Existing Loft room

zagubov

Is it any better than this one-bedroom Paris flat which I'm sure would be condemned as a firetrap in Britain.

eddddy

johnsmith750 said:

...we can count it as a 4th bedroom? 

Count it as a 4th bedroom for what purpose?  i.e. Who is asking how many bedrooms you have? (Your insurer, your mortgage lender, the people at the tennis club?)

There isn't a statutory definition of a bedroom - so if somebody like an insurance company is asking how many bedrooms you have, you have to read the insurance company's definition of a bedroom, and decide whether it applies.

(FWIW, it's sounds very much like a 'bedroom' for insurance purposes.)

johnsmith750

Hi, Thanks everyone for your comments.  The reason I was asking was that we are in the process of putting our house on the market and whilst most of the estate agents have no issue with the 4th bedroom one agent categorically refused to market the house with a 4th bedroom saying  it didn't meet building regs so he couldn't do so and all the other agents were wrong.  This got us a bit worried so I thought I'd ask the question.  All I could find online suggested that as an old house it didn't need to meet current regs but thought I'd see if anyone had come across this.  Sorry, I should have been more forthcoming in the original post but I'm new to this.  The room has been there since the house has been built, it has floorboards, a window, stairs and original door so I don't understand why it can't be considered a bedroom as that was the original purpose for the room.

AdrianC

johnsmith750 said:

The reason I was asking was that we are in the process of putting our house on the market and whilst most of the estate agents have no issue with the 4th bedroom one agent categorically refused to market the house with a 4th bedroom saying  it didn't meet building regs so he couldn't do so and all the other agents were wrong.
...
I don't understand why it can't be considered a bedroom as that was the original purpose for the room.

Simple answer: That one estate agent is an idiot, and should be ignored completely. At least he saved you the effort of finding this out after signing with him.

davidmcn

The whole house doesn't comply with building regulations, would that mean you couldn't call it a house? 

eddddy

johnsmith750 said:

The reason I was asking was that we are in the process of putting our house on the market and whilst most of the estate agents have no issue with the 4th bedroom one agent categorically refused to market the house with a 4th bedroom saying  it didn't meet building regs so he couldn't do so and all the other agents were wrong.  

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing!

I suspect the EA has read about the Property Ombudsman ordering an EA to pay a prospective buyer £1000 compensation for mis-describing a loft conversion without building regs as a bedroom, and panicked - without understanding how building regs etc work. See: https://etsos.co.uk/when-is-a-loft-conversion-not-a-loft-conversion/

So it's probably best to just avoid that EA, as they don't seem to understand building regs, planning etc.