HELP- can we challenge mortgage retainer?

FTB30

Hello- I am new to this site and would really appreciate some advice,

My fiance and I are first time buyers and had an offer accepted on a house November last year. It's a 2bed house with garden in SW London that was on market for £275k and we had offer of £245k accepted, so were very pleased (or so we thought)!

There was a crack under the front window so mortgage company requested a Structural Engineers Report. This came back saying there was no evidence of subsidence and that any movement could have been caused by a blocked drain. Struc Engineer also suggested tying in one of the walls, replacing three roof tiles and repairing a dropped window arch on the back of the house, however he stressed that the roof tiles and window arch were not urgent projects. He also identified that the lounge floor was sloping towards the back of the house but couldn't work out why (vendor has carpet, furniture etc over this area).

Mortgage company then requested a drain survey, this came back with no problems.

Mortgage company then requested a quote from the structural engineer for how much the work mentioned above would cost. Unfortunately for us his quote came back very vague, he said £1-5k each for tying in walls, replacing roof tiles & repairing window arch. He then said the living room floor would cost between £1- £5k but could be more than £10k.

We expected a retainer but mortgage company have decided to hold back £15k, so effectively £30k (which we can't afford). They have requested proof that we have this money and have told us that we cannot take out a loan or borrow this money, that it has to be 'gifted' to us and they will need to see evidence (??) of this.

I just have a few questions if any of you are able to give me some advice:

1. Can we request that the vendor moves their furniture and lifts the carpet in the corner of the living room so that we actually get someone in to try and find out why the living room floor is sloping.

2. If we were lucky enough to get the vendor to drop the price £15k, would we still have to find £30k, or would we then only need the £15k to do the work?

3. If we were able to borrow the money from someone, how would we prove to the mortgage company that we are not going to pay it back?

4. Can we get other (more definite) quotes for the works and try and convince the mortgage company to reduce the retainer?

I would be so grateful to anyone who has any advice as we are really struggling to move forward with this and we absolutely love the house.

thank-you

Robert_Sterling_3

FTB30 wrote: »

3. If we were able to borrow the money from someone, how would we prove to the mortgage company that we are not going to pay it back?

I am only going to deal with the easy bit as above.

They said you should not borrow it.
If you do borrow it you can not prove that you did not unless there was a "conspiracy to obtain a pecuniary advantage by deception". This is a crime.

Leon_W

Sounds a bit of a nightmare that one.

1.If the vendor wants to sell then they'll have to move the carpet. Simple.

2.If the vendor dropped the asking price by £15k then the lender would still retain £15k

3.This is an odd one. Usually retentions work like this. The lender retains £15k so you effectively have to find the extra £15k yourself to make up the purchase price to actually buy the house. You then have to pay for the work out of your own pocket £15k. Once the work is completed then the bank release the £15k they have retained. Now, I think the mortgage co could be concerned about the overall affordability of the project if you borrowed the extra £15k to purchase the property, not the money to do the work, so are making it a requirement. You would need a letter from whoever lends you the extra £15k to say it was a non refundable "gift". Whether there is a side agreement to pay it back or not is up to you.

4. You could, but it seems to me that they are always going to ere on the side of caution with a property that is sloping for "unknown" reasons.

Best of luck.

Robert_Sterling_3

The OP has posted the same message in another forum.
Where Doozer Girl has replied.

hearts

Robert_Sterling wrote: »

The OP has posted the same message in another forum.
Where Doozer Girl has replied.

Maybe he doesn't believe her ;-)

FTB30

Apologies- am new to this, didn't realise that I couldn't post on more than one forum.
Thank you all for your advice.

Dan_1976

Not sure what that is all about!

Anyhow, You need to get this looked at in more detail, yes you can ask them to allow a more in depth report on the floor and any other issues you have. If they say no, then you need to walk away.

You have to think, do you really want that house, you could uncover all sorts of issues, then again you may not.

I would not go any further without a better survey. How old is the property?

Sometimes lender will put barriers in the way to pt you off, they may not be able to say no but will push you to making the risk to them lower.