My house has become un-mortgageable

hexiburner

I don't have measurements of wall thickness. The home-buyers reports does not give any measurements either. At present I am unable to measure wall thickness as I am not based in the property. However, from memory the thickness of the wall seems to vary, the top half of the house is probably no more than single brick which is covered with slate tile. Whilst the lower part of the property in probably 8 inch's thick,

Does anyone think I may have a legal case for compensation?

ILW

At the time the there would have been no problem with resale, it is the market that has changed, not the property.

slopemaster

But there are hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of properties with solid 9" walls. It was the standard method of construction before the first world war.

If that is what is involved, someone here is drastically over-reacting, as that would make all the houses in my street 'unmortgageable' - and they are clearly not.

(That is, assuming it is 'single skin' in the sense of not being cavity walling - and not in the sense of being a single half brick skin.)
OTOH, if the walls are only half brick thick - which I would doubt - then I would suggest that you have a claim against your surveyor for negligence. (I do not really see what it has to do with your lender - it is the surveyor who would be liable.)

hexiburner

slopemaster wrote: »

But there are hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of properties with solid 9" walls. It was the standard method of construction before the first world war.

If that is what is involved, someone here is drastically over-reacting, as that would make all the houses in my street 'unmortgageable' - and they are clearly not.

(That is, assuming it is 'single skin' in the sense of not being cavity walling - and not in the sense of being a single half brick skin.)
OTOH, if the walls are only half brick thick - which I would doubt - then I would suggest that you have a claim against your surveyor for negligence. (I do not really see what it has to do with your lender - it is the surveyor who would be liable.)

This was a point raised by the Estate agent. He suggested that single skin is one solid wall no cavity. And that as you have pointed out will affect many properties. The estate agent used there own surveyor who said that single skin properties are likely to be declined finance.

slopemaster

I'm a bit mystified by this.
a quick google suggests 2.3 million properties have solid walls.

But they wouldn't normally be described as 'single skin' so perhaps you somehow do have only a half-brick thick wall!???

What does youe EPC say?
That should describe the form of construction, even if only 'assumed to be'...

RedFraggle

Single skin means just one line of bricks, standard wall construction on an older property is a double thickness with no cavity which is typical victorian terrace construction.

ILW

Why the problem adding a second skin? Bonded concrete blocks should do the job and are pretty cheap.

slopemaster

Was the surveyor a member of the RICS?

slopemaster

ILW wrote: »

Why the problem adding a second skin? Bonded concrete blocks should do the job and are pretty cheap.

I don't agree.
(And that's putting it politely)
This is major work!

slopemaster

If the surveyor is not willing to talk to you, I would suggest you get legal advice on whether they may have been negligent. Do you have legal insurance? If not, it might be a suitable case for the ambulance-chasers (no win, no fee).