Mortgage on house with no party walls in loft

shady_twist

Hi all,
My house is a Victorian terrace and I suspect it has no party walls in the loft. The loft hatch has been sealed up for years and me and the 2 owners before me haven't been up there! I'm selling up and my buyer is not happy about the potential lack of party walls. Will he still be able to get a mortgage on the property? If he can, I would prefer to negotiate a drop in price rather than having the hassle of organising for walls to go in myself... feeling a bit stressed at mo!

Thanks
Shady

Doozergirl

It's quite a simple job for a tradesperson.

They either brick it up - doesn't have to be pretty - or erect a stud wall with fireproof board.

davidmcn

Mortgage valuers probably wouldn't stick their head through the loft hatch even if you had one - I can't see them getting excited about party walls which might not even be missing.

GaleSF63

Perhaps one of your neighbours goes into their loft and could tell you. Worth asking?

[Deleted User]

Some people might like to use the loft for storage and then you could see if there are walls or not. I lived in a victorian terrace and it definitely had walls in the loft so you can't assume anything. Getting access to the loft (get a tradesperson to help if necessary) could save you dropping the price.

Tom99

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I owned a house just like that once and when I eventually installed a loft hatch I found that my neighbour thought my loft space was part of her house since she had had access to it for many years.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]One buyer pulled out because of it but a sale later when through ok.[/FONT]

jackieblack

When we bought a victorian terrace with no walls in the loft our mortgage lender made the erection of party fire walls a condition of the mortgage offer, with a small retention of funds until this was done.

ACG

I lived in a place with no party walls in the loft for more or less the whole street. It wont be a problem getting a Mortgage.

If the buyer is not happy, they can sort it out when they move in. It is one of those jobs that they would like to be done but is not a requirement. Personally, I would not drop the price over this. You will not benefit from it.

ToasterScheme

We bought a house like yours in ~2009 and the mortgage company had no concerns at all.
Our building survey did point it out as a potential issue to us, but that document was never given to the mortgage company who did their own valuation.

shady_twist

I've found out today that the buyer won't proceed any further until I find out for sure if there are walls up there or not. Unfortunately, I don't actually live in the property now, I'm 200 miles away, so I'm going to have to go up there this weekend and try and get into my loft or a neighbours.

I could really do without the stress!

When you say tradesperson, would it be a builder that would do it, just wondering what kind of trade to look for.

Thanks