Terrace house unmortgageable without access to back?

G_M

Just reading through the responses, it is obvious that people here are confused about the exact set-up of the property, where this access leads to (the back of the house, or the back yard/garden?), what other access there is (a back door?) etc.


My conclusion is that the OP has been similarly imprecise in describing things to his solicitor and/or the buyer, or the buyerhas ben equaly imprecise.


If, as seems likely, it is explained to all parties that there is permenant access to the rear garden/yard, via the house, the adjoining passageway will become irrelevant (excepst perhaps with regard to market value).

Aunt_Glegg

You're right, I should have been clearer; there is permanent access through the house to the back garden. The buyer understands the situation exactly. It is possible, though, that there has been an element of Chinese Whispers in communicating the issue to the solicitor or lender.

hazyjo

I'm still confused lol.


Can you spell it out? Do you actually have a door to the back garden from your house? If so, it's just a terraced house. What on earth is their problem?


Just forget the side access. It's a bonus for as long as you have nice neighbours, and shouldn't have been included or mentioned with the sale.

societys_child

If the solicitors have a plan of the property they must know there is access via the back door? It'd be pretty strange setup without and the surveyor would no doubt have noticed . .

davidmcn

Aunt_Glegg wrote: »

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?

There's no relevant law, it's possibly more than the mortgage valuation may have assumed there were proper rights in place to use the passageway - so if there aren't, it would need to go back to the lender so they can check with the valuer that the value isn't affected. Which it almost certainly won't be.

eddddy

I suspect that something like this has happened...

The mortgage valuation report briefly describes the property - and perhaps says something like...

"The property is... blah, blah, blah... with a rear garden with access from a side passageway"

The solicitor is saying that he/she must tell the mortgage co that this sentence in the report is incorrect. And the mortgage co will tell the valuer, who will change that sentence, and resubmit the report.

In theory, the valuer could decide to down-value the property because of this - but in reality, probably won't.

Aunt_Glegg

Thank you, David. I'll certainly make those checks. I have raised the point that requested mortgage amounts to less than 20% of the agreed price, and have been told that this makes no difference - the lender still won't budge - so it looks and more like serious miscommunication somewhere along the line.

jk0

I've had similar nonsense to this myself.


The only solution is to find another buyer with a less picky solicitor.

Aunt_Glegg

That's how I'm thinking. Solicitor says the same problem will crop up with another buyer. Is this your experience?

davidmcn

Aunt_Glegg wrote: »

Solicitor says the same problem will crop up with another buyer.

Whose solicitor?

I can only see it being an issue if buyers are getting the impression from you/estate agent that they'll be getting a right to use the passageway (and even it should only be causing a bit of confusion/disappointment rather than prompting them to flounce off).