advice of a cornish unit

cricks · 19 March 2007 at 10:13PM

We have seen a property which we have been told is a cornish unit ??
Which I'd never heard of before last week.

Does anyone out their have any advice of whether its mortgageable ?, warm?
damp?

Any advice gratefully received.

Thanks

toonfish · 19 March 2007 at 10:16PM

they may be mortgageable, but often need to be "repaired" as a condition of th emortgage as they are considered defective dwellings. Some lenders will advance money on them as they are, but the interest rates are very high - often 9% plus

leannie_2 · 26 March 2007 at 8:57PM

A Cornish Unit is a type of house mainly built in the 1950's. It refers to what the house was constructed of, there is an issue of the possible deterioration of structural reinforced concrete in prefabricated houses such as these.
They are mortgageable, in a purely Cornish unit state they tend to be for existing tenants of the local authority purchasing via Right to Buy and the rates are high.
By removing the external concrete units and replacing them with a brick cladding, you can increase the ability to mortgage them, although my limited experience is that lenders do not like lending 100% on them.
I would (certainly if buying in Cornwall), be wary of mundic block in addition to the cornish unit build, many of the estates of cornish unit houses here, also have a lot of mundic problems.
I presume the house is an ex local authority house, in which case the room sizes and gardens are normally larger than average, and they make comfortable homes!

Mad_Max_3 · 16 November 2008 at 11:15PM

leannie wrote: »

A Cornish Unit is a type of house mainly built in the 1950's. It refers to what the house was constructed of, there is an issue of the possible deterioration of structural reinforced concrete in prefabricated houses such as these.
They are mortgageable, in a purely Cornish unit state they tend to be for existing tenants of the local authority purchasing via Right to Buy and the rates are high.
By removing the external concrete units and replacing them with a brick cladding, you can increase the ability to mortgage them, although my limited experience is that lenders do not like lending 100% on them.
I would (certainly if buying in Cornwall), be wary of mundic block in addition to the cornish unit build, many of the estates of cornish unit houses here, also have a lot of mundic problems.
I presume the house is an ex local authority house, in which case the room sizes and gardens are normally larger than average, and they make comfortable homes!

Cornish unit properties are a steel reinforced frame with concrete panels, with a Mansard roof. Typical improvement is the building of a second, brick wall to create a cavity wall, with insulation.

As system built properties go they are quite robust, the biggest problem being the risk of the steel reinforcing the frame failing due to ingress of water. This is smaller than with most system built homes. They are very pooly insulated due to thin, single skin walls.

Also, as cornish unit properties are made of pre-cast concrete panels, and mundic is a proplem accociated with blocks containing china clay waste, you wouldn't find mundic blocks in a cornish unit!

feisty1 · 17 November 2008 at 8:41AM

Ask yr advisor to speak to the surveyor as to who if any lenders do lend on these, you should rcv some valuable feedback from that

advice of a cornish unit

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