Three storey victorian house

[annaraab]

I am in the process of selling my three storey victorian terrace. It was built in 1894 and was originally built as a three storey property - as are several other houses on our side of the street.

Our buyer's survey has been returned and the surveyor has undervalued our house, saying that our top two bedrooms, on the third storey, do not qualify as bedrooms as they do not comply to building regs for an attic conversion. He is classing them as "habitable space."

The house was built in 1894 as a three storey and has never been classed as an attic conversion - so must it comply to today's building regs? This didn't come up on our survey when we bought the property 5 years ago.

Please advise - is this surveyor mistaken?

Many thanks

[JustinN]

To be fair, he may be saying that the third storey accommodation would not comply with current Building Regulations (as a point of information) but, as you say, Building Regulations did not exist when the house was built, so it would be a nonsense to say that the third storey is non-compliant or to down value the property as a result. It sounds as though someone needs to point out that the third storey was habitable accommodation from the outset, not the result of any "attic conversion"

I hope this helps

[Simplyclearances]

Current Building regs only apply if you've done any work that requires a building warrant. Then you have to upgrade everything in that room to comply with current standards