Worry about searches

BournemouthHan

Good morning everyone,

I was wondering if anyone could shed some light on our (albeit small in the grand scheme of mortgages) worry.

We have had our offer letter through from our lender to say they will lend us the money we need - yay!

However, our solicitors, who are proving to be a little slow and uncommunicative with us have called to say they are only starting the searches today. However, they are telling us it will take a long time to do as there is planning permission on a plot of land next to our (hopefully) future home to build a house, taking us from an end of terrace house, to a mid-terraced house.

We were fully aware of this development but submitted our mortgage application as end of terrace as that is how we are buying it and work is due to start on the new house after we move in. However, will this development prove detrimental to our application? Can the lender retract the offer at this stage if the house becomes mid-terrace and not end of terrace?

Just looking for a bit of advice as I don't know the rules on if lenders can retract their written offers based on the result of the searches.

Thanks x

ruggedtoast

The lender can retract the mortgage offer whenever they like, including after you have exchanged contracts.

House buying isnt for the faint hearted I am afraid. You will just have to get on with it and hope that everything works out at each stage, just like everyone else.

arbrighton

Are you sure that the new house will actually connect to the one you're buying? That's quite complex to achieve really

moneyistooshorttomention

arbrighton wrote: »

Are you sure that the new house will actually connect to the one you're buying? That's quite complex to achieve really

My first thought on that would be as to whether they (ie the housebuilder) is allowed to change your house from being end terrace without your specific consent (even if you haven't finished buying it yet).

kingstreet

The solicitor will report the issue to the lender and the lender will refer it to the surveyor who valued the property.

As long as the surveyor does not see the construction impacting the value or future saleability, it should make no difference.

If he does, the valuation may be revised down, reducing what you can borrow; or a nil valuation imposed, suggesting the property is no longer considered suitable security for the mortgage. In the latter case, the offer would then be withdrawn.

You may wish to run this past your insurer, to ensure it is happy to provide cover in these circumstances.

BournemouthHan

Hey,

Thanks for your responses. To shed some light, the properties all around ours are terraced and ours is exactly the same as the surrounding ones. The one 3 doors down in a mid-terrace position sold for £20k more than ours 3 months ago, so we know the value is good for what we're getting.

Basically, when it comes to the house being built onto ours, the current owner of the property is a builder and doesn't live in the property we wish to buy. He has bought the property outright and done a lot of work converting a garage into an extra room. As it was end of terrace, it had a huge drive and extra wide garden. The builder has sectioned off the drive into two and has split our garden and begun the foundations of the other house but full construction won't start until the new year (or once he has the money from us!) the survey took place last week (which was homebuyers and had valuation at the same time) so the surveyor would have seen that next door is a building site and sectioned off ready for the new house. The new house will definitely be built as a terraced as the builder has left brickwork on the front of our house partially incomplete to 'chase' the new build into ours.

we have no issue with the new house being built, we get good compensation for the fact that it may disturb us (reduced agreed sale price) and it will provide good insulation for our house too, hopefully!

i know that the surveyor met with the builder owner (who is great to us) and that he did mention the new build next door.

Thanks again,

Hannah:)