Buying bungalow with 50 year old loft conversion…please help!

user1977

Albermarle said:

newatc said:

I think you are being sensible in thinking about your situation.
In the 1980s we bought a fairly large house advertsised as 6 bedrooms; four on the first floor and two on the second in effectively a large converted attic. The two on the second floor and radiators and shared a water basin in a common area between the bedrooms.
We converted a small bedroom on the first floor to an ensuite and a family upstairs toilet.
There is small narrow stairs between the second and first floor.
The survey we had done showed up many problems but very little about the second floor structure
The second floor bedrooms were always used as bedroom and our children loved them and we never had problem (we did put smoke detectors on each floor and changed the second floor wall plasterboard to be fire retardant).

For the first times in decades we got a valuation from local estate agent this year with thought of selling. We were disappointed with valuation and shocked when told that house would need to be advertised as three bedrooms with extra 2 attic rooms because bedrooms obviously wouldn't meat current regs. So the house we bought as a six bedroom house would now be a three bedroomed one!

We decided to put house on market (because of state of market mainly) but may do next year.

It is very unlikely that any part of an older house would meet current regulations.

Indeed, and (not wanting to make the OP any more twitchy!) I expect there is no "paperwork" for the bits of the house which predate the loft conversion.

JoBanana1

The original plans are all there and looks to be built professionally. But yes, no other paperwork.

JoBanana1

These are the original plans. You can also see comments such as ‘built as per xxx regulations’ etc 

Albermarle

JoBanana1 said:

These are the original plans. You can also see comments such as ‘built as per xxx regulations’ etc 

As mentioned in a previous post, a family member recently bought a very similar property.
The vendors were able to produce similar documents, but not a building control sign off, due to the fact that the conversion was done around 40 years earlier.
The family members solicitor was relaxed about it and said we would not expect to see building control sign from that era.
Insurance did not ask anything about it.
However the stairs were in a more conventional place, not right on top of the front door, which I suspect is what is causing the problem as it looks rather odd, although should not be blocking the sale really.

BungalowBel

JoBanana1 said:

BungalowBel said:

Just want to say, we had no problems selling our house advertised as three bedrooms, with two on the first floor and an attic room on the second.  We did point out that we thought it was an original room, given the condition of the bricks, purlins and stairs.

Thankyou for this. Did you have paperwork for the attic room when you sold at all? I won’t have because it just wasn’t available at the time 

None, not even for the Velux windows because they were fitted before it was compulsory to have the FENSA Certificate.

I think we may have had to take out one of those Indemnity Policies, but I can't remember exactly because we had to take about about four in all for other things we hadn't got paperwork for

We thought it was an original room, but could not be sure (seeing as we were not around in 1857 when it was built) - just going by evidence of the apparent age of the stairs etc.

JoBanana1

Hi again everyone. My apologies for coming back on this thread..I just wondered how I go about getting insurance? Do I need to tell the insurers about the loft conversion as there is no paperwork? I don’t want to find god forbid that I have to claim and am not covered? 

Albermarle

JoBanana1 said:

Hi again everyone. My apologies for coming back on this thread..I just wondered how I go about getting insurance? Do I need to tell the insurers about the loft conversion as there is no paperwork? I don’t want to find god forbid that I have to claim and am not covered? 

No you do not. 

JoBanana1

Ok thankyou so much xx

user1977

JoBanana1 said:

I just wondered how I go about getting insurance? 

You answer the questions they ask you. Where are you getting the idea that you must chat to them about the loft? 

JoBanana1

user1977 said:

JoBanana1 said:

I just wondered how I go about getting insurance? 

You answer the questions they ask you. Where are you getting the idea that you must chat to them about the loft? 

It’s a big case of overthinking I think! Thankyou for the advice!