Hi,
My house (a 1930 semi) has a loft conversion which was done by a previous owner approx 10 years ago without building regs. Rather stupidly when buying the house we accepted indemnity insurance for the lack of regs rather than getting the conversion checked out other than by a survey.
A builder friend was over last week and on seeing the loft noted immediatley that it doesn't conform to regs and has in fact been botched. The roof isn't supported properly for one thing and the stairs are too narrow. We are resigned to the fact that we will have to pay to put this right and as we intend to stay in this house for a long while we are prepared to spend the necessary money and write it off to experience.
(We do have this indemnity insurance but can't see any way in which to covertly make the council serve an enforcement notice on us.)
What would be the best way to go about this (fixing it up I mean)? Do we get the council in first to say what needs to be put right or would a builder/specialist conversion company be the way to go? Also, as a rough guide should we be expecting it to cost roughly the same as a conversion from scratch?
Loft is one room, has stairs, radiator, power point, lights, 2 Velux windows.
My house (a 1930 semi) has a loft conversion which was done by a previous owner approx 10 years ago without building regs. Rather stupidly when buying the house we accepted indemnity insurance for the lack of regs rather than getting the conversion checked out other than by a survey.
A builder friend was over last week and on seeing the loft noted immediatley that it doesn't conform to regs and has in fact been botched. The roof isn't supported properly for one thing and the stairs are too narrow. We are resigned to the fact that we will have to pay to put this right and as we intend to stay in this house for a long while we are prepared to spend the necessary money and write it off to experience.
(We do have this indemnity insurance but can't see any way in which to covertly make the council serve an enforcement notice on us.)
What would be the best way to go about this (fixing it up I mean)? Do we get the council in first to say what needs to be put right or would a builder/specialist conversion company be the way to go? Also, as a rough guide should we be expecting it to cost roughly the same as a conversion from scratch?
Loft is one room, has stairs, radiator, power point, lights, 2 Velux windows.
