Pre-Fab Mortgage Advice

kennylombardi

Hi all,

I am looking to buy an ex local authority house in Scotland. It is a pre-fab build and am wondering if anyone has any advice on mortgages. The council has roughcasted the house but it has not been repaired as such. I have spoken to Santander who have advised they may offer a mortgage subject to survey however i'm wondering if anyone has bought a house like this and if they have any advice they can offer?

Thanks,
Kenny

kingstreet

We need to know the name and construction method, such as Dorran Type 2, or Dorran Type 3 and PRC, PRC Panels, Timber & Concrete Panels.

You also need to know if the construction type was deemed defective under the 85 Housing Act;-

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1985/68/contents

kennylombardi

Hi there,

Thanks for coming back so quickly.

Its 'winsor' something but I cant remember exactly. Its concrete and steel cladding. I found the details last time I looked on google and like a muppet forgot to write it down. I'll check and update the thread asap.

Thanks,
Kenny

kennylombardi

Hi,

It's a Whitson Fairhurst build.

Thanks,
Kenny

kingstreet

According to my Nationwide guide, Whitson-Fairhurst produced reinforced concrete properties in the period 1940 to 1959 which are registered defective under the 1984 Housing Defects Act, or the Scottish equivalent.

In their original form, such properties are unmortgageable and they would need to be repaired under an approved repair scheme to make them mortgageable.

I can't tell you the attitude of every lender, but a property deemed defective is going to be very difficult to mortgage, if not impossible, if it is not repaired first.

If Colleys (Halifax BoS in-house surveyor) has branches in Scotland, it may be worth ringing them to see what stance they would take. It might save you the cost of the valuation, if the answer is always going to be "no."

kennylombardi

Thank you very much for the feedback. The local council have done some work to them although im not sure it qualifies as a repair as such. Certainly the walls have all been skimmed and roughcasted.

Ill look to see if Colleys have an office in Scotland and give them a ring.

kingstreet

Any other chartered surveyor should be able to give you a steer. Abbey/Santander use Esurv or Countrywide, so either of them could help too.

Jimbo1976

Here is a link to the Colleys web site. Pop your postcode in here. It will give you the local surveyors number. Hopefully they will know the property itself.

Good luck

http://www.colleys.co.uk/business/mortgage-brokers/contact-us/contact-a-local-surveyor/