Add an extra bedroom by splitting large bedroom in two?

JimmySmith

I have a bedroom that is 22ft by 12ft.
It can easily be split into 2 large rooms with another door added for the new room.
My question is - if i ever decide to sell, can i just sell a 4-bed rather than a 3-bed house or do i have to register the extra room somewhere.

rooferPete

Hi,

As far as I know the only rules you have to comply with are natural daylight and the size of the window opening for fire escape purposes.

As the alteration is inside the house there should be no need for planning permission unless the house is a listed property.

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JimmySmith

Thanks for your reply RooferPete.
It couldnt have happened better.
There are already 2 large windows.
A stud wall down the middle and a new door should do it.
The room is far too big anyway.
Going to make one half into an office.
I just didnt want to have to go knocking a wall down and filling in a door again if i ever decided to sell.

Litcagral

JimmySmith wrote:

Thanks for your reply RooferPete.
It couldnt have happened better.
There are already 2 large windows.
A stud wall down the middle and a new door should do it.
The room is far too big anyway.
Going to make one half into an office.
I just didnt want to have to go knocking a wall down and filling in a door again if i ever decided to sell.

AFAIK if you were selling again you will have to get the house plans redrawn or the buyer's solicitor may not approve. I'm open to correction on this but a work colleague told me he was required to do this when selling.

rooferPete

Hi,

At worst you may have to invoke the five year rule on planning permission

With the present rules on planning exemptions allowing extensions to the back of the house up to 40m2 I doubt there would be a problem over a studded partition.

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Breezzzzze

Planning permission isn't an issue here. The Building Regulations are though. I'm not sure where I saw it, but I think that there are implications of having the only means of fire escape from a bedroom by going through another room (ie: instead of a hall). If you were planning on doing this, it may be worth your while getting a copy of Part B of the building regs. or asking an architect.

Breezzzzze

I'm on form today!!
Extract from Part B below. Basically (b) dis-allows you from accessing a bedroom through another room. I don't know if you were going to do this, though. An other item in the Building Regs that you should watch is minimum door sizes - made wider for handicapped (Part M).

1.2.3.1 Inner rooms - A room whose only escape route is through another room is at risk if a fire starts in that other room. It is termed an inner room and is at risk from a fire in the outer room (access room).
Such an arrangement is only acceptable if the following conditions are satisfied:

(a) the inner room should not be likely to have more than 20 occupants;
(b) the inner room should not be a bedroom;
(c) the escape route from the inner room should not pass through more than one outer (access) room;
(d) the travel distance from any point in the inner room to the exit(s) from the access room should not exceed the appropriate limit given in Table 1.2;
(e) the access room should not be a place of special fire risk and it should be in the control of the same occupier; and
(f) one of the following arrangements are made -
(i) the enclosures (walls or partitions) of the inner room are stopped at least 500 mm below the ceiling, or
(ii) a vision panel is located in the enclosure of the inner room, of sufficient size, to enable occupants of the inner room to see if a fire has started in the outer room, or
(iii) the access room is fitted with a suitable fire detection and alarm system to warn the occupants of the inner room should an outbreak of fire occur in the access room.

muffler

Couldnt have put it better myself .:)

The planning isnt an issue but fire escape is top of the list of priorities followed by light and ventilation