Bank asking me to carry out repairs on house I don't yet own! help

pipsta

Hi guys

I have bought an old cottage to do up and live in and the bank is asking for me to make repairs to the house before they will release the loan. I have told them on numerous occaisions that I will putting on a new roof etc basically totally renevating the entire house once I have moved in. They then said they will NOT release the funds until I carry out the repairs.

How am I supposed to carry out repairs on a house I do not yet own? What if the seller decides to pull out once I have made the repairs? I have basically fixed their house for them.

Have you ever heard of anything like this before?

Jon

Fire_Fox

Where are you in the purchase process? In one sentence you say you have bought a cottage, in another you say you don't own it yet? Is it a retention of part of the funds, or a retention of the entire mortgage? If the latter the bank is saying the house is unmortgageable in it's current condition. If that is the case the vendor needs to fix the roof OR to sell to a cash buyer.

justjohn

op unsure what you mean.
Sometimes mortgage company holds back some of the mortgage amount untill the house is of a certain standard eg 'a retention'.


I purchased a house last xmas for 80,000 wanted a mortgage for 55,000. The survey said house possibly needed 40,000 spent on it(was/is nearer 20,000 in my opinion). With an expected value after renovation of over 120,000.FA reckoned there may have been a retention put on it. So raised cash for it via other means.

pipsta

I was due to complete last friday but when the solicitor went to request the funds from the bank they said they would not release the funds until I had the guttering overhauled. The guttering !!!!!!. I told them Im going to be replacing the whole roof etc including the guttering once I own the property but they are not having any of it. They are retainging all of the funds.

I cannot ask the vendor to fix the roof because I have already knocked them down on the price by a considerable margin.

What annoys me is the solicitor missed this and did not advised me that I had to have the guttering looked at on the property before coming accross the problem on the day of completion!

Cissi

Were you planning to exchange and complete on the same day, or have you already exchanged contracts? If so you presumably risk losing your deposit if you're forced to pull out now? I have no advice, but what a messy situation - I too would be seriously hacked off with your solicitor for not spotting this in advance

justjohn

Have you got a roofer lined up??
You may be able too get him too bodge it...
Think you will have too do what the lender says or get a new lender ...they can be fickle...

pipsta

Thankfully i have not yet exchanged contracts and do not want to pull out was going to do it all on the same day.

The problem is the mortgage offer listed all the conditions on the first page of the document as bullet points then ten pages later after a load of other legal jargon not relevent to the conditions of the loan agreement put one last clause in saying i needed to overhaul "rain water goods" before relase of funds.

My solicitor had missed this but to be fair to him was hidden away and apart from other conditions stated in the offer.

Bank has annoyed me because letter says "please see conditions below"(on first page) doesn't mention the two line paragraph ten pages into the document where the last condition has no rightful place among the repayment jargon. Why not put it all together, a proffesional has even missed it!!

To top it off im probably gonna get lumped with a higher solicitor fee for all the extra messing about!

justjohn

lol You just got to use another or go with lender.

Thats the annoying thing about a renovations. Our renovation needed roof patched ,wood worm/damp course, heating the works lol

marcg

If guttering overhauled is the exact term from your lender then I don't think you have a problem. Overhauled is not replaced. It means you need to get a roofer to have a look at the guttering and fix it. If you are willing to pay for it then, for the sake of getting the house sold, I don't imagine your vendor is going to withhold access for your roof to fix what is currently the vendor's guttering.

As little or no materials will be involved the cost should be in the region of £100-300. This assumes you can find a roofer who is willing to do it from a ladder and doesn't demand scaffolding. This make take a few phonecalls.

Guttering will generally be full of leaves, drooping so that water doesn't actually run to the downpipes, the downpipes might be full of gunk. All of which are simple to clear but will definitely need doing to prevent further damage to the building caused by rainwater overflowing the gutters and soaking the tops of the walls.

A few phonecalls, a few hundred quid and your sale completes, end of story.

pipsta

justjohn wrote: »

Have you got a roofer lined up??
You may be able too get him too bodge it...
Think you will have too do what the lender says or get a new lender ...they can be fickle...

As its only the guttering think Im going to do it myself, hardly anything wrong with it at the moment, just think the bank is being awkward!

Ive got the lloyds TSB lend a hand mortgage so theyve had the parents money for months now already, robbing !!!!!!!s! GIVE me my bloody loan!

marcg

Don't do it yourself. 1. You might fall off the roof. 2. You won't have any invoice to show the bank that it has been done.