Dorlonco construction

toasterman

Hello,
I'm currently looking to buy a house with my girlfriend. What we've been told we can borrow doesn't stretch to most of the areas of the city we're in, but one of the houses that we've seen that ticks a lot of boxes regarding type of street, area, distance to our workplaces, etc is a very reasonably priced property labelled as being of "Dorlonco construction".

The Internet seems quite sparse with information on this, and searching for other steel+concrete methods finds me very little similar.
It isn't this property, but looks a lot like this: http://www.bencharles.co.uk/pictures/DUR110315_09.jpg - not like most of the BISF houses I can find show, with steel visible on the outside.

From what I can piece together, some mortgage companies won't lend to buy it, but a bit of digging tells me it is accepted by some (including the Halifax) so I'm not so worried about that, so much.
My girlfriend has concerns for if we'd be able to sell it in the future - this particular house has been on the market for a while, and while it requires modernisation, seems still good value for the area. Plus I intend to live in it a long time before that.

This old thread - https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1614215 - shows other houses of this type still exist, and links to this (admittedly old) article: http://icbirmingham.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100localnews/2002/09/29/100-000-houses-that-can-t-be-sold-50002-12239705/
From that, is it the case that Dorlonco is not a great method, but can be repaired in such a way that it is no longer a problem? And would there be any easy way of finding out if it has had such a repair?
Is there a Dorlonco register? Or some other sort of register of houses no longer potentially requiring knocking down?

I believe the entire road is Dorlonco, and I found a house that sold last year. The advert for that house is cached on Zoopla, and it doesn't even mention the fact that it was/is a Dorlonco build, in the description.

How unsafe can they be? They were all built nearly 100 years ago, and are still standing?

Any advice/tips very welcome. Thanks.

kingstreet

My guide says such property was built pre-1939 and is of steel construction. It is usually unacceptable by this lender, but it may consider particularly good examples/areas.

I suspect you need to find a lender who will look at it, but the end decision will be based on the surveyor's comments.

I suggest you find your local Colleys surveyor and ring and ask them their attitude if you applied to Halifax;-

http://www.colleys.co.uk/customer/contact-us/find-your-local-surveyor/

ed110220

The main problem with Dorlonco construction compared with the more common BISF construction I believe is that the steel stanchions are hidden behind brickwork and this makes detection and repairing problems more difficult.

In a BISF house serious corrosion of the steel stanchion bases usually results in failure of the render over them. This is fairly obvious and repair not too arduous, though such a serious problem is fairly rare.

I think in a Dorlonco house the brickwork would make this much more difficult. The repair would be the same basic method though - cutting out and replacing the corroded steel bases.

I would also say you will need to seek out advice from people who have actual experience of this system of building, as I've found in my BISF experience that most are extremely ill-informed when it comes to non-traditional construction, even supposed professionals such as surveyors.

Ed

toasterman

Thanks for your help Kingstreet and Ed.

I must admit that Halifax was off the top of my head. When digging, I found somewhere online that had a list of mortgageable property types, of which Dorlonco was one. Might not have been Halifax.

We went to a mortgage broker and they searched their providers - finding just ONE mortgage company who would lend on this type of property. They said they'd require a more extensive survey (which sounds like it would be a good idea anyway, based on the unusual construction, limited information about it online, etc.), before they'd be able to guarantee one way or the other.
We also got a home insurance quote to make sure it wasn't exorbitant (and it wasn't unbelievably high.. about £300/year for building and contents).

With that particular house, it went to sealed bids, so we were pushed to make an offer. Which we did, subject to survey.
It wasn't accepted. Still, this property has already "sold stc" at least once, and then the buyer pulled out. So it could still happen again.