11/12/2025
Client Story:
"Remember when two years ago we bought that property with an illegal loft conversion?
A 2-bed turned into a “3-bed”, but the loft had zero permissions. No Building Control certificate.
We bought it for £171k on a bridging loan.
And I thought: how hard can it be?
I’ll replace the beam, get the certificate, refinance. Simple.
NOPE.
Here’s what happened:
The structural engineer came in, checked everything, and said:
“That ridge beam isn’t compliant.”
Okay, fine,let’s replace it with a steel one.
But once we started opening things up the roof was leaking.
The entire roof had to be replaced.
Then Building Control shows up and says:
“Hold on, that beam goes into the chimney?
What if someone lights that fireplace 100 years from now?”
Structural engineer says Building Control doesn’t know what they’re doing.
Building Control says the structural engineer doesn’t know what he’s doing.
And I’m sitting in the middle trying to figure out a solution.
What did I learn?
Every professional has a different role:
Structural engineer-checks the structure, has their own insurance
Building Control-checks compliance with regulations
Architect-designs the plans
And each of them looks at something completely different.
You have to know how to MANAGE these people.
Navigate between them.
Because every one of them has their own “obsession”.
Building Control was obsessed with those chimneys (which turned out to be filled with concrete, so nobody will be lighting anything in there).
Lesson for the future:
If you see a property listed as 2/3 (two slash three), it usually means something’s off.
Could be an illegal loft.
Could be an illegal extension.
Could be something divided up with no permissions.
And YES you can make money on it.
BUT you need to know what you're doing.
You need to know WHO is responsible for WHAT.
Because when we called the council and said we bought a house with an illegal loft, they literally went:
“WHAT? Why would you buy something like that?!”
😅
So you need a solid team.
People around you who know how to take a messy project all the way to completion.
