Building regulation - min height for dublin city dwelling

My husband and I are looking at buying a and old red brick terraced house in Dublin (>100 years old). A surveyor we commissioned found ceiling height in kitchen extension (2storey extension built in 2012) to be of height 2310mm but noted that min height should be 2400 per regulations. Mortgage broker indicated our preferred lender will not loan against this house given discrepancy.

Vendor’s estate agent has come back to dispute our engineers assessment saying that because the room ‘on average’ is greater than 2400mm due to the height height sun lights in the kitchen that it does comply overall with regulations and will provide this assessment to the mortgage lender.

Does anyone have any advice here? We were really happy with the house but obviously don’t want to take on a potential problem down the track when we go to sell on (we’re thinking of a 10 year time horizon for the house).

Thanks in advance.

Laura_Ray said:

A surveyor we commissioned found ceiling height in kitchen extension (2storey extension built in 2012) to be of height 2310mm but noted that min height should be 2400 per regulations. Mortgage broker indicated our preferred lender will not loan against this house given discrepancy.

Vendor’s estate agent has come back to dispute our engineers assessment saying that because the room ‘on average’ is greater than 2400mm due to the height height sun lights in the kitchen that it does comply overall with regulations and will provide this assessment to the mortgage lender.

Click to expand...

If it was me then I'd put vastly more stock in the surveyor's opinion than the estate agent's - given that the former should be an expert in this area while the latter probably isn't and has a vested interest in pushing the sale through come what may.

What is the main issue here? Getting finance? Not buying something that may be problematic to sell later on? Both? Something else?

ClubMan said:

If it was me then I'd put vastly more stock in the surveyor's opinion than the estate agent's - given that the former should be an expert in this area while the latter probably isn't and has a vested interest in pushing the sale through come what may.

What is the main issue here? Getting finance? Not buying something that may be problematic to sell later on? Both? Something else?

Click to expand...

Thanks! I should have been clearer - the surveyor we commissioned said the house was generally in good nick but the ceiling height was an issue. The vendors side provided an engineers very to say it was broadly in compliance (the extension) which our solicitor said would suffice. At the 11th hour our mortgage broker asked for a copy of the survey for the lender as the house is over 100 years old at which point he indicated we wouldn’t get a loan against that particular survey so advised to either get another survey OR pull out Laura together from sale given this could cause us a headache selling on in future which is our main concern. The estate agents when we indicated we were pulling out of sale have got another engineers opinion on ceiling which says he believes it is in compliance (on average given some of the room is over and some is under) and that he’s willing to provide that assessment to the lender and solicitor to save the sale.

So this opens the possibility of being able to save the sale in terms of getting a loan but it’s shaken our confidence that we might be buying in to a problem down the road. From a technical perspective we’re looking to understand if ALL of the ceiling needs to meet the minimum height or MOST of the ceiling.

Thanks in advance.

ClubMan said:

If it was me then I'd put vastly more stock in the surveyor's opinion than the estate agent's - given that the former should be an expert in this area while the latter probably isn't and has a vested interest in pushing the sale through come what may.

What is the main issue here? Getting finance? Not buying something that may be problematic to sell later on? Both? Something else?

Click to expand...

Thanks! I should have been clearer - the surveyor we commissioned said the house was generally in good nick but the ceiling height was an issue. The vendors side provided an engineers very to say it was broadly in compliance (the extension) which our solicitor said would suffice. At the 11th hour our mortgage broker asked for a copy of the survey for the lender as the house is over 100 years old at which point he indicated we wouldn’t get a loan against that particular survey so advised to either get another survey OR pull out Laura together from sale given this could cause us a headache selling on in future which is our main concern. The estate agents when we indicated we were pulling out of sale have got another engineers opinion on ceiling which says he believes it is in compliance (on average given some of the room is over and some is under) and that he’s willing to provide that assessment to the lender and solicitor to save the sale.

So this opens the possibility of being able to save the sale in terms of getting a loan but it’s shaken our confidence that we might be buying in to a problem down the road. From a technical perspective we’re looking to understand if ALL of the ceiling needs to meet the minimum height or MOST of the ceiling.

Laura_Ray said:

Thanks! I should have been clearer - the surveyor we commissioned said the house was generally in good nick but the ceiling height was an issue. The vendors side provided an engineers very to say it was broadly in compliance (the extension) which our solicitor said would suffice. At the 11th hour our mortgage broker asked for a copy of the survey for the lender as the house is over 100 years old at which point he indicated we wouldn’t get a loan against that particular survey so advised to either get another survey OR pull out Laura together from sale given this could cause us a headache selling on in future which is our main concern. The estate agents when we indicated we were pulling out of sale have got another engineers opinion on ceiling which says he believes it is in compliance (on average given some of the room is over and some is under) and that he’s willing to provide that assessment to the lender and solicitor to save the sale.

So this opens the possibility of being able to save the sale in terms of getting a loan but it’s shaken our confidence that we might be buying in to a problem down the road. From a technical perspective we’re looking to understand if ALL of the ceiling needs to meet the minimum height or MOST of the ceiling.

Click to expand...

Hi Laura,

I am not an expert on this but I believe that the requirement that your engineer has flagged is from section 1.2.1.7 of Part F of the Building Regulations which relates to ventilation.
https://assets.gov.ie/100200/36644c6f-ce8a-4bb2-976e-20fbf39ef6fb.pdf

If you look at the document, it says that the 2400mm height is a 'suggested height' and in fact it permits lower clearance of 2100mm below beams and bay windows.

I suggest you could query this with your engineer to see what he thinks - he may have phrased the issue poorly which has caused some confusion.

Hope this helps.