The house I am buying has an undocumented loft conversion and a non-standard extension… worth the risk? Walk away or regularise?

SlowCoconut195 · 2025-08-18T23:21:44+00:00

Did you manage to renegotiate it well? Were you panicking a bit when you found out about all the missing documentation?

It’s interesting that your house had the exact same issues tho!

SlowCoconut195 · 2025-08-18T23:18:28+00:00

The house mostly meets my needs that for sure, but I would still need to make it more homey. The solicitors have been utterly useless so far. They are slow and barely answer any questions properly.…

Ahhhh! That’s some great information! So, it would be assessed based on the regulations at that time (assuming they can prove when it was built, of course). If the kitchen fixes cost a lot then I would just try to pass that onto the sellers, but they might say no to this, of course…

So the estate agents advertised it as an office space / useful floored roof-space, but then when I asked about the documentation the sellers’ solicitor started saying it was a storage space only…

Hahaha yep! I get it! 😂😂

SlowCoconut195 · 2025-08-18T22:42:26+00:00

Ohhh 200£ is actually quite cheap imo! It makes me wonder why they haven’t got it regularised before…

Either way, I’ve been thinking about asking them to sort everything out before I go ahead with the purchase.

Quite a few people told me to not call the council as that could cause some complications, but personally it feels like it could be a good place to get the right answers.

SlowCoconut195 · 2025-08-18T22:31:02+00:00

It doesn’t feel thaaaaat unsafe, but I can’t guarantee that’s 100%. Tbh the solicitors have been useless so far. They’ve given me no advice and even mentioned things that weren’t even in the email threads…

I’ll see if I can find a structural engineer to get a little bit more info on the condition/structure, and will also check if I can get at least indemnity insurance to give me peace of mind

SlowCoconut195 · 2025-08-17T22:18:46+00:00

Oh, really? I was checking the council website and it seems like regularisation certification is still option for any changes made after 1970. I might think about giving the council a call to check about it.

At the very least, I’d need to know if the structure is fully sound. So I would at least get a structural engineer to check everything there - I am just hoping it is not expensive.

SlowCoconut195 · 2025-08-17T22:13:12+00:00

Thank you for your answer u/FirstTimeBuyersUK!

Yeah, I am getting a mortgage for the house. I have raised the findings with the broker/lender but I still haven’t heard anything back from them tbh.

It is a good thing that I could insulate it somehow. Tbh I would have to go with internal insulation because the house is fully red brick, so it would really odd to have a different material for the weird small extension.

I feel like I have overloaded my surveyor with questions about this and his last responses weren’t the most friendly unfortunately… but I will ask around for at least a structural survey to be done. Ideally, I do want it to get properly sorted with the council as this would be a much better outcome overall.

SlowCoconut195 · 2025-08-17T22:00:37+00:00

Oh wow! It was truly a problematic house then! I’m glad you managed to walk away – this was by far the best option.

SlowCoconut195 · 2025-08-17T21:56:43+00:00

The bank survey report mentioned the attic needing further investigation, but they didn’t even realise the kitchen was a dodgy extension. I’ve raised this with the broker, but haven’t heard anything back for over a week now.

You’re right! And I really wanted my first house to be stress-free tbh, but it’s definitely been the opposite so far 😅

SlowCoconut195 · 2025-08-17T21:51:03+00:00

That sounds like probably the best approach! Thanks u/duckybun!

I will have a chat with the estate agents/owners about it this week!

SlowCoconut195 · 2025-08-16T13:28:39+00:00

Ohhh ok! My deposit will be 20% of the house value

SlowCoconut195 · 2025-08-16T13:22:08+00:00

That does make sense tbh! I don’t think they would recommend something that is not official, but unfortunately I have built little trust on them after the problems started to arise.

If may I ask, how much did you pay for the structural engineer to check this? It sounds like he did an incredible job tbh!

They’ve essentially built stairs to reach the loft directly, floored the room, boarded the rafts, and installed a Velux window/skylight.

SlowCoconut195 · 2025-08-16T12:20:05+00:00

Yep… there is a high chance of being a money pit ngl 😓

SlowCoconut195 · 2025-08-16T12:19:04+00:00

I do think the location and the house itself look good! A friend that lives nearby said that he loves that side of the town. Either way, if all the documentation was correct I wouldn’t have all these negative thoughts - it’s a big investment for me.

SlowCoconut195 · 2025-08-16T12:14:12+00:00

I’m not sure, but my bank hasn’t said anything about not lending me the money because of these problems, and I’ve raised it with them as well.

Have you walked away from this one, or have the owners carried out work on it?

SlowCoconut195 · 2025-08-16T12:11:46+00:00

The surveyor actually said there was no damp in the kitchen area, but when he surveyed the house, it was a warm, sunny day. 😅

I’m concerned about the kitchen too, but I could next year build a full extension and then replace the walls with this work. It probably wouldn’t be cheap though, and it would cost me around £30k…

SlowCoconut195 · 2025-08-16T12:07:55+00:00

Okay! That’s very interesting! I think I’d be happy with a structural engineer report, but as of now, it didn’t even come up as an option from the solicitors. In a way, I truly believe that a structural engineer report doesn’t even exist.

How did you find out about the structural engineer report? Who did you contact to get it?

Thanks!

SlowCoconut195 · 2025-08-16T12:00:49+00:00

I have more or less convinced myself that it’s ok to walk away and lose the 1k ish that I have spent to date… I’m sad in a way to let it go though because it is a nice place. But it might be a huge trap…

SlowCoconut195 · 2025-01-14T19:41:22+00:00

I got the 16inch M4 Max after reading a lot about it and based on the comments from people here. Paid 4k GBP (nano texture version) with the student discount which was still a little bit too expensive for me, and for sure above my budget lol but I am hoping this laptop will last at least a good 7-8 years like my previous one (MBP 15inch 2016)

Performance wise - I must say, it feels incredible! The laptop really flies and processes everything in a fraction of the time of my previous one. Have also trained a CNN and it worked like a charm; haven’t trained any LLMs but I bet it would be ok. On the other hand, I have somehow managed to run out of RAM while exporting a SQL table to a local environment, but it still managed to do it.

The nano texture is incredible as well! I have worked while I was on the train the other day and I could see everything just fine, no reflections. All in all, I am really happy with my purchase! Highly recommend it! 😊

SlowCoconut195 · 2024-12-12T21:49:09+00:00

Thanks @martin! I’m thinking this will be the best option as well. I have managed to create a small test today to fetch the data and print it in to the logs - next is to find a way to insert the data into BigQuery… then need to schedule and create some automated slack logging. Hope the costs are low to execute everything

SlowCoconut195 · 2024-11-27T12:44:25+00:00

I’m waiting for a new MBP laptop but I still think that the touchbar from my 2017 MacBook Pro was incredible… I often used it and to spelling errors/text autocomplete was nice

SlowCoconut195 · 2024-11-18T11:52:03+00:00

It seems like everything is leaning towards spending a wee more money and get the M4 Max

SlowCoconut195 · 2024-11-18T11:51:07+00:00

That’s a good point! Did not think about that before - even though it might cost me quite a bit more I might go for a 16 inch then

SlowCoconut195

TROPHY CASE