Water tower stopped new mortgage?

Markc1972

Hi All,

Had to come on board this evening just to try and get some understanding as to why a valuer has recommended not lending on our property due to the village water tower?

We are coming to the end of our current five year fixed deal with our existing mortgage company and so have started to shop about. Our broker suggested three companies one with an arrangement fee and two free ones. We have opted for the arrangement fee one as over the next two years works out to be slightly cheaper.

Being self employed in the construction industry this process has been fraught with issues but this one has really stunned me. Knowing our property would need valuing, this evening I took a call from our broker letting us know someone has viewed it and has recommended not lending on it due to the proximity of a water tower. Now it is fair to say we are close to it but our boundary is not the boundary of the water tower compound. The tower was built in the early 70's and is of concrete construction and can been seen from several miles away (Norfolk is fairly flat!)

Does anyone know of reasons why this would of been recommended as refusal to lend and if there are any ways of appeal. After all we have now paid £199 arrangement fee.

Thanks for reading.

kingstreet

Was the water tower there when you bought the property and if it was, what was the purchasing surveyor's view/comment?

Markc1972

Yes the tower has been here since the property was built in the 70's as for the opinion of our first and second surveyors I don't know there was one as nothing was mentioned about it.

Markc1972

I'm still trying to understand this.

Found out today the valuer ins't the problem and he has valued it above what we claimed it to be at so in terms of loan to value we are above the requirements, however, the under writer has said the property is unsuitable for mortgage.

It is still due to the water tower but I can't get any information on as to why its a problem. The tower has been here since before 90% of the houses were built in the village and we haven't had a problem securing our first mortgage when we bought it 10 years ago nor the second when we went of another fixed deal.

Does anyone have any ideas as to why a water tower is considered a risk when it has been valued by them and is great than what was expected?

Any help or comments greatly received

Many thanks

Goldiegirl

Could it be anything to do with Legionnaire's Disease? Isn't that linked to cooling/water towers?

ValHaller

Goldiegirl wrote: »

Could it be anything to do with Legionnaire's Disease? Isn't that linked to cooling/water towers?

It is an issue for cooling towers where water is sprayed into air, but for a static storage tank with mostly still water, I do not see this as an issue. Although it would not surprise me if someone somewhere has hold of the wrong end of the stick and is thinking of Legionnaires'

Goldiegirl

If I thought it, then I expect others do too .. Although I'm not on a position to stop a mortgage application!

I think the OP needs to go back to the lender and request a fuller explanation of why the underwriter says the property isn't suitable

Markc1972

Goldiegirl wrote: »

I think the OP needs to go back to the lender and request a fuller explanation of why the underwriter says the property isn't suitable

Thanks that is what I am going to do today. I need to understand why a water tower is a problem.

Jimbo1976

Go to this web site http://www.colleys.co.uk/business/mortgage-brokers/contact-us/contact-a-local-surveyor/

Pop your post code in and it will give you the details of your local Colleys Surveyor. Give them a call. They will be on the panel for most of the large lenders (even if they don't actively get work from them due to other commercial arrangements). So they will be aware of lenders property restrictions. They should be able to tell you which lenders would be happy to lend.

Markc1972

I now have the answer.

It is solely down to one persons opinion on the aesthetics of the water tower!

Mortgage company even had a straw pole in their office and the result was the majority would purchase our property even with a water tower as a neighbour yet this was over turned by the office underwriter and refused.

After paying £200 application fee I fuming! This can't be just?

I have applied to have the fee returned and initially it was point blank refused until I was put through to a manager who agreed with me that they are refusing to accept the professional opinion of their instructed surveyor. I am hoping to receive a full refund if not I will be taking this matter further!

patman99

OP, just a thought. As your current mortgage providers were happy to originally lend on your property, do they have another product in their portfolio that you could switch to ?.

I used to have a fixed-rate mortgage with Abbey & when the 3 years came to an end, I phoned them up & they swapped me onto a base rate tracker without any fees. I have switched mortgage providers twice since.