Can I mortgage this house?

sebdangerfield

Hi, just looking for a little help.

I'm looking to move home soon with my girlfirend. We've seen a house that's really interested us and we're pretty smitten with it. It has everything we're looking for and will require a fair amount of modernising to bring it up to scratch. The only possible problem is the house has no kitchen at the moment. The previous owners converted it to a guest house and lived next door so made all meals in their home and took them accross to the guests. The estate agent says this means most lenders would not consider this property mortgagable. Is this correct? Are there any lenders that you know of who would mortgage this property?

happybroker

Off the top of my head I believe that the property would be classed as "defective" under the 1985 Housing Act if it has no kitchen.

I think that the vendor would only need to put a sink in there but if it's been used as a guest house there may be planning issues also.

sebdangerfield

Thanks Happybroker. Does that mean it's still Mortgagable without a kitchen? (other issues regarding the guesthouse aside)

RobertoMoir

I'm somewhat surprised that you regard the lack of a kitchen as only a "possible" problem!

notisis

Why not have a chat with a couple of mainstream high street lenders and ask what their lending policy might be in this situation before you do anything. It will only be the cost of a phone call or pop into a local branch of a bank or building society. If you get the same response from all of them then you'll know pretty much where you stand when you go to apply for a mortgage whether direct to an institution or via a broker.

sebdangerfield

RobertoMoir wrote: »

I'm somewhat surprised that you regard the lack of a kitchen as only a "possible" problem!

To be fair, the lack of a kitchen isn't a problem at all. It's the possible lack of mortgage as a result that could be. I'll just fit a kitchen.

sebdangerfield

notisis wrote: »

Why not have a chat with a couple of mainstream high street lenders and ask what their lending policy might be in this situation before you do anything. It will only be the cost of a phone call or pop into a local branch of a bank or building society. If you get the same response from all of them then you'll know pretty much where you stand when you go to apply for a mortgage whether direct to an institution or via a broker.

Thanks for the reply. I will be speaking to my FA on Monday, as it's the weekend I just wanted to know if anyone on here has any idea of if this would be a problem?

PasturesNew

If it's currently registered as a guest house, you'd need to get it de-registered, planning application for change of use back to residential probably. You'd probably get it, but it might still need doing.

RobertoMoir

sebdangerfield wrote: »

To be fair, the lack of a kitchen isn't a problem at all. It's the possible lack of mortgage as a result that could be. I'll just fit a kitchen.

Go through a broker who can advise on the best way to approach the banks perhaps? This is one case where someone who knows how to work the field might be of real use to you.