularly worrying from the photos.

OP, do you know nothing about the age of it other than "not later than 2015"? The vendors should be able to tell you what the previous owners said about it?

Not necessarily a big issue from a mortgageability point of view, your solicitor will be able to advise further.

The agent who showed us around didn't say more than that when we asked, perhaps some more questions direct to the estate agent will give some more information.

Thanks for the replies

gingerdad

ElephantBoy57 said:

JessJ23425 said:

Will the survey we already plan to get done tell us whether it's actually safe? Will we get a mortgage still with this?

A survey will not tell you if its safe, they will not remove plaster or anything else in order to inspect the structure.

In regard to being safe. It will not pass fire regulations because it is open plan, with no doors that would slow down the progress of a fire. Edit, Maybe a fire door is not needed at the bottom of the stairs?

Not sure about getting a mortgage, could be difficult.

Our signed off loft extension looked similar as they have doors at the top - would depend if they are fire doors but no requirement to have doors at the bottom. - Ours was completed in 2014-15

OP - Treat it from a valuation point of view that the attic doesn't exist 

gingerdad

JessJ23425 said:

jimbog said:

The price should reflect that it's not a bedroom - i.e comparable to houses without a loft conversion available locally.
To use it as a bedroom would compromise the safety of those who use it

Indeed it does already, it's listed as simply loft space/room not a useable bedroom. We would personally have no interest in using it as such we are just trying to make sure it's structurally sound and not going to collapse!

Is there a reason this would be done without getting building regulations all sortee? I've seen some quite shabby loft conversions but this seems quite good to me?

Building regs - is the cost of doing it correctly, lots of people cut corners. Out loft conversion with new roof, dormer and full ensuite cost the neck end of £50k

AdrianC

Only stripping all the plasterboard off will tell you if it's "safe". OTOH, you know it's been at least half a decade since it was done, and there's no cracking or other signs of movement...?

Lungboy

If you check your local planning portal they might have submitted loft conversion plans to the council and you can get the date and details from that.

The main worry would be whether they sufficiently strengthened the floor in the loft to hold all the extra weight up there. You might be able to work out how thick the floor is but it it'll only be a rough guide.

JessJ23425

Lungboy said:

If you check your local planning portal they might have submitted loft conversion plans to the council and you can get the date and details from that.

The main worry would be whether they sufficiently strengthened the floor in the loft to hold all the extra weight up there. You might be able to work out how thick the floor is but it it'll only be a rough guide.

Just had a look there's no planning submitted, although is that required for a loft conversion?

Only stripping all the plasterboard off will tell you if it's "safe". OTOH, you know it's been at least half a decade since it was done, and there's no cracking or other signs of movement...?

Yeah this is our thinking too, as long as there's no issues mortgage wise we don't see it to be a big problem, as I said it looks to be quite well finished to us in comparison to other loft conversions I've seen!

Soot2006

We have two bedrooms and  a bathroom in the loft, not signed off, marketed and valued as bedrooms, and mortgage lender couldn't have cared less as it's been in place over 10 years. Ironically, there IS some cracking that needs looking at, but the mortgage lender didn't really care about that, either! So from a mortgage perspective, likely to not be a problem ... From a safety perspective - up to you!