Status of loft conversion in a very old house

dl8860

dl8860

dl8860

Soldato
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Worcestershire
Looking at a house supposedly first built in the 1500s. It has 2 loft spaces, both currently serving as bedrooms. The house has been in the same family for generations. They therefore must have at some point converted what was loft space into a bedroom, as there is no where else for the water tank to have been - the house is now served by a combi boiler.

The issue of building regs is flying around in my head, how 'historic' does the change need to be for building regs to be a long lost memory? I know the elephant in the room here is, is it safe? That might be a separate matter, but park it for now. I know from a council inspection point of view it won't be a problem due to how long ago it was, and it's only liable for an enforced change if they deem it dangerous. I'll back out ahead of that point if it's either dangerous according to a structural surveyor, or the sellers aren't willing to make good prior to sale.

But from a lender's point of view, and the classification of 'how many bedrooms does the property have', if the bedrooms aren't officially bedrooms from a building regs point of view, could that be an issue? If the house was originally built with them as bedrooms, it wouldn't be an issue? If done long enough ago, can anyone prove they were once loft space and therefore are now not legit bedrooms?

I have asked the question to the selling agent if there is building reg signoff, but I am all but sure there won't be.
 
dl8860 said:
Looking at a house supposedly first built in the 1500s. It has 2 loft spaces, both currently serving as bedrooms. The house has been in the same family for generations. They therefore must have at some point converted what was loft space into a bedroom, as there is no where else for the water tank to have been - the house is now served by a combi boiler.

The issue of building regs is flying around in my head, how 'historic' does the change need to be for building regs to be a long lost memory? I know the elephant in the room here is, is it safe? That might be a separate matter, but park it for now. I know from a council inspection point of view it won't be a problem due to how long ago it was, and it's only liable for an enforced change if they deem it dangerous. I'll back out ahead of that point if it's either dangerous according to a structural surveyor, or the sellers aren't willing to make good prior to sale.

But from a lender's point of view, and the classification of 'how many bedrooms does the property have', if the bedrooms aren't officially bedrooms from a building regs point of view, could that be an issue? If the house was originally built with them as bedrooms, it wouldn't be an issue? If done long enough ago, can anyone prove they were once loft space and therefore are now not legit bedrooms?

I have asked the question to the selling agent if there is building reg signoff, but I am all but sure there won't be.
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12 months, unless it can be demonstrated to be critically unsafe (i.e. it's about to fall down).

Your surveyor will identify any issues.
 
It is very common where I live - they are just called "loft rooms" and not fit for declaration as bedrooms. It shouldn't be sold as such.
 
If they have converted the loft space into a bedroom there are building regulations on means of escape and minimum ceiling heights on staircases and other things like can the structure of the roof take the additional weight, things like that will need to be checked to ensure you can get out in an emergency.

Most of the advise is correct but there are a number of things you need to be aware of if it turns out to NOT have building control sign off, the space they have created could actually be inhabitable, the chances of this are fairly slim I would imagine but its always a risk. The property might be overpriced, i.e worth less than its being marketed for, if they are including the loft spaces as extra bedrooms that is, are they listed as bedrooms? on the sales pages? If it is its really naughty because they should be aware that they shouldn't be doing that. The last one is that you might not get a mortgage on the property.

If you decide to continue I would get a home buyers report and go from there, a decent RICS surveyor should be able to tell you if the conversion does comply, or would at least advise you look into it :)
 
When was the conversion done? The regs will have evolved over time. The conversion could have been done decades ago.

How do you know there must have been a water tank up there? A 500 year house would have evolved over the years, potentially significantly.
 
it could have been built like that, rooms in roof spaces are pretty normal - I lived in a 1850 built house which had bedrooms in the roof which wouldn't meet the current regs, but they don't have to - hardly anything built more than 10-15 years ago would comply with the current regs for lofts but doesn't mean they are unfit for habitation...
Never had any issue with mortgages/regs/insurance etc, sold it fine, surveyed fine etc
 
Whilst not old, we bought a 1985 property with a loft conversion.

It was not sold as having an extra bedroom, but we did run into some trouble.

Basically, we had a full home report done and that raised some issues with the loft conversion.

The buyer was cool and said he'd try and get it approved, but that backfired when the council said they wouldn't approve it without modifications, which caused the mortgage company to withdraw their offer.

The buyer did go ahead and have the changes done, at his own expense (although I have a feeling that the subsequent fixtures and fittings list we received got changed to exclude as much as possible!).

It was all OK in the end - just delayed our move-in date - but we're glad that it got signed off and won't have that headache with any future buyers.
 
Hmm that does make me a bit nervous about the lender then. That should get ironed out asap though if their valuer gets round there soon.
 
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