We are looking at buying a top floor flat on the third floor of a victorian building. At some point since the lease began (1986) an internal, non-structural wall has been removed. However this wall was next to the staircase which leads up into the flat, meaning that the stairs now come straight up into the living room (rather than a corridor and a door into the living room. There is a firedoor as the main exit to the flat at the bottom of the stairs but it's been suggested to us that removing the wall may mean the layout no longer complies with buildings regs in terms of safety in the event of escape from a fire.
We've tried contact the local authority who still haven't come back to us a week later and are worried if we buy it without finding out definitively that the local authority could potentially force us to rebuild the wall (even though it was removed at least 5 years ago as the current owners didn't do it) and this would be expensive and would also ruin the feel of the flat.
Thanks!
We've tried contact the local authority who still haven't come back to us a week later and are worried if we buy it without finding out definitively that the local authority could potentially force us to rebuild the wall (even though it was removed at least 5 years ago as the current owners didn't do it) and this would be expensive and would also ruin the feel of the flat.
Thanks!
