My house has become un-mortgageable

bigadaj

Good to hear you got resolution, but a salutary tale. Whilst you should go for rics surveyors, the rics and many professional bodies are normally more of a trade association, and are likely to back their members more than An individual client.
this goes for any professional advisers, as whilst PI cover and membership of a professional body/ institution is touted, no one likes to admit they are wrong, and you will always struggle in cases like these.

You will normally ahem to formally claim, give reasonable time periods and then instruct a solicitor to get anywhere, so you ahem to risk further money and be certain of your case. The big leverage is a threat to claim on the PI as a single claim of any significance will normally be sufficient for subsequent premiums to be uneconomic, at which point the company may shut down and just re - open in another guise.

Looks like the new purchaser of the property got a good deal, and the bottom line is that it has stood there for many years without a problem, and will almost certainly continue to do for many years.

Gentoo365

Surely at the time you bought it there was no problem that the surveyor could have foreseen.

I cannot see how he could have predicted the fact that mortgage companies would change their criteria in the future.

bigadaj

The OP wouldn't have been able to raise a mortage on the property if the surveyor had correctly identified it, there's been no change in the lenders approach.

Nickatherton

Gentoo365 wrote: »

Surely at the time you bought it there was no problem that the surveyor could have foreseen.

I cannot see how he could have predicted the fact that mortgage companies would change their criteria in the future.

The construction is not standard (i.e. cavity or solid brick c. 250mm thick), does not offer the load bearing capabilities of a standard wall and could also lead to damp/condensation problems. The surveyor should have made reference to these issues.

The other issue is that of buildings insurance and whether an insurer would pay out in the event of a claim.

I have pulled out of a house purchase today because of this very issue - a two storey rear extension built of single skin brick, the issue being the load bearing capability of the external walls given the weight of the roof etc that they have to support and potential problems with damp and condensation.

Certainly if theses issues exist the vendor isn't going to tell you !!

What would be interesting is what can be done to improve the load bearing capability of the building and what the costs are likely to bear....does anyone know ??

bigadaj

Costs would be significant. It won't be practical to simply add another skin because you can't tie it in, you're redigging foundations etc

Therefore it's either a case of knocking it down and rebuilding it, or using something like a steel frame which is unlikely to be visually appealing.

In reality these structures have been in place for years or decades with little signs of distress; this certainly wouldn't be a good design for a new build but if its been there for years then its unlikely to deteriorate further, not that this would persuade a lender or surveyor.

It's all subjective, lets be honest very few older houses will have sufficient foundation to meet current standards, but that doesn't mean they are unmortgageable it's just a lack of evidence of adverse impact that means investigation isn't worthwhile.

_Andy_

Nickatherton wrote: »

The construction is not standard (i.e. cavity or solid brick c. 250mm thick), does not offer the load bearing capabilities of a standard wall and could also lead to damp/condensation problems. The surveyor should have made reference to these issues.

The other issue is that of buildings insurance and whether an insurer would pay out in the event of a claim.

I have pulled out of a house purchase today because of this very issue - a two storey rear extension built of single skin brick, the issue being the load bearing capability of the external walls given the weight of the roof etc that they have to support and potential problems with damp and condensation.

Certainly if theses issues exist the vendor isn't going to tell you !!

What would be interesting is what can be done to improve the load bearing capability of the building and what the costs are likely to bear....does anyone know ??

you realise the last post on the thread was a year ago?

bigadaj

_Andy_ wrote: »

you realise the last post on the thread was a year ago?

Yes but the poster did have a similar story.