How to value house with attic conversion

AC_Dublin12

Hi there,

We are in the process of buying a bungalow that has had its attic converted into 2 bedrooms plus an en suite. The ground floor has 3 bedrooms from the original build.

Even though the house was advertised as a 5 bed, very soon into the sale agreed process it became apparant that the attic was not converted in line with building regs that would allow it to be classified as habitable space. Therefore the conversion can only be certified as non habitable storage from a regulation point of view.

With this new information to hand how would we go about renegotiating the sale agreed amount? The existing conversion is by and large fine with more than adequate headroom but the velux windows that were installed back in the mid 2000's are too high up on the roof to allow escape in the event of a fire and thus it breaks fire regs for habitable space.

The property was on the market for some time and I'm not sure if the conversion was a factor in this regard. The sale agreed price is good for a 5 bed but not so good for a 3 bed. With the old adage of "the day you buy is the day you sell" we do not want to overpay as unless we see out our days in this house it will again become an issue if and when we decide to sell again.

Is there a value on having a conversion fully compliant to allow it to be deemed habitable that should be deducted when it emerges that the conversion falls short of this standard?

Any opinions would be appreciated.

Gumbo

If you really really like the house, don't risk losing it. Maybe try agree the cost of making the velux escapable off the asking price plus the cost of cleaning up the rooms etc

if all it needs are some new velux retrofitted, its not a major job.

Miname

Get an engineers report, it wont cost much but a vast majority of attic conversions are not up to spec. On the older bungalows the floor joists that would have traditionally went into the houses were way below what current spec is.