HABITABLE for mortgage purposes -lloyds tsb

wannahouse

we have an offer accepted for a fantastic grade 2 listed country house on a few acres...
it has seen much better days, but we have taken two skilled builders around it ,who are used to working on old and listed buildings and both think its in great shape for its age (180 yrs old).

i am still panicking about it passing the valuation survey criteria for lloyds bank though, as we don't want to lose it for something that is easily fixed, as lloyds don't do RETENTIONS. because of how we earn our money, lloyds is our only option for a mortgage atm so we can't go looking for someone who does offer retentions...

it HAS:
-a kitchen (awful, couldnt use it its so gross, but a kitchen all the same)
- a bathroom..old, but perfectly acceptable
-RUNNING WATER
-decent roof (although we will have to replace some missing slates, but not a big job)
-old electric storage heaters and fireplaces

it also has :
-a crack running up an interior wall through two floors, that the builders both believe is historic
-a tree outside close to the property that is appearing to lift tiles in the conservatory with its roots, but again both builders didn't believe that it threatens the building, and can be dealt with by an experiencd tree surgeon
-old wiring...(we will get an electrician to wire up the part of the house we will initially be using when we move in)
-damp going 1 metre up the wall at the back of the building in one room (due to the ground level being higher than the floor level in this instance)

as it is an old listed building, you can't do chemical damp courses, and the old places were made for water to evaporate from the structure, so sorting out the ground level and drainage out the back will solve the problem.

the house is DRY inside and there is no dampness on any of the floors whatsoever...

it does look fairly dishevelled though, but a good cleanup and stripping off alot of the hanging wallpaper and pulling up the old carpet will make it look a whole lot better to start with.

we think its acceptable enough to move into as soon as we buy with 3 young kids, although obviously we wont be living in luxury!

we plan to do it up over the years with our disposable income (which will be sufficient) starting with the most pressing jobs.


i just don't want to lose the chance to buy it, as it will sit there and rot otherwise...not alot of people round here have money to just come and buy cash.

we have told the mortgage adviser about the property and he thinks it should be ok...they will most likely order a structural survey and if theres nothing serious, he said they would fund it..if there was a concern, it sounded like we could fix it, and then ask for the money...


from people with some experience of this, do you think it should be fine to pass valuation???

the price we will be buying it for is very good, and neither of the builders (who buy fixer uppers themselves) could believe that we got it for ANYWHERE near that price, and everyone agrees that money wise, its certainly a steal, so just concerned about it being considered mortgagable..

Goldiegirl

Just wondering how much you are buying it for and what size mortgage you require.

A low LTV is less risk to the lender so they might be more flexible on the condition of the property if you are applying for a relatively small mortgage in relation to the valuation of the property.

If you need to borrow a higher percentage of the valuation of the property, you could run into problems. The valuer may recommend that certain works are done as a condition of the mortgage.

You say that Lloyds don't do retentions, so they could insist on works being done before ANY of the mortgage funds are advances.

It's likely a lot will depend on the LTV.

wannahouse

it is 85% lvt.

if we have to we can beg borrow and steal the money for repairs from our parents, but we would rather not have to do that...

he seemed to think as long as it was not threatening the structure of the building ,they would fund it..?
if we had to spend 10,000 before they'd give us the mortgage, then we would ,as its too good to lose, but it would be so much better just to know we can go ahead and do works as we have the money,instead of a complication before the sale goes through.

if we did have to do work, before they'd mortgage it, how long do you get, as i thought you aip only lasts three months?

we have had ours already underwritten at lloyds, as it had to go to the underwriters to get approved, as we are a non standard case, so we just have to provide one payslip now and pass valuation...

nerve wracking this whole thing...we have loved the house ever since we first set eyes on it, but never thought it would be possibly ours!!!

we have to do whatever it takes to get this through, as it needs to have life put back in to it!


:smileyhea

Dukesy

I can only wish you good luck - Lloyds took one look at the particulars on our current house and said no, on the basis that it was 'uninhabitable' straight away... And the particulars didn't make it look too terrible - it was and still is a major renovation project, but on the surface it just looked unloved, shabby and a bit damp. Lloyds, however, wanted it to be prettymuch perfect before they'd consider lending on it.

In fact, everyone except Halifax agreed that it was uninhabitable, which meant we had to plump for rates which certainly weren't the best

wannahouse

really?
well thats a shame!
what part of the uk are you in???
hopefully we get a nicer valuer!

someone was living in it until a few yrs ago...

if it meets their criteria for "inhabitable" ,then how did they come to that conclusion?

ours meets everything we were told it should, working kitchen, bathroom, heating, watertight roof etc...i was just concerned about the damp and crack ,if that would be a problem...

we would have buckleys of getting a mortgage with anyone else at this point i think, as i have already done the rounds with brokers and lloyds was our only option in our circumstances atm...

wannahouse

the solicitors and agent seem to think we'll be fine , getting the mortgage offered on the house as it is habitable, although needs work...are they blowing hot air, or am i just worrying myself needlessly by looking online for everything that can go wrong?

Ulfar

My only concern would be that you sound like you want to completely renovate the property, with a listed building this can be more complicated.

wannahouse

were not planning on doing any grand design, just restoring it to its former grandeur.

it will be a matter of smartening up the exteror/interior , and then doing a new kitchen and bathroom one day when we have saved the money.
we wont be moving any walls or changing the exterior in any way, but hopefully can get rid of some of the ugly cheap art deco fireplaces they added in a few rooms before it was listed, and put back some genuine ,period ones in those places..
if allowed down the track, we would like to add an orangery, or the like...

i have already spoken to the conservation officer a whileback,,,

we have the disposable income to do works budgeted for each year, and i realise listed buildings can cost more to work on, but our builder, who works on many listed buildings in the area has looked at the place, and given us an idea of the cost to do it up, and it is in the ball park we guessed..there is nothing that is immediately threatening we would need to do, and the damp problem would cost a lot less to sort out than what i had guessed anyway..

the agent said a quite a few people were put off when they found out they wouldn't be able to do some whizz bang ugly mc mansion thing to it, but we love it just as it is!!! even if we could do no more than make it look like it once did, and redecorate.