Conservatory

[foxcote]

Just about to exchange contracts on a house. My solicitor says that there should be doors from lounge to the conservatory but neither the hips or surveyor have picked this up.
Info from vendor says - conservatory built 2007 building regs not needed
What should I do?

 

[hotrod]

No need for Building Regs if it was kept separate from the main dwelling (i.e. the external doors were kept on) so the vendor is "technically" wrong as under Building Regs it will now, more than likely, fail on thermal loss etc.

So, if you're really keen on the house, go back to the vendor and explain you're going to have to get the work Regularised with LABC and that it's going to cost £[insert required discount here]. - Don't ask, don't get!

 

[garyo]

What's left - a frame with no doors, a door shaped/sized hole, or has it been opened out and spanned with joist of some sort?

 

[foxcote]

What's left - a frame with no doors, a door shaped/sized hole, or has it been opened out and spanned with joist of some sort?

It is an archway which may well have a joist of some sort

 

[^woody^]

Whilst it is required to have separation from the main house (ie a closable door) to ensure that a conservatory can be built without b/regs, I am not so sure if the subsequent removal of a door to an existing conservatory is really a conversion, thus requiring b/regs approval

I've had a quick look through the regulations but can't find anything that the act of removing the door is a "conversion"

 

[Richard C]

Hotrod is correct. Building Regs are not needed for a cons as long as it meets certain criteria. One of those criteria is that there is an externally rated door between it & the main property. Take the door away (very common) & the cons is no longer a cons but an extension & must comply with Building Regs; which is impossible because of the way they are built! If it also has a radiator in there connected to the main heating system, that also breaches BR’s if it is not independently controlled & capable of isolation; but it’s not difficult to achieve. It all rather depends on what you are going to do in your cons. When you move in, they require a lot of heat energy in winter & it can get difficult & very expensive to keep at a comfortable temperature; which, in these “green times” is the very reason for the BR restriction.

At the very least you should be able to negotiate a reasonable discount for re-instating the external door but you will still be in breach of BR’s & will only have the same problem (or maybe worse) when you also come to sell.

 

[foxcote]

Whilst it is required to have separation from the main house (ie a closable door) to ensure that a conservatory can be built without b/regs, I am not so sure if the subsequent removal of a door to an existing conservatory is really a conversion, thus requiring b/regs approval

I've had a quick look through the regulations but can't find anything that the act of removing the door is a "conversion"

Thanks, we think they have removed a window & the wall below it rather than a door

 

[Richard C]

I've had a quick look through the regulations but can't find anything that the act of removing the door is a "conversion"

Interesting but surely removing the door "after the act" is the same as not fitting it in the first place; I know of peeps that have had to reinstate the external doors to satisfy BR’s in order to progress a sale.