Attic room without building regulations

Robert_harvey

I own a house with a converted attic room. The survey said Its structurally sound but it doesn't have building regs. We had to take out an indemnity insurance policy to get the mortgage. We were told to use it for storage only. My question is if the house burnt down would we have problems in getting a pay out from the insurance company? I know attic rooms like this are quite common so im guessing insurance claims must happen all the time and you never here of people going bankrupt because if them.

TELLIT01

Are you using the room for storage only or are you using it as a bedroom?  If it's used purely for storage there is no problem as many attics have fully boarded floors etc.  If it is being used as a bedroom you may have an issue depending on how the house is described in the insurance policy.

Robert_harvey

Storage only but i do have a tv and xbox up there but hardly ever use it. shame really because it is a nice attic room with beefed up flooring, staircase and velux window. 

davidmcn

Doesn't matter for buildings insurance purposes. If the insurers cared about such things, they'd ask the question. They don't. But bear in mind insurance only covers you for the stated risks - fire, yes, but not fixing shoddy workmanship if it turns out the conversion was done badly.

eddddy

If your insurance policy is based on the number of bedrooms, it would probably be sensible to count the attic room as a bedroom - to avoid any arguments later.

If you want to use the attic room as a bedroom or games room, realistically, nobody will stop you.

Without building regs, the room might have insufficient insulation (so it may get cold) and an insufficiently protected escape route (in case of fire). But there will be many thousands of houses like that in the UK - for example, those with attic bedrooms built or converted before the current building regs were introduced.

hollie.weimeraner

Indemnity insurance is quite common for properties without building regs. We bought ours in 1991 and had to have insurance as the 4th bedroom had been changed to an en suite.  My son bought a house where the previous owner had knocked the dining room through to the kitchen without building regs and had to get indemnity insurance for that.  It basicallly covers the risks should anything go wrong with any of the building work or any potential costs incurred as a result of not having obtained the regs.
It didn't affect ours or my sons mortgage application.
With house insurance I just declare my house as having 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms now.
Provided nothing came to light in the survey (I assume you had a full survey and not just a valuation) you'll be fine.

eddddy

hollie.weimeraner said:

It basicallly covers the risks should anything go wrong with any of the building work or any potential costs incurred as a result of not having obtained the regs.

You're probably overstating the cover that an indemnity policy provides.

Typically, you can only claim if the local authority serve an enforcement notice (and not if anything goes wrong with the building work, or the building work is done badly etc).

• And the law only allows local authorities to serve enforcement notices within 12 months of the work being completed.
• And most indemnity policies don't cover work done within the last 12 months

So they don't really serve any purpose, and realistically they're impossible to claim on (which is why they're so cheap) but mortgage lenders seem to insist on them.

TELLIT01

davidmcn said:

Doesn't matter for buildings insurance purposes. If the insurers cared about such things, they'd ask the question. They don't. But bear in mind insurance only covers you for the stated risks - fire, yes, but not fixing shoddy workmanship if it turns out the conversion was done badly.

There was a case shown on TV certainly in the past couple of years where initially an insurer refused to pay out because the property had been described as 4 bedroom but had a room in the attic.  This despite the fact that it couldn't comply with building regs.  If the question is asked I would declare it as a bedroom, or call the insurer to ask what they advise.

Robert_harvey

hollie.weimeraner said:

Indemnity insurance is quite common for properties without building regs. We bought ours in 1991 and had to have insurance as the 4th bedroom had been changed to an en suite.  My son bought a house where the previous owner had knocked the dining room through to the kitchen without building regs and had to get indemnity insurance for that.  It basicallly covers the risks should anything go wrong with any of the building work or any potential costs incurred as a result of not having obtained the regs.
It didn't affect ours or my sons mortgage application.
With house insurance I just declare my house as having 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms now.
Provided nothing came to light in the survey (I assume you had a full survey and not just a valuation) you'll be fine.

hollie.weimeraner said:

Indemnity insurance is quite common for properties without building regs. We bought ours in 1991 and had to have insurance as the 4th bedroom had been changed to an en suite.  My son bought a house where the previous owner had knocked the dining room through to the kitchen without building regs and had to get indemnity insurance for that.  It basicallly covers the risks should anything go wrong with any of the building work or any potential costs incurred as a result of not having obtained the regs.
It didn't affect ours or my sons mortgage application.
With house insurance I just declare my house as having 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms now.
Provided nothing came to light in the survey (I assume you had a full survey and not just a valuation) you'll be fine.

Yes i had a general buildings survey done when we bought the house. They didn't come up with any problems. Its an old house with purlins which didn't get altered. The joists have been beefed up. Im not sure why it doesn't have the regs because its not a bad looking job from mid 90s i think. Im not the slightest bit worried about the construction, just being insured if the house burnt down.

TELLIT01

There are all sorts of rules around access, head height etc before building regs can be satisfied.  Presumably the attic doesn't comply with one or more of the requirements, or maybe the previous owners didn't apply.

Robert_harvey

Well it definitely wouldn't pass with todays standards because theres no smoke alarm, insulations mostly rockwool, just a normal door but whatever. Insurance was my concern