Buying a house, loft master bedroom not to building regs - what should we do?

user1977

pinkshoes said:

If it's to do with not having the correct fire exits or fire doors, or anything to do with fire safety then I'd absolutely want it sorting out, as I certainly wouldn't be sleeping in a room that doesn't meet fire regulations!

Fair enough, but I suspect the other bedrooms don't comply with current fire regulations either!

propertyrental

user1977 said:

pinkshoes said:

If it's to do with not having the correct fire exits or fire doors, or anything to do with fire safety then I'd absolutely want it sorting out, as I certainly wouldn't be sleeping in a room that doesn't meet fire regulations!

Fair enough, but I suspect the other bedrooms don't comply with current fire regulations either!

Yes, but BRs aside, in practical terms, smashing a 2nd floor window in a fire, and jumping, you might well break a leg.

Doing the same from a 3rd floor loft conversion, assuming there IS a window, would probably kill you.

tryingtobuyahouse

Albermarle said:

I received a call from our surveyor this week ahead of our independent Level 3 RICS report being written up and he said that overall the house wasn’t too bad but the big issue is that the loft conversion does not adhere to building regs

In what way does it not adhere to building regulations?

We are buying the house from David Wilson Homes as the previous owners sold it via part exchange. David Wilson Homes are wanting a very quick sale. 

It seems unlikely that a known building company would knowingly sell a house that was potentially dangerous. However they may not even be aware of any issues, or consider them trivial.

We are really hoping that David Wilson Homes accepting it as part exchange is a good sign, we were told that they did a full survey on the house to assess that it met their criteria for part exchange, as a result of their survey they did some works before re-listing it. I can't believe that if they did a full survey that they would have missed the insufficient building regs standards to the loft bedroom, surely that is their field of expertise.

tryingtobuyahouse

Thanks for all your comments, this is all really helpful. 

We don’t know when the two story extension or loft conversion was done, we will only know this when the searches come back from the solicitor. We also want to be armed with questions for our solicitor should they not come back with this information. Again we don’t know if there is paperwork for anything yet, it may well have been signed off but not conform to modern building regs. Can I assume that if it was signed off that is a good sign that it is structural sound?

I wasn't expecting the call from the surveyor so soon, so I wasn't prepared and can't remember exactly what he said in his opinion did not meet BR. He did say that it would cost us an absolute fortune to bring it up to BR. He mentioned the ceiling height by the stairs, the configuration of the stairs and fire doors. He suggested if it hand't been built correctly there would be concerns around the soil pipe from the toilet. His detailed report is expected on Tuesday next week.

user1977

tryingtobuyahouse said:

We don’t know when the two story extension or loft conversion was done, we will only know this when the searches come back from the solicitor. 

Absolutely no idea? Last year, 30 years ago, 80 years ago? Surely your surveyor has an educated guess, if not you? The searches aren't going to tell you anything about consents which don't exist...

tryingtobuyahouse

user1977 said:

tryingtobuyahouse said:

We don’t know when the two story extension or loft conversion was done, we will only know this when the searches come back from the solicitor. 

Absolutely no idea? Last year, 30 years ago, 80 years ago? Surely your surveyor has an educated guess, if not you? The searches aren't going to tell you anything about consents which don't exist...

In the last 30 years, they appear relatively new and I would guess within the last 20 years. I understand searches won't reveal anything that isn't there, but we are hoping something is.

chunkytfg

Have you checked you local planning departments website for any planning applications that might have been submitted for the house?  That might give you a date?  

Also Google street view can go back quite a way depending on where you live.  I can see my house all the way back to 2008.  Might help narrow the timeline down

tryingtobuyahouse

chunkytfg said:

Have you checked you local planning departments website for any planning applications that might have been submitted for the house?  That might give you a date?  

Also Google street view can go back quite a way depending on where you live.  I can see my house all the way back to 2008.  Might help narrow the timeline down

Just checked, no planning applications on the property coming up, but seven results for building control applications for the property dating back to 2016 but only for boiler, replacement windows and doors. 

tryingtobuyahouse

From Zoopla results on the house we can see from listing photos that the loft was present in 2017. The house was bought very cheap in 2003 and sold a year later for £60k more so perhaps it was done then. Online building applications only show results back to 2016 so it doesn’t look promising that it was installed properly (at the time).

Albermarle

propertyrental said:

user1977 said:

pinkshoes said:

If it's to do with not having the correct fire exits or fire doors, or anything to do with fire safety then I'd absolutely want it sorting out, as I certainly wouldn't be sleeping in a room that doesn't meet fire regulations!

Fair enough, but I suspect the other bedrooms don't comply with current fire regulations either!

Yes, but BRs aside, in practical terms, smashing a 2nd floor window in a fire, and jumping, you might well break a leg.

Doing the same from a 3rd floor loft conversion, assuming there IS a window, would probably kill you.

I think the rules are that an escape Velux type window should lead out onto the roof, so you can sit there until the fire brigade arrive.