Need some help with mortgages and wether our house is mortgageable

manda1205

Could really do with some help please, if anybody in the know can.
We live in private rented 3 bed semi, in small village. Landlord died last year and daughters took over. Estate is still in probate at the moment but they have approached us all and offered us chance to buy. Trouble is their valuation is VERY different from ours. They want £140,000. Now house has huge list of work doing, first thing roof, which is slate with no felt, then drainage, all 4 houses are linked to first one, which has the sepctic tank, where do we stand with this? Is the house even mortgageable? We also have stairs falling to bits, bodged with other bits of wood, underneath the stairs is bare mud, no concrete, we have cracks in similar places towards the front of the house, not huge but enough to rip the wallpaper. We asked them to value at in the state it was in before we moved in, but dont think they have. We have put oil central heating in, totally re-decorated, except the stairs as every time you pull off the woodchip the wall crumbles and comes with it. Oh and we also have huge iron bar running through outer wall to keep house together.
There is a house just up the road which is in really good order and is same size etc and is up for £150,000 but has been on market for 2 years.
We can only get mortgage for £60,000 (£20,000 being a deposit), but we have family members who could help but only if we get the price right. What do we do? Anyone think it will be mortgageable? (as if not we can use as a bargaining tool) Can we get valuations done even if we dont own the house?
Sorry for long thread, but we're so confused and need all the help we can get, many thanks if you can give advice.

Jenniefour

Probably first thing to consider is do you really want to buy the house - what you are describing is a house which has a lot of serious things to sort out, including structural. If the property is mortgageable are you OK with taking all that work on.

And I think it's fine to get a valuation done, after all you are the potential buyer.

manda1205

Jenniefour wrote: »

Probably first thing to consider is do you really want to buy the house - what you are describing is a house which has a lot of serious things to sort out, including structural. If the property is mortgageable are you OK with taking all that work on.

And I think it's fine to get a valuation done, after all you are the potential buyer.

Forgot to say we have 4 rotten wooden windows too.
But yes as you say we know there is a lot of work to be done. The biggest thing is, this is a village I have lived in the majority of my 31yrs. I love it here, I want my daughter to be brought up in this village too, she loves it. The house is liveable as it is, as we do live here and have for 5 1/2 years (I lived next door with my mum and dad previous). We also have my brother who works for a large building company and we know we can get work done as and when we have money and his lads can do the work cheaper for us. Although biggest worry is structual, so suppose we need a proper survey done to find this out dont we?

CloudCuckooLand

Historic subsidence/movement/poor design, hence iron bar.

Ongoing, moving cracks by the sounds of it, as it has damaged the redecoration = subsidence/movement/poor fix. They should get their insurers in to fix the place properly before you even talk about buying. Any other buyer would want the same, if they have any sense.

After they do, if they do!, you need a full structural survey. Which could be around £1k. Just to find out its unmortgageable (and maybe uninsurable?...ask about their existing building insurance..if they have none, you know its falling down. If they refuse to involve insurer, or repair it themselves, walk away...)

Money pit, until they fix it.

manda1205

CloudCuckooLand wrote: »

Historic subsidence/movement/poor design, hence iron bar.

Ongoing, moving cracks by the sounds of it, as it has damaged the redecoration = subsidence/movement/poor fix. They should get their insurers in to fix the place properly before you even talk about buying. Any other buyer would want the same, if they have any sense.

After they do, if they do!, you need a full structural survey. Which could be around £1k. Just to find out its unmortgageable (and maybe uninsurable?...ask about their existing building insurance..if they have none, you know its falling down. If they refuse to involve insurer, or repair it themselves, walk away...)

Money pit, until they fix it.

Thanks, these are very old cottages, built around 1900, the landlord was a local farmer, hence 4 farm cottages. I am extremely doubtful he ever had them insured. To get any work done was like drawing blood from a stone, but we had cheap rent (same for mum and dad), so you just put up with it. Didnt realise a structual survey would be so much though. But thanks for your help, will defo be asking about insurance and what their thoughts of the cracks are. Im developing a BIG list.
Our only other option is moving to a town, so we need to find out as much as poss as thats our last resort.

DVardysShadow

What type of tenancy do you have? If it is a longstanding tenancy with protection and you cannot be evicted at will, then the open market price of the house is the price with tenants in place, which is probably between 40% and 60% of the value of the same property with vacant possession. After that discount, you could deduct the cost of repairs. You might need to wait a year or 2 for the executors and beneficiaries to realise that the value is substantially lower than the open market good repair value - at which point you could negotiate for them to buy you out of the tenancy. Put together with your current warchest, you could be in a good position to move on.

hillcats

By the sound of things I think you would be better off moving on... It sounds like a big headache to any owner. Dont let them sell it to you... it needs too much work.

Is it on their land also, if so it will never be freehold possibly ?

manda1205

hillcats - They have said they will sell us the freehold of the property.

DvardysShadow - We have only been here 5 1/2 yrs (Its my mum and dad next door who are regulated as theyve been here for 31yrs, so you're saying my mum and dad could make some money out of them though with them buying them out?). So basically they can give us 2 mnths to go and then sell 3 of the 4 houses as vacant properties. Our headache is finding out if this house is worth 140,000 and if its mortgageable or not.

Joe_Bloggs

Why not ask your Brother ?

. We also have my brother who works for a large building company and we know we can get work done as and when we have money and his lads can do the work cheaper for us.

Do they know a surveyor that can look at the state of the situation ? My other situation would be to contact shelter for their advice.

J_B.

manda1205

Joe_Bloggs wrote: »

Why not ask your Brother ?

Yeah my dad has just this second come round and said my brother is getting their surveyor to come over at the weekend. So thats good.

Do they know a surveyor that can look at the state of the situation ? My other situation would be to contact shelter for their advice.

J_B.

As for Shelter not sure they will do anything, we have a lot of savings £21000 at the moment. So the council just said we can go rent private as we have so much money to use for deposits and stuff. They dont care that we wouldnt be able to keep up the monthly rent payments. But this is with us trying to keep us in the village, only way we can afford it is it to to towns.

Joe_Bloggs

@manda1205
That is great news about the surveyor. I am sure that Shelter also rely on a great deal of local volunteer surveyor expertise.
J_B.