House-hunter's story - advice welcome

spida

My wife and I have been looking for a 4 bed in Dublin for some time now. Originally we were in no hurry and just browsing but when no. 2 was due, the urgency stepped up a gear as we are currently out-growing our 2-bed apartment.

We finally came upon a house that we knew we would bid on as soon as we saw it. We even agreed to have a good look around in case we didn't get to see it again before the bidding process. We were right. Bidding started, eventually it ended at sealed bids and we won! We were told the couple were divorcing and moving on and when would we like to move in. All grand.

Our date came and went and we eventually asked what was happening only to be told that the man of the couple had decided he didn't want to move out and had stalled the process to try and buy his wife out. She on the other hand wanted gone ASAP.

Eventually he gave up and late as it is process kicks off again. Our surveyor goes in and then we hear they've lost the deeds to their house; another stall tactic. The deeds are found at an old solicitor's office but our surveyor is saying we need better info on their extension so to get a Building Regs Compliance Certificate from them. We ask but we are told there is none and they wont get one, take it or leave it!

We had a second surveyor in to see how big the problems are and it turns out that two of the four rooms are not actually bedrooms as their windows/ceiling height don't meet regulations. The original house had two beds downstairs but we can't see that working with small kids.

We could pull out but we've had a second child since getting Mortgage approval so wouldn't be offered as much next time. The location is also great for family/friends being close-by.

Current thought is to ask them to renegotiate the price to that of a 'two-bed with potential'. Thoughts, comments, bright ideas, welcome.

D3PO

buying a house without planning for an extension that doesn't meet building regs is a bad idea on so many levels I don't even know where to start.

id say walk away only run away is far more apt

Ray Palmer

D3PO wrote: »

buying a house without planning for an extension that doesn't meet building regs is a bad idea on so many levels I don't even know where to start.

id say walk away only run away is far more apt

There is no mention of issues with planning, most extensions are exempt these days. Building regs can also be misleading. There are lots of building that don't meet current building regs. The age of the extension is vital to say if this is really a problem. If it matched building regs at the time there really isn't an issue.
Ceiling height is a very abstract reg anyway. The height is based on people having oil lamps. Not sure how the celling height is below regs as I would expect them to follow on what was in the original house.
Window regs may be very easily addressed. Chance are it is about opening of the window as a fire exit. This may just require a different hinge on the window or simply an emergency glass hammer on a string by the window.

The surveyor should really have explained what the real world ramifications are and explained what the actual dangers are for the non-compliance to modern regs.

spida

spida wrote: »

...it turns out that two of the four rooms are not actually bedrooms as their windows/ceiling height don't meet regulations.

So more specifically: Bedroom 1 & 2 were originally the single upstairs room. So that was chopped in two and two velux windows put on the back bedroom. Those windows are too high off the ground.

The master is a whole new room, it is not exactly generous anyway and is under a double-pitched roof (from both sides) and it's ceiling is 5cm under limit and its velux windows are also too high off the floor.

Also, the return of the stairs is too low.

A problem that all this causes is that any insulation we want to put on the inside (and we will want some!) will take further from the ceiling height.

In a way you are right that you have to think practically about these things. Not just pull out because of the letter of the law. But what if we then go to sell the house we bought at a 4-bed price and the law has changed to say we can only sell it as a 2-bed? Lots to think about over the weekend!!

spaceHopper

The day you buy the house is the day you have to sell it. Sounds like there are to many problems, if the back finds out you might not get a mortgage and your solisitor has to sign that it is a mortgable property.

You may have no choice but the pull out. At the very least I'd knock a lot off the price, up to 1/3 .Insulation wise you can rip off the plaster board add insulation behind it an put up new board. Also think about it, should they have used steel in the extension but didn't what can't be seen.

hfallada

If the extensions are over 7 years old, you can apply to DCC to allow to keep them. Most attic "bedrooms" dont meet planning approval due to ceiling height and fire doors etc.

If you arent 100% sure on the house dont buy it. Maybe you should consider a 3 bed with a large garden for extension. Or a house that was in bedsits. You can get bargains in Drumcondra with the amount of former bedsits for sale. The house are large with big gardens. Although they need to be torn apart. Its still a lot cheaper than a ****ty house in a modern housing estate

sunnysoutheast

spaceHopper wrote: »

The day you buy the house is the day you have to sell it.

I was going to post this. It might be an old saw but it's even more apposite these days.

Unless you are going to sort out every problem any potential buyer in a few years will be asking the same questions.

Ray Palmer

Walk away it is too new an extension to be not up to code. If the issues that you can see aren't up to code the chances are other internal issues are also there.
I would suspect they may have built it themselves given the simple issues they failed to do and the new master bedroom being small.
It also sounds impossible to rectify the situation without massive reconstruction.

On a side note you can always go with external insulation to save internal space.

jmayo

spaceHopper wrote: »

The day you buy the house is the day you have to sell it.

Beat me to it.

There are two many issues and if you were going to sell in 5, 10 or 20 years time they would still be issues unless you had spent a fortune.

The thing sounds like a mish mash and if these are the obvious faults you can see God knows what was done behind the scenes.

At this stage don't walk, just run.

Santa Cruz

spida wrote: »

My wife and I have been looking for a 4 bed in Dublin for some time now. Originally we were in no hurry and just browsing but when no. 2 was due, the urgency stepped up a gear as we are currently out-growing our 2-bed apartment.

We finally came upon a house that we knew we would bid on as soon as we saw it. We even agreed to have a good look around in case we didn't get to see it again before the bidding process. We were right. Bidding started, eventually it ended at sealed bids and we won! We were told the couple were divorcing and moving on and when would we like to move in. All grand.

Our date came and went and we eventually asked what was happening only to be told that the man of the couple had decided he didn't want to move out and had stalled the process to try and buy his wife out. She on the other hand wanted gone ASAP.

Eventually he gave up and late as it is process kicks off again. Our surveyor goes in and then we hear they've lost the deeds to their house; another stall tactic. The deeds are found at an old solicitor's office but our surveyor is saying we need better info on their extension so to get a Building Regs Compliance Certificate from them. We ask but we are told there is none and they wont get one, take it or leave it!

We had a second surveyor in to see how big the problems are and it turns out that two of the four rooms are not actually bedrooms as their windows/ceiling height don't meet regulations. The original house had two beds downstairs but we can't see that working with small kids.

We could pull out but we've had a second child since getting Mortgage approval so wouldn't be offered as much next time. The location is also great for family/friends being close-by.

Current thought is to ask them to renegotiate the price to that of a 'two-bed with potential'. Thoughts, comments, bright ideas, welcome.

There are so many issues here that if you buy you will be at each others throats within weeks. It appears to me that you are so anxious to get a bigger place that you have lost sight of the essentials necessary when purchasing. Do not dare to ignore professional advice of the surveyor.
Keep looking is what I would recommend.

the_syco

Run, not walk, away.

spida wrote: »

So more specifically: Bedroom 1 & 2 were originally the single upstairs room. So that was chopped in two and two velux windows put on the back bedroom. Those windows are too high off the ground.

The master is a whole new room, it is not exactly generous anyway and is under a double-pitched roof (from both sides) and it's ceiling is 5cm under limit and its velux windows are also too high off the floor.

So they essentially turned one room into three? Due to baby number 2, you're not thinking correctly, and long term, the house would probably be very costly.