House turns out to be a repaired Airey

evilcartman

I'm in the process of selling my house in a Yorkshire market town and buying another one in Leeds.

My current house is fairly modern (built 1995) and my main reason for selling it is to pay off what's left of the mortgage and buy something outright with what's left and therefore become mortgage-free. I have a buyer, who wants to move in quickly as she has relocated to start a new job.

The house I have been planning to buy is an ex-council property, which I thought was standard bricks and mortar but the surveyor has told me it used to be a type of prefabricated house called an "Airey house". Worse still, I have not as yet seen any certification for it.

I know some on here will advise to walk away right now because of the stigma associated with Airey houses, repaired or otherwise. However, the house is currently mortgaged through a mainstream building society, which suggests to me that the repairs were done to an acceptable standard otherwise surely the building society wouldn't have touched it with a bargepole?

It would appear that the house was one of a group of 30 repaired by the council itself in 2001 and then bought by the current vendor under right-to-buy in 2004. So the chances are that there was never any certification for the work.

I won't be able to consult my solicitor about this until Wednesday (I only received the paperwork for the house on Saturday) and I'm being pressured to complete by Friday 31st August! Obviously I'm going nowhere until either the paperwork is sorted out or I choose to cut my losses and walk away.

Walking away isn't an easy option, as it will probably cost me over a grand in surveyor and legal fees for the aborted transactions. However, buying a possibly unsellable house would be an even worse option. I seem to be stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Can anyone advise on the questions I should be putting to my solicitor on Wednesday? Should I get her to press the council on what works were carried out and who signed them off? Could she raise questions with the building society on what paperwork they saw that persuaded them to accept it as mortgage security?

Notmyrealname

Ask your solicitor to request certification for the repairs, making the point that you may not proceed without it. You're going to need that certificate when you come to sell.

evilcartman

Notmyrealname wrote: »

Ask your solicitor to request certification for the repairs, making the point that you may not proceed without it. You're going to need that certificate when you come to sell.

Problem is that there may well not be one. It was repaired by the council when it was still a council property.

ILW

Walk away and cut your losses.
Unless the place is very very cheap.

evilcartman

In addition to the mortgage, the EPC gives a good rating (a high C on both counts), which does seem to hint that the conversion was done properly as an unrepaired Airey house's energy costs are appalling. I know that is hardly a basis for deciding to buy the house but I do think it's worth making further enquiries about the works.

In the event that I do walk away, I'm wondering if I may have a claim against the estate agents for my costs under the Property Misdescriptions Act? Surely they should have disclosed that it was a former prefab?

chewmylegoff

evilcartman wrote: »

In addition to the mortgage, the EPC gives a good rating (a high C on both counts), which does seem to hint that the conversion was done properly as an unrepaired Airey house's energy costs are appalling. I know that is hardly a basis for deciding to buy the house but I do think it's worth making further enquiries about the works.

In the event that I do walk away, I'm wondering if I may have a claim against the estate agents for my costs under the Property Misdescriptions Act? Surely they should have disclosed that it was a former prefab?

i am no expert but think that the problem with mortgaging airey houses is corrosion to the metal frame leading to potential structural instability - so the fact that it has got a brick skin and the fact that the EPC shows good energy efficiency does not necessarily mean that there are no issues with it. the fact that it is mortgaged sounds promising though, unless whoever the mortgage company is failed to identify this of course... seems unlikely but must be possible.

what did your surveyor say about it? did you have a full structural survey?

on suing the estate agents - maybe, but they would only be responsible if the vendor had told them and they had deliberately supressed the truth - even if they have done that it will probably be quite difficult to prove it, probably not worth the bother to be honest, but you can ask your solicitor about that as well, he is more likely to be able to advise you about that than an internet forum is.

personally, i would ignore the pressure to exchange, and wait until wednesday to speak to the solicitor. in the meantime, perhaps talk to the surveyor if you haven't done that already and see what they think.

evilcartman

chewmylegoff wrote: »

i am no expert but think that the problem with mortgaging airey houses is corrosion to the metal frame leading to potential structural instability - so the fact that it has got a brick skin and the fact that the EPC shows good energy efficiency does not necessarily mean that there are no issues with it. the fact that it is mortgaged sounds promising though, unless whoever the mortgage company is failed to identify this of course... seems unlikely but must be possible.

This is correct. There have been various contractors repairing these houses over the years and the proper solution is to take out all the steel and concrete and replace them with traditional brick walls. Others kept the concrete posts in situ but put specially shaped blocks around the posts to bear the load so that the concrete posts were no longer load-bearing. The third type just built a brick skin and kept the concrete posts load-bearing - this is obviously no good as the structure is still defective.

And this is why I'm trying to establish exactly what was done. Even if it was done by the council, surely they must have records of what was done and who signed it off?

I'll try to have a word with the surveyor tomorrow and also see the solicitor on Wednesday.

evilcartman

I've spoken to both the surveyor and the solicitor, and they agree that it would be foolish to proceed without the correct paperwork, so the vendor's solicitors are now pursuing this. I'm staying put until it's sorted, obviously.

BASFORDLAD

Good move.

DRP

reading the title i thought this house was going to be some kind of mountain-top alpine retreat.

disappointed.

I_want_a_baby

Just a quick comment to say we are in the process of buying a steel framed property.

We have paid £570 to get a full steel survey where they take a couple of bricks out from the front & back of the property and use a boroscope to properly assess the condition of the steel.
It was a very painless thing to do, was carried out very quickly & luckily came back that the steels were in perfect condition.

We chose to pay for this as
a) if they were in a bad state we would pull out of the sale and
b) if they are in a good state we would use the survey as proof to any potential buyers in the future that all was sound.

It was a good job we did get this carried out though as the mortgage company have now phoned and said the surveyor could not value the property without this report (as there was cavity wall insulation which could have increased damp and corroded the steel), and we were in the fortunate situation to reply 'i'll just send the report over '.

Also worth checking the buildings insurance quotes - make sure you choose the category 'pre fabricated non combustable' for the wall type!!

The reason we chose this house is that it is newly refurbished and approximately £40k cheaper than the same size 'normal' house in our area!

I hope this helps!

Stacey

ETA - Also our EPC came back with a 'C' reading which as you say is evident of additional works being done - If yours has cavity wall insulation I would suggest a survey as if this is not done properly or overfilled it can cause problems.