Terrace house unmortgageable without access to back?

Aunt_Glegg

I am currently selling a terraced house. We have no right of way to the back of the house, but have always used an adjoining passageway with our neighbours' kind consent. They have also, very generously, agreed that our buyer can have similar access. However the buyer's solicitor states that without a legal agreement to access in perpetuity, not only by the buyer but by anyone to whom he subsequently sells the property, the house is not mortgageable.

Can it really be true that no terrace house without access to the back is mortgageable?

Any advice gratefully received.

davidmcn

Do you mean literally no other way of getting into your back garden, or just that you have to go through the house? If the latter, it's hardly unusual and is nothing to do with mortgageability - I could probably point you at some million pound townhouses (or conversions) in Edinburgh where the only way into the back garden is via the house.

Has this comment come via your solicitor or perhaps Chinese whispers if it's via the buyers? It would be correct to say that the informal agreement with the neighbour isn't something which can be passed on to future buyers or the lenders.

SmashedAvacado

This is a classic case of the buyer's solicitors not thinking. The access to the property is via the front. You don't need the additional access, but its nice to have. The fact that the additional access is informal, means that the property can only be valued based on the access through the house. They will need to backtrack on this, which they won't like doing, but if someone just asks them to have a think, then that ought to be enough.

it needs clearly explaining that the informal access is not needed. which means the fact that is might not be around forever is neither here nor there

AnotherJoe

Aunt_Glegg wrote: »

I am currently selling a terraced house. We have no right of way to the back of the house,

I suspect you do, unless the back of your house has no doorway into the garden
but have always used an adjoining passageway with our neighbours' kind consent.



Or do you literally mean the back of your house, rather than the back garden because there is no back garden? And access is for maintenance of the house?

They have also, very generously, agreed that our buyer can have similar access. However the buyer's solicitor states that without a legal agreement to access in perpetuity, not only by the buyer but by anyone to whom he subsequently sells the property, the house is not mortgageable.
Is that because you told them that the only way to the back garden is via the back of the house?

Aunt_Glegg wrote: »

Can it really be true that no terrace house without access to the back is unmortgageable?

I dont know but if there really is no access to the back garden at all, can you not put a back door in at the rear of the house? If you mean back of the house, i can see that could be problematic.

Aunt_Glegg

The advice has come through our solicitor. I am all the more puzzled since the mortgage was already, apparently, approved, but has now been revoked pending legally confirmed access to the back garden in perpetuity...

Aunt_Glegg

Thank you, Smashed, for this very clear advice. I kept feeling something couldn't be right as the mortgage lender had already approved the loan and agreed the valuation. Do you happen to know where I might find the relevant statute/piece of legislation to quote?

foxy-stoat

They will probably ask you to buy an indemnity policy !! LOL

CarrieVS

Aunt_Glegg wrote: »

The advice has come through our solicitor. I am all the more puzzled since the mortgage was already, apparently, approved, but has now been revoked pending legally confirmed access to the back garden in perpetuity...

The mortgage offer will have been made with the lender reserving the right to withdraw it if there's any change in the buyer's circumstances or in the property, if the buyer gave them any incorrect information, or if their solicitor raises any issue that they don't fancy. This'll be the latter.

elsien

Can you clarify exactly where the accesses are, with and without the neighbour's passageway and what they are to, the garden or literally the back of the house? Because I'm another one who can't see an issue as it stands.

Aunt_Glegg

So the buyer's solicitor can, effectively, alert the lender to a perceived problem? In this case can the buyer's solicitor equally ask for the 'problem' to be taken out of consideration?
Thanks so much - great to have informed opinion!

CarrieVS

Aunt_Glegg wrote: »

So the buyer's solicitor can, effectively, alert the lender to a perceived problem? In this case can the buyer's solicitor equally ask for the 'problem' to be taken out of consideration?
Thanks so much - great to have informed opinion!

I don't know if I'd call me that! But I'm going by my mortgage offer that I received yesterday and I assume most lenders have a similar clause to cover their backsides.

I can't imagine that if the buyer's solicitor went back and said the issue has been clarified and the situation isn't what they thought, that the lender wouldn't be happy with that. So long as it is the case that there is access to the back garden, through the house? If there really isn't access/a back door, then that probably is a problem for the lender.