It can't always be this difficult?!

Neesep

We are FTBs and viewed a property we really liked towards the end of November. It's a fairly new barn conversion on the outskirts of a small village, with some clay mining in the local area. We put in an offer and agreed a price £4000 less than the asking price. We had a full structural survey done, which highlighted a few minor points, but really nothing major. We were aware that there had been a section 106 local affordable housing agreement in place, but that this had been removed. The valuation was done and the mortgage company said they wouldn't give us a mortgage due to the section 106. Our mortgage advisor and our solicitor contacted them saying it had been removed and they were sent the relevant papers. Eventually, they accepted this, but down valued the property £9000 as it doesn't have a parking space, has a shared access way and is quite small. We renegotiated the price, with us putting some extra cash and the vendor dropping a further £6000. The mortgage company then messed up my details, listing me as mr and offered us £4000 less again. This took nearly a week to sort out, but eventually they did. While this was all going on we discovered there had been disputes between the developer and the vendor. The vendor had been trying to sue the developer for agreements that hadn't been met and the developer had been trying to claim money from the vendor that they still owed. We also discovered that there was supposed to be a parking space ( a planning condition) which isn't there. The developer is saying the vendor removed it and the vendor says it was never put in. After 15 weeks and a lot of stress, we handed over the deposit and contracts to our solicitors, waiting for the last confirmation from the mortgage company. They then contacted us down valuing again by a further £5000 as there isn't a NBHC or architect certificate in place. I don't know if I was being very naive thinking it would all go quite smoothly, or if this was a particularly bad experience!

da_rule

This does sound particularly bad. You say you've signed the contract but have you exchanged yet? If not then I would consider tell your solicitor not to exchange until this is resolved. If this is a one off barn conversion, then it may be that the 'developer' is just a local building company who may not be registered with the NHBC. Also, in terms of the dispute about the potential breach of planning, speak to your solicitor about defective title insurance or an indemnity clause.

Personally I would walk away if you haven't exchanged, and next time use a different mortgage company.

Neesep

It's fallen through. We weren't able to offer any more, they weren't able to lower the price and the mortgage company said they couldn't confirm if they were willing to lend at all without a build guarantee.

We're having a break from house buying for a month, then starting again! It's been a stressful, expensive steep learning curve.

da_rule

Sorry to hear that. I do question why your solicitor didn't discover there was no guarantee before it got this far. It's usually part of the pre-contract requisitions.

Neesep

Our surveyor said he didn't think there was one and we had asked our solicitor to check if there was and there wasn't. We didn't know at the time that it would change the mortgage offer and it wasn't pointed out to us by anyone that it could. At least we know to ask next time.

da_rule

It might be a bit technical but if you visit http://www.cml.org.uk/cml/handbook then put in your region then lender it will tell you exactly what documents your lender needs and what can effect the offer.

pinkteapot

This was a bad experience. I know you're licking your wounds but this really isn't the norm. If it helps, I'd have run a mile from that house given the issues you listed. Lack of a parking space would put quite a few people off when you came to sell, and I'd be really wary of any new-build that didn't come with NHBC or a similar warranty.

I've never heard of a mortgage company repeatedly downvaluing a property like that, so I really do think you got unlucky.

Neesep

Da_rule that's really useful, thanks. I've looked and it does say the lender won't lend without a warranty.

Pinkteapot the property is one of 3 at the end of a dead end road, so for us a parking space wasn't a worry as there's loads of on street parking and only 3 properties to use the road. Looking back at all of the issues at once, rather than dealing with each one individually over a period of weeks, we are now thinking it was probably a lucky escape! It's good to know this wasn't normal.

Neesep

da_rule

I've had a good read through the website you linked and compared it with paperwork we received. The original valuation was carried out in early January and it says on there that the valuation assumes there is an NBHC or similar in place and for the solicitor to check. At this point they already knew there wasn't because our surveyor had already picked up on that in November and had told us to inform our solicitor, which we did. I think you are totally right, this should have been picked us as a problem 2 months earlier than it was! I'm not sure how much is our fault as naive FTBs relying on the solicitor and how much is actually their fault for not picking up on it much earlier.

da_rule

I would say that they dropped the ball slightly. It may be worth making a complaint, they may offer to refund some of the money you paid them. Things like guarantees (NHBC/FENSA etc) should be picked up at the initial stage where the Sellers Property Information Form is received by the solicitor.