building regs inner rooms

hi i need advice ... have an offer in on a house, but seems that there may be an issue with one of the bedrooms which is an inner room with only a skylight for a window and a door leading to the landing. our surveyor suggested that because there is no means of escape in case of a fire that the room cannot be classed as habitable. i.e. can't be used as a bedroom but rather for storage only. has anyone come across a similar situation and if so is it true that the room cannot be a bedroom???

any advice appreciated.

The means of escape should be not lower than 800mm off the floor (600mm in the case of a rooflight) and not higher than than 1100mm off the floor. Every bedroom must have a means of escape.

Yes, every habitable room needs to have an alternative means of escape, generally a window with an opening large enough to climb through. This issue most often comes up with attic conversions where a new room has been created that doesn't meet the Building Regulations, either in terms of the height of the room or the provisions for escape.

If the room does not comply with building regs then it cannot be marketed as a habitable room - if it is described as a habitable room in the sales brochure then that is a misrepresentation and the auctioneer should know better.

It may be possible to replace the rooflight with a dormer window to make the room compliant, depending on location and subject to planning permission.

If you follow this link, you can download a DoE leaflet on attic conversions which gives more informations on escape requirements for rooms with rooflights (Publications & Documents - right hand column):

http://www.environ.ie/en/DevelopmentandHousing/BuildingStandards/

thanks ... our solicitor has come back having looked at the planning docs and apparently the extension was built in 1989 which pre-dates the building regs so looks like they don't apply (which means it can be used as a bedroom but there's still that safety concern at the back of my head).

byron said:

thanks ... our solicitor has come back having looked at the planning docs and apparently the extension was built in 1989 which pre-dates the building regs so looks like they don't apply (which means it can be used as a bedroom but there's still that safety concern at the back of my head).

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at the back of your head....!!?!?!?!??

the safety of your family should not be taken for granted.... theres a reason the regs were introduced, and made specific mention to inner rooms, thats because people who were caught in them in a fire were killed.... simple as....

theres no way on gods earth id allow any of my family to use an inner room with no escape window /door as a bedroom.....

Your solicitor is advising you that the building is planning compliant and that there is nothing legallly hindering the sale. The fact that the extension was pre 1989 is important because if the extension was not planning compliant you may well have a future purchaser's solicitor spotting the same thing if you decided to sell in the future. There are many houses with bedrooms not meeting current regulations with regard to window size and height of floor. People are happy to live in them and are totally unaware that they are not meeting current regulations. But there are also many homes without wall or attic insulation too.