Advice Needed - Survey says house is Unmortgageable

bryanb

petermatheson1 wrote: »

Builder has had a look and confirmed the Kitchen will need to be re-built to meet todays building standards

My house was built in 1919, if a builder looked at it I'm sure he would say it would have to be rebuilt to meet todays building standard. But of course, there is nothing wrong with it.
Is something wrong with the kitchen of your proposed buy?

petermatheson1

The report says, the property has a single storey timber clad kitchen extension. You must arrange for the structure to be rebuilt in accordance with current building regulations to the satisfaction of the local authority. The structure will be prone to high heat loss and condensation problems and the external cladding has rotted. Concealed timbers may also be affected.

They believe the Kitchen was originally a conservatory before it was turned into a kitchen.

Other than the physical materials used to build the Kitchen, it looks in good condition. I imagine Standards for building regulations etc.. may have changed to be more strict recently.

bryanb

I guess they are saying you have to rebuild to get a mortgage with them.
The building regs are much stricter now as you say, but older buildings don't have to be brought up to new standards as long as they were built to the standards of their time, and with correct permissions.
Of course, if an owner chooses to rebuild, then modern regs apply.

petermatheson1

Exactly

I'm just wondering how I can afford to rebuild?
If the seller is willing to lower his price, does that mean I can still mortgage for the original asking price to use the extra £15k to pay for a kitchen?

I don't have a spare £15k to spend on a kitchen right now

silvercar

petermatheson1 wrote: »

Builder has had a look and confirmed the Kitchen will need to be re-built to meet todays building standards.

The seller is willing to lower the price by around £15k so I could sort the Kitchen out myself.
How would this work? As Obviously I don't have £15k in cash to fix the Kitchen, but Halifax would have been happy with a mortgage including that initial £15k? Could they mortgage the full amount and give me the £15k to repair the kitchen?

It wouldn't work. The property is unmortgeable until the kitchen is rebuilt. So without someone rebuilding the kitchen, Halifax are not going to lend you any money.

Mrs_Bumble

As previously stated above 5 years ago the lenders wouldn't have been quite as cautious as they are now and the mortgage valuation was probably either a drive by or a desk top. Now things have changed and even for basic valuations you now have a surveyor give the property a once over. Which in your case has actually been good as it has highlighted a bit of a nightmare.

AS previously stated above any other lender is likely to arrive at the same outcome as they will send a surveyor and could even be the same one.

The sellers will have to accept that their property is not worth what they think it is because of the problems highlighted by the survey and reduce the price I would have thought.

This doesn't help you much though as even if Halifax would then agree to lend they are likely to put a retention on an amount of the mortgage monies until the work is completed on the kitchen.

I think if I was you I would find a house that is not going to cause as much aggravation?

petermatheson1

Thanks for all the advice - I'll see what Halifax come back with on Monday.

Unfortunately in my area there is nothing else on the Market that is near this particular build for price, location, size etc.. I'm quite fussy as I'm looking for something I can live in long term plus having potential for improvement. Plus I've had my eyes open for quite a while and this is the first one that's screamed "Buy Me!"

The sellers are happy to drop the price due to the issues with the Kitchen, and I'm quite happy to sort the kitchen out as soon as I move in.
Whether Halifax can provide me the money to do that work is another question, one I'm hoping to be answered on Monday. (Mortgage the full amount and use equity to pay for Kitchen perhaps?)

zzzLazyDaisy

Is it possible to move the sink and cooker back inside and make a kitchen diner, say? This might be a cheaper solution as a temporary measure, and might satisfy the lender. If you can get a mortgage on the reduced price, you can rebuild the kitchen later, when you can afford to.

Fire_Fox

I suspect Halifax's opinion will be this is effectively a house without a functional kitchen, and a house without a kitchen is un-mortgageable. That doesn't mean they will place a retention of £15K on the amount you hope(d) to borrow, it means they won't lend at all. If this is the case the house can only sell if the vendor does some work to the kitchen OR they find a cash buyer. A house that is unmortgageable is not simply worth £15K less than it would be in 'full health' it's worth the auction price .... and a lot of houses are not selling at auction.

typeractive

petermatheson1 wrote: »

Thanks for all the advice - I'll see what Halifax come back with on Monday.

Unfortunately in my area there is nothing else on the Market that is near this particular build for price, location, size etc.. I'm quite fussy as I'm looking for something I can live in long term plus having potential for improvement. Plus I've had my eyes open for quite a while and this is the first one that's screamed "Buy Me!"

The sellers are happy to drop the price due to the issues with the Kitchen, and I'm quite happy to sort the kitchen out as soon as I move in.
Whether Halifax can provide me the money to do that work is another question, one I'm hoping to be answered on Monday. (Mortgage the full amount and use equity to pay for Kitchen perhaps?)

Man - I know EXACTLY what you mean. I too am looking to buy a property that might have kitchen problems. Equally this is the property that shouts out to me "buy me". I have been looking for ages and there is NOTHING in the area that offers the location, and potential - ticks all the boxes for me really.

It's taken an age for the lender to get their valuer out (quite annoying) - hopefully early this week. The property I'm looking at had the kitchen ripped out. So the kitchen is a shell. I have managed to find the basic lenders criteria, which in black and white terms the property meets - such as only having a sink and hot / cold running water. Obviously there are more things to structure into the valuation. My deposit is 25%, perhaps that will lessen the risk.

A worry I have is the boiler - to look at it, it looks bust, but in actual fact I've had it independently looked at (as has the vendor) and it works. I've been trying to get my mortgage advisor to get in contact with the lenders to give them this prior knowledge before the valuation takes place.

More details are in my thred here

Have a read through some of my posts as I have recently been looking into this a lot also.

Cheers, and good luck!