Retention recommended - what does this mean?

[stevie wonder]

We have had an offer accepted on a house at 220, our mortgage is 165. The Property valuation has come back saying they recommend a retention of 10000 for essential repairs (roofing). The valuation for mortgage purposes says current condition is 220, after repairs 230. Insurace value is 294.

I'm confused as to what this means for us - can anyone explain? I will speak to the bank but would like to go forearmed with info if possible.

We have got a roofing contractor who is going to look at the work and then give us a quote.

Thanks, in advance,

[Doozergirl]

They are recommending holding back £10,000 of your mortgage until the work has been done.

You either have to find that £10,000 yourselves and then pay to carry out the work, or renegotiate the price (interesting that the proeprty has been valued at the right price but are recommending a retention?!) or the vendors need to sort this out.

The surveyor will make a recommendation, the bank may or may not go with this - they may not retain the money or they might insist on retaining all of it! Best to speak to them.

[stevie wonder]

Well just spoken to the mortgage people (One account) and it is cleared up (kind of). They are not actually doing a retention, but they are saying it will be a condition of the mortgage that we get the work done, but in actual fact they are not insisting we do it, just pointing out that it needs to be done and they recommend we do it. ??? Anyway, long and short of it, they value it at 220, still happy to lend us 165 just up to us to get contractor to value work and then decide if renegotiate price or not (It was on at 265 originally).

[sjcollett]

Well that is a result. If you believe the current price reflects the work that needs to be done (and from the surveyors report that seems to be the case) that is fine. If you feel that the additional works mean that you would have paid less I do not see the harm in speaking to the estate agent and telling them that you have to get unanticipated works done to the roof to the tune of 10k and would the vendors consider a reduction? you could always aim to meet halfway (i.e. 5k off the price?)