Can I remove my downstairs toilet?

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Hi, We have a smallish 2 bed which has a downstairs toilet and washbasin, in addition to the main bathroom upstairs. The downstairs WC is about as useful as a chocolate fire guard.!

As the kitchen is small there is only room for a washer/dryer and as we have a son and another little one the way we really need a separate tumble dryer, and a dishwasher would be nice too.

A neighbour in a same style house has converted their downstairs WC to a utility and stacked a washing machine and tumble dryer where the toilet was, and some much need additional storage in the place of the wash basin.
This leaves space for a dishwasher in the kitchen and works incredibly well. However we intend to sell our house at sometime in the future, so would we be required to return the utility back into a toilet before we could sell?
In a small 2 bed with steps to the front and the back a utility room makes much more sense than a 2nd toilet.

Cheers
 
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Not without contravening Building regs no. Unless it was added after the property was built that is. When was the house built? If the survey brings up that the bog has been removed if they are bright they will realise it won't comply and this may trigger a buyer's solicitor into requesting a Building Regs certificate which you won't be able to provide. You could get an indemnity insurance to placate buyers though. Furthermore you may actually devalue your house by removing the bog, see what estate agents would value your house for before and after.
 
Thanks for the reply, that's what I was affraid of. The house was built in 2006 and we've owned it from new, and it's always had the downstairs WC, but like I said even with just the two of us the house would benefit much more from a utility room than a 2nd toilet.
 
As stated, you’d be contravening current Building Regs. & it will almost certainly get picked up when you come to sell. It may not affect the sale but will probably result in you having to give a hefty discount for remedial building works.

As long LABC don’t find out & serve an enforcement notice on you, you could always do it in such a way that you can easily convert it back again when you sell up.
 
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Three occupants, soon to be four, and you want to do away with one of the two toilets.

Think ahead a couple of years - you will be putting it back again.
 
IJWS15 said:
Three occupants, soon to be four, and you want to do away with one of the two toilets.

Think ahead a couple of years - you will be putting it back again.
Click to expand...
Leave all the plumbing in place (but capped off) so it's all easy to replace ?
 
Why should it be illegal to remove an unwanted toilet and washbasin which are surplus to requirements? What regulation would it contravene? There's still a W.C. and lavatory basin upstairs.
 
You are taking the text from the document out of context. You cannot lawfully, without Building Control Approval, remove a downstairs toilet from a dwelling built in 2008.
 
Where in Part M does it say that a W.C. cannot be removed? And if Part M is not applicable to a material alteration of an existing dwelling, then how could any such restriction apply anyway?
 
A WC fitment consists only of a water pipe in and a soil pipe out (and maybe an overflow). If the bowl cracked you could easily replace it.
The building reg. is not there for any safety or structural reason as I read it, so if I was you I would quietly remove the bowl and cistern, store it somewhere, cap off the soil pipe and use the space for your utility room. At any time that it mattered it would only be a quick job to reconvert it back to a WC.
 
freddymercurystwin said:
Building Regs Part M 2004 http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/uploads/br/BR_PDF_ADM_2004.pdf page 12

Untitled

Untitled


/sighs
Click to expand...

But the actual regulations say that Part M does not apply to the material alteration of an existing dwelling. How, therefore, can any guidance notes for compliance with Part M be of any relevance when there is no legal requirement to comply with Part M in this case?

Or is this yet another example of council bureaucrats trying to impose their own agenda even though it's not supported by the regulations, like the "no worse than existing" (which is highly subjective anyway) line we see repeated over and over about adding sockets outside the height ranges listed in the same Approved Document?

StephenW said:
The building reg. is not there for any safety or structural reason as I read it, so if I was you I would quietly remove the bowl and cistern, store it somewhere, cap off the soil pipe and use the space for your utility room.
Click to expand...

Precisely. It's your house, and if you want to convert a downstairs W.C. into a utility room, that's your business. It's not even as if it's anything which can be seen from outside.
 
You can whinge and bleat and harp on about whether its right or wrong or fair or unfair and whether there's too much bureaucracy or red tape, frankly who cares, the OP asked if he would ever be required to return his proposed utility to a bog when he came to sell. The answer is no, as to the question as to whether there was there any legislation that would broken if he removes his bog there is.
 
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