Possible mortgage retention regarding un adopted road

gundarmode

UPDATE 29/11/18: we have had confirmation that it is a £10,000 mortgage retention pending completion of the un adopted road to a satisfactory standard, we are waiting for a solicitors on what to do next…

Hi,

We are at the tail end of buying our house of £140,000 and we are borrowing £50,000 with £90,000 deposit. Our lender (Halifax) have offered the mortgage 4 weeks ago but today ive been told there is a £10,000 retention regarding the un adopted private road which I find astonishing considering we are only borrowing £50,000.

The house is a new build and the developer is refusing to go into a defecit with the retention and now it falls down to me to take action.

Is there any way around this? Im asuming the road wont be done until all the houses are built (probably in a years time). Should I put down another £10,000 deposit and take out a lower mortgage?

This feels very harsh on us considering we were going to organize a completion date for friday and now we are hit with this retention out of nowhere

Thanks

Thrugelmir

What has your solicitor advised?

gundarmode

The solicitors are requesting a retention from the developers solicitors but they are not coorperating. We are still waiting for the confirmation from the post offer team at Halifax for the £10,000 retention (they are still deciding on the retention), I did ask our solicitors about a contingency plan but still haven’t heard anything.

Is this common for new builds? I mean just for an un adopted road and nearly 70% deposit they are still considering a retention? Could I up my mortgage to 60,000 and use the spare money for the retention?

Thanks

bertiewhite

gundarmode wrote: »

Is this common for new builds?

I never experienced this when I bought a new build in 2005 - thing may have changed since then though.

gundarmode wrote: »

Could I up my mortgage to 60,000 and use the spare money for the retention?

I recently had a retention of £10K put on a house I wanted to buy because of the work which needed doing (so a different reason). I did ask if I could get the price reduced by the same amount, would the retention still apply and was told "yes". I'm no expert but I expect the retention would apply, regardless of the loan amount.

davidmcn

I've never heard of a retention for this scenario, so not surprised the builder is baulking at it. Has your solicitor found something unusual about the way it's organised?

gundarmode

The solicitors are still waiting for confirmation of the retention before they action anything which adds more depair… Ive emailed our mortgage advisor to see if we can adjust our mortgage from £50,000 to £60,000 once the retention is confirmed.

What I really find shocking is a £90,000 deposit for a £140,000 house is not enough these days, at this rate I might as well save a bit more and buy a house outright…

gundarmode

Update: Good news - Retention has been withdrawn and full mortgage has been issued!

jubilee14

Im glad you got the retention issue resolved as about 7% over the house (Plot) value seems excessive, which if they applied to all houses in street could be what 150K plus. Its a new one so will be interesting to see if they apply it to other folks getting a mortgage. Surely any road adoptive costs/responsibilty of roads until adopted would stay with developer.