Loft conversion regulations

perfect10

Just want some help to understand how this works.
Relatives buying house with loft room, not counted in bedroom count in the sale. Although clearly been used as one.
Current owners inherited the house so have no evidence that building regs were followed for the conversion. They have been to the council who have visited and issued a letter stating it is an illegal loft conversion as they have no records of this. However they also state there will be no penalties incurred as the conversion was done many years ago. This is going back and forth with solicitors at the moment. Apparently no indemnity insurance needed as the council have stated no penalties will be incurred?
This means it cannot be used/classed as a living space at the moment. Surveyors report did not identify any issues.
Should the buyers know or check anything further with this before going ahead with purchase? 
How complicated is it to get this registered as a living space/bedroom in the future, they are not in a rush to do this but would add value in the long term.

eddddy

perfect10 said:

Should the buyers know or check anything further with this before going ahead with purchase? 
How complicated is it to get this registered as a living space/bedroom in the future, they are not in a rush to do this but would add value in the long term.

The buyers can get a surveyor to look at the loft if they want - to report on the quality of construction etc. E.g. Perhaps comment on whether the loft floor has been re-enforced to take the weight of people walking on it, furniture etc.

It will probably be very difficult (if not impossible) to upgrade the loft space to meet building regs for a bedroom. Here's a bit of info: https://www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200130/common_projects/36/loft_conversion/3

BobQ

If the surveyor did not raise an issue was that a full structural survey and was he asked to consider the condition of the loftspace? You may need to check whether the survey considered it as living space or just ignored it on the assumption it would have complied with the building regs applicable at the time. In the past, there may just have been no regulations to comply with (pre 1984 I think). Solicitors fuss about this sort of thing but provided the status of the room is understood by both parties it should not be an issue. 
The bigger question is what do your relatives intend to do with the space? It is not a question of registering the room.  If it is to be used as a bedroom there are specific  building regulations (eg a smoke alarm, access/exit, and a fire door) that apply now but nobody is going to call to check how the space is being used.
You do not say much about the space or how it is used at present. Does it have windows? Power? Staircase? Proper walls? To obtain building regulation today it could be quite expensive to comply, but if that were an objective then you would submit a plan for building reg approval and they would check the changes during or afterwards much like a new installation. 
One thought is that the presence of the room may have prevented improved insulation so might be worth attending to that.

Petriix

I would guess that 50% of loft conversions don't have building regs or planning permission; vastly more wouldn't meet current regs. Almost all will be structurally sound. Almost none will ever cause any kind of problem.

If it's old then it's already proven to be strong enough not to fall down. I really can't see what the issue is. The house is still worth whatever you're willing to pay for it. No one will stop you sleeping in the loft.

ElephantBoy57

perfect10 said:

How complicated is it to get this registered as a living space/bedroom in the future, they are not in a rush to do this but would add value in the long term.

I live in a two-bedroom house, nothing has been 'registered'. Can you tell us what you mean?

If you are referring to building regulations, it's not really possible to rip the floor/walls/roof up and inspect it, to see if it complies with todays building regulations.

perfect10

BobQ said:

If the surveyor did not raise an issue was that a full structural survey and was he asked to consider the condition of the loftspace? You may need to check whether the survey considered it as living space or just ignored it on the assumption it would have complied with the building regs applicable at the time. In the past, there may just have been no regulations to comply with (pre 1984 I think). Solicitors fuss about this sort of thing but provided the status of the room is understood by both parties it should not be an issue. 
The bigger question is what do your relatives intend to do with the space? It is not a question of registering the room.  If it is to be used as a bedroom there are specific  building regulations (eg a smoke alarm, access/exit, and a fire door) that apply now but nobody is going to call to check how the space is being used.
You do not say much about the space or how it is used at present. Does it have windows? Power? Staircase? Proper walls? To obtain building regulation today it could be quite expensive to comply, but if that were an objective then you would submit a plan for building reg approval and they would check the changes during or afterwards much like a new installation. 
One thought is that the presence of the room may have prevented improved insulation so might be worth attending to that.

Thanks, really good info, not sure whether the surveyor considered it as a living space?  
Yes it has windows, staircase and power. No door, but that one is possibly the least expensive to sort. It has been used as a bedroom in the past. It was done about 20 years ago. 
This is a first house buy so relatives would like to add value at some point so they would like to get it classed as a bedroom in the future but are not in a rush to do this. As they are in London it would considerably up the value with an extra bedroom.
Just wondering whether everything would need to be ripped up to check that everything complies with building regs e.g. reinforced floors, insulation etc. So would be almost like starting again depending what they find?

perfect10

ElephantBoy57 said:

perfect10 said:

How complicated is it to get this registered as a living space/bedroom in the future, they are not in a rush to do this but would add value in the long term.

I live in a two-bedroom house, nothing has been 'registered'. Can you tell us what you mean?

If you are referring to building regulations, it's not really possible to rip the floor/walls/roof up and inspect it, to see if it complies with todays building regulations.

I meant registered with council but registered may not be the right word?!! But yes I mean building regs. I just know that the council came out to look at it, they agreed it was over 2 years old so no penalties. 
So to inspect for building regs could involve ripping part of floor/walls/roof up, then if it doesn't meet the standard for building regs then the additional work would need to be done, so could be quite costly?

snowcat75

The conversion will not be illegal, you don't technically break a law building without regulations or planning, a council has to enforce for it to become illegal. 

It will be a complete PITA to get regulistation, and could cost more than than starting from scratch, the mistake made which house owners often do is going to the council in the first place, If they hadn't there would be no record of when it was built, anything pre mid 90 even to the 2000snd tends to be extremely sketchy with councils and any owner when selling could have just shrugged there shoulders (if asked) and said it had been like that ever since they owned the property.....To put some perspective on this none of the rest of the dwelling would meet building regs either.
 
However now as the council has been informed indemnity insurance cant be used, so a situation that most solicitors are happy to use to a very very common problem is not available. 

The cost of regulation, vs the added value is unlikely to make the can of worms your open up with BC worth doing, far better to just live with it use the room as you wish.... no one will stop you.

davidmcn

In case it wasn't clear from the advice above, they don't need to make it comply with current building regulations (after all, the rest of the house won't comply either!), though they might use the regulations as a handy guide to what's nice to have.

They can use it as a bedroom if they want. There's a lot of paranoia among estate agents about whether you can "call" a loft conversion a bedroom without a bit of paper, but there's no specific rule saying you can't. Though if it doesn't even have a door separating it from the landing, I'd probably query whether it's really a "room" at all.

perfect10

Thanks for comments and advice I feel I have a much better understanding of how it all works now 👍

macman

You'd be wise to establish if the floor is strong enough to take the extra weight needed to use it as living space (i.e. that RSJ's have been installed), but beyond that, you can use the room as you wish. However, you will not be able to resell it as having a loft conversion: the agent will only market it as being storage space in the absence of any BC approval (or planning permission, if relevant).