Survey results on Victorian mid-terrace

emmavntr

Hi all! My partner and I are FTB looking for a little advice. We had an offer accepted on a Victorian mid-terrace house, a bit of a fixer upper but seemingly superficial. The survey has raised the usual suspects in terms of minor damp, and a bit more serious in terms of a chimney leak that we are hoping to negotiate off our initial offer. However we have one query that we are chasing the surveyor to explain, but thought you lot might be able to help as well. The loft was converted (clearly many years ago - the surveyor says 'not recently', so likely pre-1950s) and thus the two attic bedrooms are not up to modern fire-code standards for bedrooms. This is the part of the report we are most concerned about:

It is recommended that your legal adviser checks to see if there is a Building Control Completion Certificate for the conversion of the roof space into living accommodation. It is possible that due to the age of this conversion this will not be available, however, it is worth noting that the living accommodation at second floor level will not receive Building Regulation approval in its current configuration were it applied for today.

Does anyone know if this means that the bedrooms are not legally bedrooms? If so, it goes from a 4 bed house to a 2 bed. It's not such a worry for us now, but will obviously significantly affect the resale value. If the conversion was completed before standard regulations are they legally bedrooms? Anything to clear this up would be so helpful, thank you!

kasqueak

It doesn’t mean they’re not legally bedrooms to my understanding. It means the way the loft has been converted doesn’t meet current building regs. You can use them however you like, bedrooms, office etc. But yes in the future when you come to sell on you’ll likely have the same issue come up. Pretty common in older houses where old extensions/conversions/alterations have taken place. 

Either you can leave it as it is or you can get the building inspectors in and see how you can bring it up to current code and potentially get a building regs sign off for when you sell in the future. Most likely the issue will be regarding something such as head height, light coming in, means of fire escape, stairs/access etc. 

In some cases you won’t be able to rectify this without major work if at all. 

dimbo61

So this is a 3 storey building with 30 minute fire doors throughout ? 
Is the 1950,s loft conversion well insulated or freezing cold in winter.
Is it safe and the floor well supported.
I have recently spent nearly £25,000 refurbishing a Victorian terrace house which was only 2 storey. 
The full rewire with all the floors taken up cost £3,000 and new kitchen, bathroom and total replaster,  redecorating took 4 months with an empty house.

emmavntr

Thanks for replying! I think we are concerned because it was marketed as a 4 bed house - we put the offer in expecting that the four bedrooms all qualify as bedrooms (by some building standards). the house has also been tenanted in recent years, individually by bedroom - we assumed that they would only be able to be let if they met regs. 

davidmcn

emmavntr said:

Thanks for replying! I think we are concerned because it was marketed as a 4 bed house - we put the offer in expecting that the four bedrooms all qualify as bedrooms (by some building standards). the house has also been tenanted in recent years, individually by bedroom - we assumed that they would only be able to be let if they met regs. 

But the rest of the house doesn't meet building standards either! It's Victorian, it was built long before building regulations existed.

Obviously, you can have a think about whether you're happy with fire safety, insulation, headroom, etc, but that's no different from your considerations about everything else in the house. Current building regulations are only relevant for work you're carrying out now.

emmavntr

davidmcn said:

emmavntr said:

Thanks for replying! I think we are concerned because it was marketed as a 4 bed house - we put the offer in expecting that the four bedrooms all qualify as bedrooms (by some building standards). the house has also been tenanted in recent years, individually by bedroom - we assumed that they would only be able to be let if they met regs. 

But the rest of the house doesn't meet building standards either! It's Victorian, it was built long before building regulations existed.

Obviously, you can have a think about whether you're happy with fire safety, insulation, headroom, etc, but that's no different from your considerations about everything else in the house. Current building regulations are only relevant for work you're carrying out now.

I think this is a really important point and I appreciate it. I guess my real question is whether the house has been mis-marketed - whether it should have been listed as a 2 bed, and whether if we sell it in the future, it should be listed as a 2 bed. I want to make sure we're going into the purchase with our eyes open about what we're buying and what we'll be able to sell in the future. Who knew it would be so hard to tell what legally qualifies as a bedroom these days! 

davidmcn

emmavntr said:

davidmcn said:

emmavntr said:

Thanks for replying! I think we are concerned because it was marketed as a 4 bed house - we put the offer in expecting that the four bedrooms all qualify as bedrooms (by some building standards). the house has also been tenanted in recent years, individually by bedroom - we assumed that they would only be able to be let if they met regs. 

But the rest of the house doesn't meet building standards either! It's Victorian, it was built long before building regulations existed.

Obviously, you can have a think about whether you're happy with fire safety, insulation, headroom, etc, but that's no different from your considerations about everything else in the house. Current building regulations are only relevant for work you're carrying out now.

I think this is a really important point and I appreciate it. I guess my real question is whether the house has been mis-marketed - whether it should have been listed as a 2 bed, and whether if we sell it in the future, it should be listed as a 2 bed. I want to make sure we're going into the purchase with our eyes open about what we're buying and what we'll be able to sell in the future. Who knew it would be so hard to tell what legally qualifies as a bedroom these days! 

It's very easy - because there's no such thing as a room which "legally qualifies" as a bedroom. If there were a rule that you could only call something a bedroom if it's got a building regulations certificate attached to it (which there isn't), that would mean that nothing in that house would qualify as a bedroom.