Cornish Construction and Mortgage?

Gastines3

Any information appreciated. Relative has a end of terrace 3 bed house,front and rear gardens and all in a clean up-together condition. Construction is what I believe is called Cornish,concrete slab type. Has been trying to sell for some time but potential buyers have said Mortgage unavailable on this type of construction? Any views,info on this?

D00gie72

The house may be constructed using a method called "mondic block" (sorry not sure of the spelling) It comes under the heading of non-standard construction and some mortgage lenders will not loan on them. There are possibly specialist lenders out there that will offer a mortgage all be it at possibly higher than usual rates. May be an idea for your friend to consult a local mortgage broker as they will most likely have experience with these houses.

Fuzzyness

we had it on my wife's mother's house. and yes it was un-mortegable when we came to try and buy it. you do see a lot of mundic houses for sale but not normally pre-faced with 'cash buyers' only.

diamond_dave

The houses built for councils during the 40's and 50's here in Cornwall were mainly of the Cornish unit method - these houses are NOT mundic, but made using pre cast concrete panels. These fail when water enters the concrete and the steel rods rust and the concrete "spalls" or splits open.Many of the council houses here have been faced and insulated but the problem will still exist. Mundic houses were made using blocks where the aggregate came from mine waste and when water enters the walls the blocks turn to very soft materials. The only real solution for both of these types of houses is complete removal of the walls etc.

Davesnave

Thanks for sorting that, diamond dave.

Cornish houses have nothing specifically to do with Cornwall, as they can be seen in Devon, Somerset and, no doubt, many other counties too.

There are types of non-standard construction houses that are deemed mortgageable by some lenders, but others none will touch. I can't say which is which, as there are so many different kinds, bt I'm sure someone with the right experience will notice the thread. The design was very popular.

kingstreet

Cornish Type 1, Type 2 and Bungalow are all PRC and deemed defective under the Housing Acts and are unmortgageable unless subject to an approved repair scheme to replace the concrete panels with brick.

You'll probably find if it's a semi, the other half will have to have been repaired too.

We have several around the corner from us in ST18.