Selling house, missing external door separating conservatory and house - what issues?

LAD917

For what it's worth, in my recent London property search, I saw plenty of completely open conservatories, often used as dining rooms.

In one flat, which had an awkward layout and wasted space, the estate agent was telling people that they could relocate the door to the second bedroom to be from the conservatory.  Although this seems to be obviously wrong, I saw another place with exactly that set-up.  The only entrance to a small bedroom, which was part of the original structure, was through the (open, with no door) conservatory, which was clearly added later. 

Both of those places sold.

cymruchris

Worst case scenario would be you could reduce your price by £250 towards a new door if anybody queried it.

BikingBud

Arfa__ said:

This was the specific TA6 section I was going to mention this detail in:

"Is the seller aware of any breaches of planning
permission conditions or Building Regulations
consent conditions, unfinished work or work that
does not have all necessary consents?"

Though, upon re-reading that, I'm still not sure it's directly applicable.

Ultimately, was just wanting to be truthful and didn't want to risk it cropping up later and delaying matters.

As usual "advice" on here is somewhat less than helpful. I would seek professional advice but from a simple search:

 "Since 1 April 2002 building regulations have applied to all replacement glazing. The regulations apply to thermal performance and other areas such as safety, air supply, means of escape and ventilation.

An external window or door is a "controlled fitting" under the Building Regulations and as a result of this classification these Regulations set out certain standards to be met when such a window or door is replaced."

So if certain conditions must be observed upon replacement where do you feel removal fits in? You know that there is work that requires consent. Consent that you cannot prove.

And see: https://www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200130/common_projects/10/conservatories/3
Building regulations will generally apply if you want to build an extension to your home.

However, conservatories are normally exempt from building regulations when:

• They are built at ground level and are less than 30 square metres in floor area.
• The conservatory is separated from the house by external quality walls, doors or windows.
• There should be an independent heating system with separate temperature and on/off controls.
• Glazing and any fixed electrical installations comply with the applicable building regulations requirements (see below).

Also see https://www.gov.uk/building-regulations-approval 

You have removed the door, moreover you know you have removed the door and know you need BR for changes. The fact that potential buyers, and vendors, do not understand is no reason for omitting detail on the form, trying to get away with it puts you in the position of being deliberately inaccurate or vague at best and at worst of lying.

summergirl40

We are buying a house without a door between kitchen and dining room 

summergirl40

I meant kitchen and conservatory 

Flugelhorn

concern would be when talking to insurance company about the type of locks etc on doors as the conservatory doors are the "external doors" - are they very secure?

Chandler85

I have a "porch" which I had built and is used as a laundry room really.  Though legally it is a porch (for building regs), I kept the external grade wooden door to it, you can get decent looking wooden external doors.

It has a proper composite door on the actual porch as well and more insulation in the porch as it was built with cavity wall insulation, and insulation in the concrete, so better then the main house in the respect!

Arfa__

Flugelhorn said:

concern would be when talking to insurance company about the type of locks etc on doors as the conservatory doors are the "external doors" - are they very secure?

TBF the conservatory has modern 5-lever multi-point locks - better than the rest of the house! The old kitchen external door was likely '80s (or earlier) which the prior occupier had screwed additional locking bolts onto to try and up the security - it was a bit pants really.

OK I'll mention it on the TA6 for sake of truthfulness. Hopefully, it won't be big a deal to any buyers. If they turn out picky, I'll just knock a few hundred off for a new door

user1977

Flugelhorn said:

concern would be when talking to insurance company about the type of locks etc on doors as the conservatory doors are the "external doors" - are they very secure?

They're still the external doors even if there is an internal door with a better lock.