Found this in a small ranch house with a fairly big attic.
Installed, directly, over the stairway to the basement. And the fold-out stairs did not even reach the top of the basement stairway.
I jumped and climbed up and inspected that attic, anyway, but now I am asking myself, “WHY? WHAT KIND OF IDIOT ARE YOU? THAT WAS WAY DANGEROUS!”.
A defect?
BTW: The client, a Realtor, asked me why the local building dept. hadn’t caught this. I don’t know why, but I started laughing and fell on the ground and had a laughing fit for about 3 minutes. I just couldn’t stop.
I have seen, and entered, several pull-down stairways above steps to basements. Often, I will open them, and put my ladder up against the stairway for a just-in-case incident. Most are all hardly used. Just be sure you check them throughly before using.