planning issue & renegotiating sale price?

Hi all,

quick question: we're currently in the process of buying a house. All's going well, had the surveyor in, and he did some research on planning permissions etc for the house. The house is being advertised as 4 bedroom, however, we just found out that two of those bedrooms are actually 'storage space' in a converted attic according to the planning permission.

Now I can kind of see why the owner did that (bedrooms are probably harder to get than storage space on a permission scale) - however, they are officially advertising the house as 4 bedroom, but "legally", it's only a two bedroom house.

Could we knock money off the sale price for that, since we're 'losing' two bedrooms?

And, on the other side of the coin - has anyone ever had any issues with home insurance when using a 'storage space' as a bedroom (there's nothing wrong with the attic, headheight is grand, there's an escape, it's probably just something stupid that prevents it from getting a full 'bedroom status'.)?

Your opinions are greatly appreciated!

In the current climate, you are in the position of strength - the house is legally a 2-bed house, and unless the vendor is willing to get backdated planning permission to turn it from a 2-bed to a 4-bed, then you'll end up buying a pig in a poke and it will be your problem from a legal perspective. So, don't just think about the price - think also about the hassle you might have down the road trying to sell the house yourself.

cheers for that - another aspect I was forgetting!

Again, being me, if the house is being sold as a 4-bed, was the conversion specc'd and built as dwelling-space or as storage space; what do the drawings and specifications say?

Does it have a fire-certificate for the windows and doors and the access stairway? What does the current insurance certificate say?

Bear in mind even if you negotiate a price reduction based on what seem to be clear breaches of the planning application, you may not be able to insure it as a 4-bed house.

My own first instinct would be to look at another house as this one is unlikely to have happy outcomes for the purchasers. There are more houses than buyers out there and not all the houses will have these problems. Your surveyor has already more than justified the fee paid or due by uncovering exactly the kind of nightmare scenario buyers need to avoid (all IMHO).

see, there's the problem. The documents I can access say that they converted bedrooms back to storage, and applied for retention of the storage (that was only done recently). It is advertised with beds in it. So it's all a bit confusing, and slightly illogical.

Don't know about the fire certifcate - the house is a second-hand bungalow, built pre-planning, in the sticks and ticks all of our boxes (and there aren't any other in the location that we want, my vision of hell is an estate somewhere on the outskirts of a town...).

Would be interesting to find out what the current insurance cert says - I'm sure our solicitor will be able to find out. But I am also sure that we're not the only ones with this problem - there must be LOADS of people out there with converted attics used as bedrooms, without planning, without official insurance...

And yes - I fully agree, the surveyor has been worth his fee already.

Cheers for your opinions!