HELP! Mortgage offer sent for 'review' after 'chance of flood' reported

itrends

Hey all, will keep this short.

Was meant to get our Formal offer today for a property near the Beach (south coast, UK).

We have just been told the Surveyor said it was "at risk of flooding as a result of Tidal wave". I have found out also that the post code is listed as in a flooding zone.

What are the chance of my mortgage still going through? As far as I can see there has been no recorded flooding in the area since 1425 (a long time ago) and during the recent bad weather over the last few years and tidal surges there has been nothing happen in this area, even officials in reports stating that it was a minimal risk that our specific location would have issues... and it didn't.

I was looking forward to it all finally being essentially done and settled today following 2 months of pain and moved goal posts, and now this has come from nowhere at the last moment.

I would love to know if anyone else has had similar, or any people in the know may have advice on what they expect will happen.

Needless to say I am feeling very down and not very hopeful.

Thanks,
David

Dan_Collins_2

The biggest issue will be insurance. If they can insure the property you may be ok.

You have to think, would you lend the money on that property without checking it out?

Royal sun alliance had a list of acceptable postcodes etc. Most lenders have a system in place with what has happened of late. They will look in to the last flood then future predictions.

HelpWhereIcan

Worst case scenario the company that insures the property now will have to continue to insure it for you.

Our first house had some adverse comments re movement on the valuation (not deserved but because they were there I had to do the honest thing and declare when getting any insurance quotes).

We could not get anyone to accept the non existent risk - even though the surveyor wrote an addendum to his report saying that he had possibly overstated the case (or other non commital words to that effect) and that there was no reason to consider the property a higher than normal risk.

Anyway, in the end we just approached the vendors to find out who their insurers were - called them, disclosed the report and arranged the cover.

As long as the surveyor has agreed that the property offers suitable security for a mortgage (check the report for the answer to this very specific question) the lender should be ok with making an offer. They may have further specific queries for the solicitor but they will only withdraw the offer if the searches etc produce something else detrimental in which case you may be having a lucky escape. Remember it's not only if you can get the mortagge etc, but also whether someone looking to buy from you would have any problems as well.

Having said that, I have also had a property declined as it was a coastal property 'too close' to the cliffs in an area of coastal erosion. The surveyor advised that the property was 200 m from the cliff and that the cliff was eroding at 1.5 m per year which would give it a 'life expectancy' of 133 years meaning he considered in suitable security for a mortgage.

The lender decided that the re-saleability of the property would reduce with each year and they did not want to be part of it. We were back at step one. Sorted out but only after much time spent looking into options. Every subsequent application needs to be told of the decline and the reason(s) why so we had to do a lot of calling around.

Most things are fixable, but those that aren't tend to be so for a reason. The fact that you have probs getting a mortgage means that your buyers will/might so it is best looked at that way - hard as that might be - as you don't want to make a costly mistake that is avoidable.

itrends

Thank you for your feedback. I think I was just panicing / annoyed. They have since accepted our flood insurance but now want to know pension and ppi information. grrrr. I wouldn't be annoyed, but they already have that info. It's like they are not reading what we already provided.

Anywho, another goal post moved, another hurdle to jump. Just want this to end.

Damn you Kensington!

Thanks again to you for your kind detailed replies though

David