BISF House - Structural Engineer Report required

tiffanie

Hi all,

We are currently in the process of purchasing our first home and we need a bit of advice...

The house that we are buying is a BISF house. We informed the mortgage company (Nationwide) right at the start and set the ball rolling. We paid for the Homebuyers survey and now the mortgage company have come back to us to advise that we need an additional report from a structural engineer as the surveyor that they sent round does not deal with BISF houses.

As we are new to this my question is - Should the mortgage company send a surveyor that deals with BISF houses as we informed them from the start, or is this common practice to request additional reports?

Many thanks,

Tiffanie.

Hump

Congratulations on finding a mortgage company willing to consider a steel/ concrete house approximately 65 years old! You were always going to have to have a full structural survey - fortunately the BISF construction isn't inherently defective.

withabix

These houses were a good idea, but weren't always well executed. Most non-residential buildings are built this way after all.

You will need to find and pay for your own structural surveyor. They should be fairly easy to find in areas with BISF houses.

The Nationwide will only do a Valuation survey.

s_b

you would be mad not to pay a proper surveyor to asses this house to confirm to you its worth buying ,25 years is a long time

mumofthetwins

Hi
We have one of these houses which we currently rent out.
When we got the morgage for it we did get a survey done and the guy seemed most interested to see if the metal had been treated (some arnt and hes said this would have been a problem).
The roof is not tiled its like a big sheet - but this means no leaks and no slipped tiles - not like my victorin house im in :mad:
We could only find birmingham midshires (buy to let bit of halifax) to get the morgage through. On a plus note its really easy to do interanl work, the walls can just be sawn through, and i know this is the way alot of newer extensions are being built, and alot of houses in the states are built this way too.
Hope this helps
Lisa

studio500

tiffanie wrote: »

Hi all,

We are currently in the process of purchasing our first home and we need a bit of advice...

The house that we are buying is a BISF house. We informed the mortgage company (Nationwide) right at the start and set the ball rolling. We paid for the Homebuyers survey and now the mortgage company have come back to us to advise that we need an additional report from a structural engineer as the surveyor that they sent round does not deal with BISF houses.

As we are new to this my question is - Should the mortgage company send a surveyor that deals with BISF houses as we informed them from the start, or is this common practice to request additional reports?

Many thanks,

Tiffanie.

Hello Tiffanie
Sorry to hear that you are having problems with your Homebuyers report.
This type of report is usually all that is required for the purchase of a BISF house unless the surveyor identifies issues with the structure that require further investigation. If this is so a structural survey is requested that could either be invasive or non invasive.

The fact is though that you have paid for a survey and the person that has attended is unfamiliar with BISF properties and so you should insist that the company send a surveyor who is familiar with steel framed non-traditional construction.
As it stands so far your money has been wasted as you have paid but not received anything relating to this very specific type of property.
This can be a problem with any form of non-traditional property and not just BISF houses. Many surveyors are ill educated with this build type but that is no excuse for you not to receive the proper survey that you have already paid for.

I would ask to speak directly to a supervisor at Nationawide or better still ask to speak to the homebuyer survey team directly to put this point forward. You may find that most building societies now contract out there surveys to companies such as esurv etc.

Nationwide have provided mortgages for many BISF Houses in the past along with Santander and Halifax but it can be a bit of a lottery as some apply varying terms if it is a BISF house and I understand that Nationwide may do this.

In fact I recall a recent conversation with another Nationwide mortgage application here http://www.diydoctor.org.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?f=202&t=28586 where the customer was told that BISF would not be a problem but later the application was refused due to the construction type.

There is a lot more information available here http://www.bisfhouse.com and a specific article relating to BISF surveys.

I hope this helps

Marc

studio500

Hump wrote: »

Congratulations on finding a mortgage company willing to consider a steel/ concrete house approximately 65 years old! You were always going to have to have a full structural survey - fortunately the BISF construction isn't inherently defective.

Sorry but your assumptions are a little off here.

BISF Houses do not automaticaly require a full structural survey and mortgages are readily available for this type of property however the number of companies who do lend on non-traditional contructed dwellings are not as asbundant as those who lend on traditional properties.

The 65 year age has little or no bearing as a BISF house has the same expected lifespan as a traditional property.

studio500

mumofthetwins wrote: »

Hi
We have one of these houses which we currently rent out.
When we got the morgage for it we did get a survey done and the guy seemed most interested to see if the metal had been treated (some arnt and hes said this would have been a problem).
The roof is not tiled its like a big sheet - but this means no leaks and no slipped tiles - not like my victorin house im in :mad:
We could only find birmingham midshires (buy to let bit of halifax) to get the morgage through. On a plus note its really easy to do interanl work, the walls can just be sawn through, and i know this is the way alot of newer extensions are being built, and alot of houses in the states are built this way too.
Hope this helps
Lisa

Hi Lisa glad to hear yours went through.
It sounds like your surveyor was getting the steel treatment requirement mixed up with certain defective pre-cast reinforced conrete houses that required extensive treatment.
BISF have never required any additional steel treatments unless severe corrosion was ever identified which is very rare.

Sadly all too often surveyors haven't got a clue when it comes to BISF properties, so much so that some even report them as defective under the housing act which is totaly inaccurate.

I'm glad yours is serving you well though:)

studio500

Hi again Tiffanie

Further to my last
I have contacted the Nationwide Dept at Countrywide Surveyors who undertake the conveyancing and homebuyer surveys for Nationwide.

I poised the question of a surveyor attending a property that is familiar with BISF construction. They state that if you notify them prior to the survey they will try to send a surveyor who is familiar with this property type.
They say that structural surveys are usually only required for properties over 150 years old and that may be of non-traditional construction such as a thatched barn etc.

I would strongly suggest that you contact Countrywide to discuss your specific situation further on 0844 2094409. You will need to ask for the Nationwide Department.

I hope this helps

Marc

ed110220

I recently bought a BISF house and am very happy with it. Fortunately my dad knows a structural engineer who specialises in steelwork and she was fascinated by it during the survey. Contrary to popular belief, a BISF house has been found to be as durable as a traditionally-built house of the same age, though the problems you are likely to encounter are quite different.

The only thing that caught me out is that although Nationwide and all other major mortgage lenders will provide mortgages for a BISF house, only Halifax (that I know of) will provide for a house with an asbestos cement roof. Most BISF houses were built with asbestos cement corrugated roofs. This cost me a valuation survey from Nationwide, who failed to mention they don't do asbestos roofs. If it has its original asbestos roof, this will be obvious as it's grey and corrugated.

My main piece of advice would be only to seek advice from those who have actual experience of BISF houses, as those without are likely to give misleading advice based on other types of system-built house that may not be applicable to a BISF or pure folk-wisdom eg that it was only meant to last 10 years, it's inherently defective etc.

A very good source of information about BISF houses is https://www.bisfhouse.com

kingstreet

The question which needs answering is, has the surveyor requested a structural engineer's report because he wants additional information about the property, or has he simply fudged the issue because he doesn't know enough about steel-framed properties?

I've arranged plenty of Homebuyer's Reports in the past and if the surveyor found something untoward, he requested additional reports, like that of a structural engineer's opinion.

It wouldn't be the first time I've seen a surveyor carry out a full structural, then order a structural engineer's report as well.

Here's a link to the website for structural engineers. It may be an idea to search for one in your area and talk to them about the property and the cost to see if they can actually provide the information the surveyor requires;-

http://www.findanengineer.com/

I'd use the "Surveying: Domestic Property" dropdown in your search.