Mortgage trapped due to repairs needed

lmurray33

Hi, looking for some help or advice. Bought 1 bedroom flat at height of property boom for £78000. After about 5 years it was clear structural repairs were needed to building, made up of 9 flats. After years of struggling with fellow owners to agree on repairs it seems they are going to cost around £20000. We are desperate to sell the flat and move to a bigger house. However the flat is only valued at £30000 in current state and £50000 after repairs. This leaves us with a massive mortgage deficit, if the flat even sells at all. Do we have any option to get out of this, or is any help available? Views and ideas very welcome. Thank you.

Pixie5740

Is this a leasehold property in England or Wales, or a flat in Scotland?

lmurray33

Thanks for your interest. It is a flat in Scotland.

G_M

Make a claim for mis-selling.

The estate agent should re-imburse you for the £20K needed for repairs, as well as the £28K drop in price ie £48K.

davidmcn

Has someone checked for any possible grants?

Pixie5740

Is that £20k per flat or £20k between the 9 flats? If it's the latter then that's not so bad.

As for the deficit there's not a lot you can do. Your mortgage lender probably won't let you sell if there's going to be a deficit. You'd need to throw everything you've got at your mortgage to bring it down to a level where you'd at least clear the mortgage if you sold. Alternatively you might be granted consent to let by your lender although becoming a landlord shouldn't be taken lightly especially with the changes afoot.

mrginge

G_M wrote: »

Make a claim for mis-selling.

The estate agent should re-imburse you for the £20K needed for repairs, as well as the £28K drop in price ie £48K.

Don't forget the 10k for stress.

moneyistooshorttomention

G_M wrote: »

Make a claim for mis-selling.

The estate agent should re-imburse you for the £20K needed for repairs, as well as the £28K drop in price ie £48K.

Now that has puzzled me - or are you saying this "tongue in cheek"? I know my own sense of humour is a very "dry" one - but this is "dry-er".

Personally - I think OP hasnt really got any option but to stump up their share of the £20k for repairs (ie one-ninth of that) as the loss of value of their flat (ie £20k) would be so much bigger if they didnt.

Beyond that - my sympathies to OP and I guess the best they can do is pay off mortgage equity as fast as they can manage in order to increase the options available to them.

Person_one

G_M wrote: »

Make a claim for mis-selling.

The estate agent should re-imburse you for the £20K needed for repairs, as well as the £28K drop in price ie £48K.

Is this necessary? You're normally helpful.

lmurray33

Thanks to everyone's helpful comments. Sad some people get enjoyment out of others people misfortune. I hope you never have to suffer from something that is outwith your control.
We have checked for grants but none on offer, even though it is a B listed, historic building.
The repairs quotes are £20000 each. 9x £20000, not shared. Unfortunately!
We understand we need to pay off the mortgage asap but very difficult to know how much money to keep back to pay for the repairs, as no doubt the price will go up. And then we will have nothing to move on with. Not to mention it could take years to pay it off. Would anyone consider saying to the mortgage company we can't pay it??

Rosemary7391

How much is the outstanding mortgage? Apologies if I missed it but I can only see the purchase price. I'm surprised that the repair cost = value change. It might be that you can't sell it at all with the outstanding repairs, £20k worth of repairs needing to be done makes any property unattractive - especially one where that can't be on your own schedule. I'd get the repairs done (are the other owners playing nicely with this/have you got the money ?) and then see where you're at.