NRAM Mortgage

stressedmummy18

Around 12 years ago my husband and his then partner bought a basement flat using a mortgage from NRAM which was at that point Northern Rock. They had a survey completed as part of the mortgage but this failed to pick up some serious damp issues. This included water rising through the foundations, fungus growing in the carpet and walls etc. They lived there with their son for around a year before they called time on the relationship. He continued to attempt to live there for 6 more months before giving up and handing the flat back to Northern Rock and left himself with a £52,000 mortgage after the flat was sold. His ex has now gone bankrupt leaving the debt to him. We are not in the position to go through bankruptcy and are paying the debt off at £10 a month. Does anyone know of a way to fight this? Should NRAM be taking some responsibility for the state the flat was in considering they had the survey completed?

Thanks for any help you can give me

Thrugelmir

Northern Rock purely provided the finance for the transaction. Was the matter pursued through the surveyor at the time? 

davidmcn

stressedmummy18 said:

Should NRAM be taking some responsibility for the state the flat was in considering they had the survey completed?

No, lenders aren't responsible to buyers for the condition of the property. The lender gets a (pretty basic) valuation - is that what you mean by "they had a survey completed as part of the mortgage"? If the buyers want reassurance about the condition of the property then they need to commission their own survey.

Though to be honest if all this happened over a decade ago he's well out of time to do anything about it anyway.

dunstonh

Should NRAM be taking some responsibility for the state the flat was in considering they had the survey completed?

It is highly unlikely that a survey was carried out.   It would have been a valuation.   

If they did pay extra for a survey, then its up to the vendor to decide whether to proceed or not as the lender doesn't see the survey.     (the exception is when the valuer spots something obvious and recommends it is looked at in more detail).

It is recommended that people do get a survey but most don't and take a gamble on the risks.    It sounds like your partner lost that gamble.

RelievedSheff

As already said the lender is not liable for the condition of the property. This issue was over ten years ago anyway, there is nothing could be done about it anyway. What exactly are you expecting NRAM to do?