House that we bought registered as a three bed

maynooth_rules

Hi, we bought a house that's registered as a three bed house a couple of years ago. We intend on selling it in a few years time but I want to sell it as a four bed. There is four bedrooms in it but one is our room, the attic conversion. Is there a specific reason that the estate agent wouldn't have classed the attic conversion as a room? It didn't worry me when we bought the house and I didn't examine the deeds (I know I should have) but its a concern going forward

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K.Flyer

Was it built with granted planning permission and signed off as a bedroom?
If not it most likely doesn't meet the building criteria to be fully classified as a bedroom. It has a lot to do with ceiling heights, stairs width / access, fire escape etc.

astrofool

There are rules around converted attics (third floors) before they can be considered as habitable space and not an "attic store", most attic conversions are not sold as a bedroom, but would add value in their own right.

From the top of my head:
All doors in the house need to be fire doors (so people have time to escape from the third story in the event of a fire)
Fire alarm must be powered by the mains rather than battery
Ceiling in the room must be > 50% at 8 feet
I think there's a rule on how steep the stairs can be and a landing must be present

In addition to making sure it was constructed properly with purlands supporting the floor and the roof able to take the load with the new bracing in place.

A structural engineer will be able to give you all the details and it could be worth certifying it as such if it meets all those conditions before you sell.

maynooth_rules

K.Flyer wrote: »

Was it built with granted planning permission and signed off as a bedroom?
If not it most likely doesn't meet the building criteria to be fully classified as a bedroom. It has a lot to do with ceiling heights, stairs width / access, fire escape etc.

I don't know unfortunately. It was a bank sale so there was little info that I got off the estate agent

maynooth_rules

astrofool wrote: »

There are rules around converted attics (third floors) before they can be considered as habitable space and not an "attic store", most attic conversions are not sold as a bedroom, but would add value in their own right.

From the top of my head:
All doors in the house need to be fire doors (so people have time to escape from the third story in the event of a fire)
Fire alarm must be powered by the mains rather than battery
Ceiling in the room must be > 50% at 8 feet
I think there's a rule on how steep the stairs can be and a landing must be present

In addition to making sure it was constructed properly with purlands supporting the floor and the roof able to take the load with the new bracing in place.

A structural engineer will be able to give you all the details and it could be worth certifying it as such if it meets all those conditions before you sell.

Thanks, that's all very useful. Seems there is a lot more to getting it registered as a room than I believed initially. I believe it was listed as 'three bed with attic space'.
Just hoping if we list it at that that it won't cost us much in value. The room in the conversion is actually comfortably the biggest room

Addle

Where/how is it registered?

jamesthepeach

I sold my first house years ago.
It was a 3 bed with a converted attic that we used as a bedroom.
The estate agents marketed it as a 3 bed with an "attic room" and the attic was dressed as a bedroom in the photos and for viewing.
It sold as a 3 bed but at a premium to what other 3 beds were at at the time.

On viewing everybody knew it was basically a 4 bed if they wanted it to be. It did the present a problem to anyone. We all knew where we stood.

Sleeper12

I can't see it affecting the price Tbh. 3 bed with attic conversion in most people's eyes = 4 bed

Samuel T. Cogley

It would effect the price but not by much. Certainly not by as much as it would cost to get it properly approved as a bedroom, simple reason being people are unlikely to want to put the kids in it. But dressed as master bedroom sorry I mean attic-store storing all the stuff for a master bedroom - people do the math.