Owning your own home

Used Pickwick estates - they are ok. Chap called Hilmi.

Does anyone know if there are any regulations that state if residential flats require window restrictors fitting? Context: Selling my flat, buyer had a homebuyer report. Surveyor said

"All residential units need to have window restrictors on upper floor
windows, low-level windows and if a risk assessment deems necessary
all ground floor windows. HSE guidance states that the opening should
be restricted to 100 mm or less. Without the restrictors there is a risk of
falling. We highly recommend that a qualified window fitter assess the
windows and provide advice on any remedial actions"

Buyers solicitor has asked us to fit latches at our expense. I'm of the opinion that this is a bunch of bollocks and also there is a balcony so what is the bloody point in fitting window restrictors...

Am I correct in telling them to do one?

There's a local independent http://www.john-alan.net/ who seemed useful and straightforward when I needed a valuation. Not bought or sold through them - but might be a useful comparison against the bigger chains.

What floor(s) is your flat on?

1st floor.

Additional note, windows were fitted and then certified by FENSA. I have a certificate. They have keys so can be locked. They can also be locked in a slightly open position.

Have you looked through this? https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/443181/BR_PDF_AD_K_2013.pdf

I haven't bothered reading through it but assume it would give some guidance

Although my thought would be that, it would be the buyers decision whether they wanted these installed but not a legal requisite for the selling of the property

BCA (building control alliance) guidance. (To the best of my knowledge this is up to date)

Window restrictors
It is often proposed that window restrictors are fitted to window openings
with low cill heights, in order to provide protection from falling.
However, restrictor devices that are commonly fitted to windows would
not be suitable because they can be released (by a key or manually) to
allow the window to open more than 100mm. This leaves the potential for
a window to be left in the open position and people (including children)
would not then be afforded adequate protection from falling required un-
der Part K.
However, “permanent” restrictors (those that cannot be released and
would not allow an opening where a 100mm sphere could pass through)
may be suitable. This type of restrictor, as well as the frame and glazing
used in combination would need to be capable of resisting the loads de-
tailed in BS 6399. However, this may be difficult to demonstrate by struc-
tural calculation, and would most likely require a full scale load test of the
window arrangement fitted with the proposed permanent restrictor device.
The glazing would need also need to provide adequate impact resistance,
typically by the use of toughened or laminated glazing, further guidance
can be found in BS6180.
However, even where the use of permanent restrictors can be justified structurally, they may affect the minimum
purge ventilation requirement under the guidance in the Approved Document to Part F. That guidance requires
a minimum of 1/20th floor area of the room served in openable window (height x width of opening part where the
window opens 30 degrees or more). Where the window opens between 15 and 30 degrees that area needs to
be doubled (i.e. 1/10th floor area of room served).
Therefore, it may not be a feasible alternative unless there is another window in the room that is suitably guard-
ed and can provide the necessary ventilation.
A permanent restrictor would also prevent the window used for escape purposes, so for this to be acceptable
one of the alternative options a) to c) described above under the section titled ‘Conflicts between barrier height
and means of escape’ would need to be provided.

From attached document

TLDR: use of window restrictors can effect minimum ventilation requirements specified in fire regs. They can do one.

1 Attachment

• BCA-GN-16-Guarding-to-openable-windows-with-low-cills-Rev-1-Sept-2016.pdf

Approved Document Part K is the main regulation.
There is a line in it that says:

8.2 Where a person may fall through a window above ground floor level, provide suitable opening limiters, to restrain the window sufficiently to prevent such falls, or guarding.

But it is within a part of the regulation that does not apply to dwellings (which often people don't realise). The fact you have a balcony is not necessarily relevant - perception of risk is different, often windows have a lower bottom edge than balcony handrail, and you might be expected to have a different awareness of eg when your kid is on the balcony, as opposed to just generally in the flat.

People often fit them to domestic windows for reduced risk of falling. However you want to think about whether the window is a potential fire escape window (1st or 2nd floor only).

On the ground floor, limiting the opening is often done on street side so that people don't walk into the open window - again there is a regulation (no protruding more than 100mm or fit a guard rail) but it does not apply to dwellings.

I'd like a new hardwood front door, to give the impression that I have a lovely home, instead of one being slowly destroyed from the insides by children.

Anything I need to bear in mind/avoid? Do they need constant weatherproofing? I currently have a cheap PVC jobbie - Is it a pain to convert?

Isn't this all a bit of bollocks given the windows were fitted before the regs aimed at preventing useful windows came in to force? (I assume - we also have deathwindows (tm) and nobody gave a shit about those, fitted in 1995 or something).

Other flat, built circa 2005 also has deathwindows with a manually overridable catch.

So it's just bullshit overreach by the 'surveyors' and the clueless buyers' solicitors.

Thanks all. Had a look at part K and as @hoefla said there is a "does not apply to dwellings". Off to write a nicely worded fuck off to their solicitor.

.

overreach by the 'surveyors'

yes but not because of age - if it was actually required now, it might be a good thing to bring things up to regs - but that part of the regs doesn't apply to homes.

Yeah I mean 'a good thing' doesn't really sound like a requirement (and the solicitor is trying to make it sound like a requirement to force Hovic to do the work), i.e. even if the regs did apply to dwellings, it's unlikely they would be applied retrospectively (in this case) because some dwellings could never meet the spec for various boring reasons such as death by fire / local planning restrictions.

Whatever, any reason to tell them to do-one is good enough.

We highly recommend that a qualified window fitter assess the windows and provide advice on any remedial actions"

Sounds like you have documentation that you pre-emptively had a qualified window fitter assess the windows?

windows were fitted and then certified by FENSA. I have a certificate.

How does the deposit on exchange of contracts work? If a purchase is being funded through sale of property/mortgage where does this deposit come from?

If it's totally covered by the deposit coming up the chain then just that. If there is additional monies required to 'top up' then these are supplied by you.

sell 500k house = £50k
buy 1,000,000 = £100k

In this scenario you would need to supply £50k ahead of exchange to your solicitor

Exchanged contracts on our flat today.

Fantastic news. Congratulations.

Wait, where are you moving to?

I'm sure it was only a couple of weeks ago that you were scouting out locations. Or is this you selling ahead of a move that's still in the pipeline?

Cheers, that does indeed seem to be the case. Worryingly, no-one had mentioned that up until now so I need to rustle up £20k in the next couple of days!

We had similar when, out of the blue, the seller was ready to exchange and so we rushed around withdrawing money from premium bonds (which isn't quick). Then the seller fucked around for another 3 months, all while the solicitors earnt interest on our £30k...

I'm sure it was only a couple of weeks ago that you were scouting out locations. Or is this you selling ahead of a move that's still in the pipeline?

Delayed completion so have a few months to sort shit out

Getting here has been a monstrous ball ache, but suspect the worst is to come

, all while the solicitors earnt interest on our £30k

Business account so probably all of £10