Can't get mortgage because there is another cottage on the land!?

hcfc

Hi
We are going through a move that looked fairly straightforward but the detached cottage I was buying actually has 2 additional other smaller cottages on the land on the same title
Stupidly I thought this was a good thing....turns out not!
Basically the main house is where we would live, there is a cottage which has been effectively rebuilt as a single story workshop and there is another cottage which is dilapidated inside but has had a new roof put on it by the current occupier....but is just used as a massive shed!
Santander went to do the survey for the mortgage ( well esurv did) and they aren't interested slightly in the actual value, nor the Loan to Value % ( which is about 85% but they weren't bothered anyway) as it is their policy to not lend any amount to anyone if there is more than one liveable property on the same title.
I tried HSBC but they are the same and won't lend on it. Bizarrely telling me that they might do if the spare cottage was in a worse condition. I pointed out that it was mad that they would lend me money if the cottage was knocked down, which they agreed!
It seems the concern is that we could split the property up and sell them separately at which point the main house may not be worth as much, or even I suppose there might be a dispute over which building they actually own the mortgage on
I have got an independent mortgage broker looking at it, but he didn't sound very hopeful
Any advice?
I'm more than happy if there was some type of covenant to say I couldn't split the property as we're buying it to get away from neighbours so that is the last thing I'd want to do!
Thanks a lot

HappyMJ

Splitting the property up would require a remortgage as the original title wouldn't exist any more replaced by 2 new titles so I doubt it's that. Maybe the shed is too much like a house. Does it have separate facilities? Toilet, kitchen? If the value of the property is based on the included value of the shed being a liveable unit then you could at any time just knock it down reducing the overall value of the property putting the lender at risk.

Senior_Paper_Monitor

For the right property / case there are a couple of lenders who might play ball.

Definitely a broker job - we did a couple of these last year: one was easy, the other a nightmare.

Leave it to your broker and he should be able to find something.

hcfc

Thanks

Happy...On the potential to split or not the mortgage companies did say that was the issue as weirdly if the cottage was knocked down they would be happy to lend on it! It is very clearly another property with a kitchen and toilet etc

Senior...thanks, A hope you're right, the broker is on it, although did say he expected issues

Fingers crossed

hcfc

Senior, any suggestions which lenders might be interested?
Thanks