What will happen now?

travinci

Hi, We went sale agreed on a house few weeks ago and everything was going so well... got valuation, followed by loan offer, contract came...
We went to sign the contracts yesterday and the solicitor showed us a document he got from the vendor... Basically the house was extended (converted attic) to add two bedrooms (it was 3 bed initially), they got planning permission granted, but an engineer raised two issues regarding building compliance (both to do with windows/fire safety). He states that those two rooms cannot be legally named as bedrooms. So our solicitor wrote a letter to the bank now as he said he has an obligation to inform the bank. We still want to buy the house and are very eager to close ASAP. It will only cost around 2k to fix those issues anyway.
But what will happen now? Will the bank send in a valuer again? Is it going to be a major hiccup?
Anyone came across a similar situation?

LirW

We bought a house with a converted attic that had non-compliant stairs and a window. It seems to be a quite common thing. Basically a room like that can be used as bedroom but can't be officially counted as one. So in reality we'd have 4 bedrooms but it's a 3bed house.
As far as I know (but please correct me if I'm wrong) you don't even need planning permission if you convert the attic internally, i.e not raising parts of the roof and putting one of these fancy bays in.
Did the solicitor say anything on what to do now? How many rooms does the house have in the ad?

travinci

The solicitor says it all depends on a bank. it is KBC btw. It was advertised as 4/5 bed, but i think the main problem is that the valuer has ticked 5 bed on his valuation (so i guess he valued it based on that). So the question is will KBC want to re-do this valuation and how likely they are to withdraw an offer...

I have no idea about the planning permission. They got one granted anyway, so thats not a problem.

LirW

Get in touch with the bank. Only they can really tell what to do, but I don't think that there's much of a problem once you're able to pay the mortgage on it.

Paddytheman

From my experience the banks valuer should have noted this in his estimation, if he is competant he would be fully aware of the compliance issues so if he has agreed the value this shouldn't change anything.

travinci

yeah, he should to have. but he didn't... He actually rang us to ask how much we were paying for the house so he could value the house accordingly... I am just worried that he put 5 bed on the form (he did) and now my solicitor is telling the bank it is 3 bed...

spaceHopper

Can you get the vendor to do the work to fix it ASAP. If it's to 2K you could ask them to pay or split the bill or suck it up and pay it. With the way things are now I'd go split the bill and get it done quickly.

travinci

We could. But how can you pay to fix something that is not yours? And it will surely delay things... I really hope the bank will not request this to be resolved...

spaceHopper

travinci wrote: »

We could. But how can you pay to fix something that is not yours? And it will surely delay things... I really hope the bank will not request this to be resolved...

Change the agreed price, hand over 1k in cash on closing...

Hope for the best plan for the worst, talk to the vendor or EA and try to get them to start panning to fix it. Don't leave it till the week of closing and have the whole thing fall apart. If they get it fixed get the engineer to look at and then your solicitor can write to bank and say it is fixed. You could have the whole thing done it 10 days.

Or you will have to give an under taking to fix it, then look at either reducing your offer or suck it up and leave it.

CreativeSen

I have learned that there are a whole load of regulations around the definition of a "Bedroom" and have viewed properties over the last few weeks that have "Bedroom 1, Bedroom 2 and Room" listed as the estate agent legally cannot call it a bedroom.

Get your ducks in a row, understand what exactly was sold to you. You mentioned "It was advertised as 4/5 bed". Understand who said that, the EA or the vendor and what they meant by it. If you have anything documented on this it would be useful, such as brochures, emails etc.

The bank may reassess their loan offer as it is now a 3 bed and they may not be prepared to give you as much as you thought they would. On that basis and if the EA and/or Vendor misadvertised the property I would go back and offer a lower amount and see what happens.