Loft conversion with no building regs

[Ellem86]

Would be grateful for your advice.

I am buying a Victorian cottage advertised as a two bed with "a partially converted loft that would be an ideal third bedroom". My building survey shows that the loft is not habitable, was not properly converted and the framework is not properly supported, suggesting that the sellers did not obtain building regs approval. The sellers are arranging for a structural engineer to inspect the loft and also cost the works required to make it structurally sound. The sellers will then deduct the cost of the works from the price. Should I also be insisting that a builder costs the works required to make the loft building regs compliant?

[peterstorm1985]

Yes, it's well worth you getting a builder to price the works specified by the structural engineer, but be aware that the price you get won't be much more than an rough estimate as at this stage of the proceedings (i.e. before you've bought it) the builder won't hold out much hope of actually getting the job and therefore won't spend that much time on putting the price together. But it's still worth it just in case the structural engineer's estimate is a long way off.

By the way, if you need a mortgage to buy this house, you may need to have all the work done before the mortgage money is released - have you investigated that? And have you checked out whether you can get buildings insurance at a reasonable price before the work is completed?

When you say that the sellers will deduct the cost of the works from the price, what about the cost of not having a habitable property for the time the works are being done? That should cause a hefty discount too.

[Ellem86]

Thanks for your comments Peter. I guess what I am not sure about is whether the works required to make the loft structurally sound will be the same as the works required to make the loft building regs compliant.

We will be buying with a mortgage and have already received our mortgage offer without any conditions relating to the loft/works.

I don't think I will ask for a deduction for the cost of not having a habitable property in the meantime as we were already planning on carrying out substantial works to the rest of the house and the seller is aware of this.

[Angelina]

structurally sound and compliant with building regs are the not the same.

no one can tell you how much you should seek as a reduction. It depends on what the original price included (if it alluded to building compliance or 'as is').

[KidKruger]

Also reduce the offer a bit further for the hassle and because it's a buyers' market now.

[fishbiscuits]

I know ppl who bought a house which sounds similar - i.e. a makeshift loft bedroom without structural steels inserted. To make it into a proper bedroom (which is recognised as such by building regs) meant ripping it out and starting again. So a 30-40K job. In the end they just left it as is, and use it as a play room and occasional guest room, with only very light furniture.

[red devil]

Ellem86 Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Should I also be insisting that a builder costs

> the works required to make the loft building regs

> compliant?

I don't think you should unless it was advertised as a third bedroom. According to your OP it's not, it's a 2 bed house with 'potential' for a third bedroom. That's no different from any unconverted loft space, they all have 'potential'. What you should find out is has the estate agent priced the house more than they would for an unconverted 2 bed house in the same area. If so, by how much? At the moment it's nothing more than a glorified storage space, so I wouldn't expect it to carry much of a premium above a standard loft space...

[Ellem86]

Thanks all for your input.

red devil - I was thinking along those lines as the house is actually priced as a 2 bed and even then our offer was ?15k less than the asking price to take account of redecoration works. A 3 bed in the area would be at least 40k more (and therefore outside of our budget). I think it is fair to ask the sellers to pay for the works to make the loft and roof structurally sound but, as the house was not advertised as being a 3 bed, I don't think it's fair to expect them to pay to make the loft building regs compliant.

[red devil]

I agree Ellem, but are you planning to do a proper loft conversion at some point in the near future? If so, rather then get the sellers to pay to make the existing roof structurally sound now, instead take these costs off your offer, otherwise when you come to do the loft you might have to reconfigure some of this new steelwork, which could add costs...

[Angelina]

I'm surprised the mortgage company haven't picked up on the house being structurally unsafe.

Is it actually unsafe, or just not supported for a conversion?

[Ellem86]

I don't know if we would be doing a loft conversion in the future but for now we have asked the sellers to take costs off our offer. We would rather do any works ourselves anyway to make sure they are done properly.

The building survey does not suggest that the whole house is structurally unsafe, just that the conversion has not been done properly.

[DirtyBox]

As people have already said it depends on whether the price you are paying is for a 3 bed or a 2 bed house. If they are selling it as a converted loft then clearly you need all the necessary approvals and permissions. If it's being sold as a 2 bed with potential then it's just storage and wouldn't have any building regs anymore than a boarded out loft space would have. Saying that if they are prepared to lower the price then that's a good thing!

[Smivvy1991]

I used Lenny @ Hamilton Walters - They are on here also. Very good group of builders and they kept me informed throughout. They are very honest, sometimes quite brutally but that kind of seems like what you need for this type of thing! I have very little knowledge on construction and they keep things simple and broke down everything so I knew exactly what I was paying for!

His number is 077 8000 4007

[email protected]

Hope this helps x