No boiler in house - does it affect the mortgage?

jonathan_1983

Hello everyone,

I am hoping someone can shed some light on this, here is the situation:

I went to see a house last Wednesday as it fits in with my budget, nice area etc. so I arranged a second viewing for today (Saturday).

However, in between Wednesday and Saturday, the advert has changed to:

'the property does not benefit from a central heating boiler, so this must be a CASH PURCHASE only.'

I knew it did not have a boiler in the property from when I went to see it on Wednesday. I spoke to the estate agent today and he explained that certain lenders will not see it as habitable as it does not have heating. All the radiators and necessary pipes are all in place though.

I have a mortage in principle with HSBC so I rang them today and after speaking to different people, the woman said that she is 90% sure that when the house valuation takes place, the surveyor/valuer will need to see the heating operating in the house as part of the 'checklist'.

Now the house is 12 years old, below current market value as it's a repossession, is this lack of boiler going to cause me a headache?

Is it possible that when the house is valued and they see everything is in place but the boiler that the conditions could be that a boiler is installed in a pre-determined timeline? Or that the mortgage provider holds back part of the mortgage and releases once the boiler is installed?

The last thing I want to do is agree the mortgage with HSBC and for them to withdraw the offer due to no boiler in the property.

Any advice would be hugely appreciated! Thanks.

DVardysShadow

You need to check with your lender. As I see it, it should not be a show stopper, as houses never used to have central heating, but would be mortgageable - however for a modern house, if there is no fireplace, it arguably has no heating system and all plumbing is therefore vulnerable to a freeze up.

The normal way to deal with this would be for the lender to put a retention on the mortgage offer, so if the works were worth £2000, you would not get the last £2000 until you had completed the works.

opinions4u

I'd expect them (any lender, but HSBC in particular) to decline the mortgage or impose a 100% retention - no release of funds until there's a boiler.

This assumes there is no other system in the property for heating and hot water.

marvin

I find this a strange reason to decline (not that i dispute it) I just lived in a house with 2 non working boilers for 2 years (2 of the coldest winters) with no hot water or heating (well yes electric plug in heating convector heaters and the shower and washing machine heated their own water).

I now have 3 boilers 2 non working (I will be stripping them out soon) and 1 brand new fully working boiler (and brand spanking new heating system, in one of the warmest winters we have had!).

I just do not get how not having a boiler makes a house uninhabitable.

Hey ho.

BTW if wondering why 2 boilers originally, the house had warm air heating which was one boiler and due to a council bodge up had another central heating boiler doing the hot water. (Ex council house)

domcastro

It must mean no source of heat / hot water? My place is electric heating and I have an emmersion tank - so no boiler

marvin

domcastro wrote: »

It must mean no source of heat / hot water? My place is electric heating and I have an emmersion tank - so no boiler

I got that, although plug in an electric heater and you have heat and boil a pan on the hob and you have hot water.

I just find it strange that we consider a house without modern conveniences "uninhabitable".

In the OP everything bar a boiler is present so must have access to plugging in a kettle and a heater.

I was quite happy (and with a lot lower bills BTW as it had to be really cold for me to plug heater in) and would have continued with it till all the work on the house was completed if I did not have a GF who insisted on heating.

blueberrypie

marvin wrote: »

I just find it strange that we consider a house without modern conveniences "uninhabitable".

It's not that it's "uninhabitable", it's that if it's repossessed it will be far more difficult to sell. Lenders aren't interested in renovating the houses they repossess - they just want to sell them as quickly as possible and recoup what they're owed.

plumtreebabe

I have a house with no central heating at all, no storage heaters or anything, just an immersion when we moved in and we didn't have it raised at all as an issue for getting a mortgage.

jonathan_1983

Just a quick update...

I rang HSBC again today as I wasn't convinced by the woman I spoke to yesterday. The person I spoke to checked with supervisor and colleagues and came back to say that it shouldn't be a factor as long as all necessary pipes and radiators are in place.

This makes me feel slightly more optimistic but I can still see this turning into a problem when the valuer comes round knowing how picky HSBC can be.

We shall see!

Yorkie1

If you do go for it, it might be worth asking your solicitor to wait until the surveyor has been round and you've received the lender's offer / response, before doing any chargeable work. That way you minimise any loss you might have if the lender's position isn't good news.

katsu

We bought a house a few years ago with no kitchen. Literally, pipes hanging out of the wall, no sink, no taps, no units etc. We had a retention (of the £2-3K I think) variety, which was released when we submitted invoices to prove the work had been done. Wass all fairly painless TBH.