Un-Mortgageable / Un-Habitable House ?? **Advice Needed**

dndesouza

Hello... apologies if something like this has been posted before but I am new and couldnt find anything similar to my situation.

OK so myself and my husband finally invested in our first house in June 2011. The house was a repossession that we paid £80K for. We put £16K deposit down so now our mortgage is £64K.

The house wasnt pleasant but we thought it was merely a case of some cosmetic work. However, as soon as we got the keys we started working on our new cosmetic project.

1) We started stripping the wallpaper away and the plaster was coming off too so we have had to strip it right back to the brick so that we can get the whole house plastered.
2) We got an electrician in about moving some electrics etc and he advised us that the whole house needed re-wiring. We got a second opinion on this but the first guy was right and not trying to do us over.
3) We had the existing warm air central heating checked out cause we thought we could just get certain parts replaced to bring it up to date but the whole unit got shut down and deemed un-fit for purpose so now we need new boiler / central heating etc.
4) In the meantime we have had new doors / windows fitted because the old ones were single glazed with rotten wooden frames. We have also stripped out the old kitchen / bathroom units etc so that we can begin the re-wiring and the plastering of the whole house.

However, here is where our dilemma has begun... money is fastly running out... after doors / windows / electics and plastering etc we dont have enough to get the house finished. So last Saturday (2nd Oct) I went to see a mortgage advisor at Barclays (our mortgage provider) and he took me through an application for additional borrowing. I explained all of the above to him and he said there shouldnt be a problem as long as we got through credit check... which we did ! So things were looking positive.
On Thursday (6th Oct) they re-valued the house again and on Friday (7th Oct) I get the bad news call from my mortgage advisor to tell me that they cant lend to us because:
1) the house is no longer mortgageable and
2) the house is un-habitable because there is no running water / no kitchen units and no bathroom etc etc

So Im very disappointed and dont know which way to turn next because I just dont see how we will ever afford to finish the house ? Its not even an old run down property. Its a 3 bedroomed mid-terraced house built in 1965 !!

So I asked if I could appeal against the decision because I feel we are being treated un-fairly... how many people renovate their houses these days and things turn out worse than they expected ?? Its like we are being penalised for gutting out our house to make it better and more saleable in the future !

At the first instant my mortgage advisor said "No" I couldnt appeal but when I continued on at him about how I felt etc he gave me a phone number for head office and advised I phone them myself because it would sound better coming from me rather than him ?! I immediately phoned head office only to find out that they wont talk to me and that my mortgage advisor needs to make the appeal on my behalf. I phoned my mortgage advisor back who told me he couldnt do it today (Friday 7th Oct) because they were closing in the next 15 minutes but advised he would do it the following day (Saturday 8th Oct). However, I wasnt convinced, he didnt seem bothered on the phone and I tried to call head office again myself on Saturday and guess what - they were closed !!!

Does my advisor have any intentions of making an appeal for me ? If he doesnt how do I get round this and do it myself ??
Why did he tell me to appeal direct to head office, surely he wouldve known that they wouldnt talk to me ??
And also, why bother taking me through an application after telling him the condition of the house etc and knowing we would most likely get turned down ?

I just dont know what to do. My husband tells me not to worry but how can I not worry ? We are paying for a house that we arent living in. We are currently living in my parents house - was meant to be temporary whilst the house was renovated but I think we could be here a while

Help and advise desperately needed... dont know what to do next ??

Sorry for the long rant but needed to air it out because I have no one to talk too !!

opinions4u

Would they be prepared to release funds as soon as you can confirm that bathroom / kitchen / running water are in place?

It's completely up to the lender.

(Your post is the perfect example of why people should approach "doing up a house" with great care. I've seen too many people end up in a mess after committing to horrible homes without the resources in place to renovate)

jamesd

It's entirely common for standard mortgages to be unavailable if a property lacks working water and heating systems. You may need to switch to a mortgage at higher cost that allows construction work. Or perhaps better, use 0% credit card deals for all normal spending or use a personal loan.

You've reduced the value of the property at the moment so you may not even be able to get a standard mortgage for as much as you got originally even if you can find a willing lender.

If none of those are possible, delay it for as long as it takes to raise the money and spend it as you get it.

This sort of thing is why you sometimes see places for sale with refurbishment partly done.

dimbo61

I paid about £3900 for a complete rewire from the new RCB fusebox, £3500 for new central heating and 7 radiators ( valliant combi boiler) and alot more to have the whole house stripped back to the bare brick and replastered.
Stay with Mum and Dad and spend every spare moment working on your home
Can the " Bank of mum and dad help"
Do you have CC cards which offer 18 months 0% deals on spending ( which you repay asap)
B%Q have kitchens/bathrooms cheap ( keep it clean and simple WHITE) and a few nice bright tiles
Can you work extra hours / get another job

dndesouza

Thanks to everyone who responded. After careful thought and consideration and discussions with hubby...

We are going to just budget as best we can over the next few months to put aside every penny we can to get as much work done as possible. My husband is trying to do as much as he can without paying for labour charges etc he goes there every day after work till late and spends weekends there as well. Im already working full time so cant really do anymore than that other than manage our money and watch what we spend.

We are deffo gonna go for the 0% deal at B&Q and keep it simple... simple is my look anyway, I hate over the top stuff !

So at least we have the money to get the re-wiring and plastering done and the beginning stage of the central heating. After that we have nothing left so scrape together what we can to finish off central heating and then pay B&Q a visit to get the kitchen / bathroom fitted and then if we still require lending from the bank to pay back anything we have borrowed or to simply pay off the kitchen / bathroom etc and pay for whatever is left to do (which wont be much I imagine ??) then we will approach the bank AGAIN to see if they can help us second time round with the house now being habitable !

So wish me luck, its gonna be tough but hopefully we will get there !
Oh and I would love to ask my parents for help but they arent in a position to help to that extent.

Thanks again everyone !! xx

seraphina

With regards to the warm air heating, make sure you get an engineer who is experienced in dealing with warm air heating systems. Many heating engineers will just take one look at it and say that you need a new gas system, usually because they don't know what they're doing with them.

There are minimal moving parts to warm air heating - you can replace the warm air "boiler" easily, which will be far cheaper than converting to gas or oil central heating.