Timer Frame + Cedar clad bungalow

AilieG01

Had an offer accepted in April on a four bed bungalow which is timber frame and cedar clad. Had a mortgage offer subject to valuation since May and valuation was finally done last week. Found out the other day Natwest have valued the property at £0. Apparently it doesn’t fill their lending criteria so worth nothing. Anyone any experience of buying timber framed house? Or should I take this as a sign I may struggle to sell it on and walk away?  

AdrianC

That's just NatWest saying "Nah, not for us, thanks". It doesn't mean the house is "worth nothing".

Other lenders may well be perfectly happy. In more normal times, NatWest may well be perfectly happy...

davidmcn

I think it will be more the cladding than the timber frame which is the problem. I don't think they're normally considered particularly mortgageable. Is it currently mortgaged?

AilieG01

The previous owner has died and she owned it outright. Surveyor told the estate agent when he picked up keys to value it that he didn’t think the company would lend so estate agent phoned on Wednesday and told us we had til today to get things sorted out. Must have known our mortgage wasn’t gonna go through. 

princeofpounds

Timber frames are treated differently by different lenders. Age of construction and wooden cladding tend to be particularly sensitive points. The table below gives you some idea:

https://www.onlinemortgageadvisor.co.uk/property-types/timber-framed-property/#specific-timber-frame-lenders

This information is a bit dated - I believe the Council of Mortgage Lenders maintain guidance notes for brokers on how individual lenders treat special topics, and a good broker should be able to match a lender to a property, IF its possible. (Or maybe even a good google search would help - some lists are published but I couldn't dig it up with a brief effort) 

It's a big shame actually, because timber frame is arguably a much better method of construction in many ways - cheap and flexible. In the US it's basically standard - if you've seen any of their flipping shows, you can see how cheaply and quickly they can e.g. build an extension (although don't take the TV numbers too seriously!). Yes, it doesn't last as long as block or brick, but well-maintained it can last well beyond a single lifespan.

AdrianC

princeofpounds said:

It's a big shame actually, because timber frame is arguably a much better method of construction in many ways - cheap and flexible. In the US it's basically standard - if you've seen any of their flipping shows, you can see how cheaply and quickly they can e.g. build an extension (although don't take the TV numbers too seriously!). Yes, it doesn't last as long as block or brick, but well-maintained it can last well beyond a single lifespan.

Timber frame CAN last very well... Just think of all those black-and-white houses still surviving from the 16th/17th century...

thearchitect

Timber frame housing, i.e. with a masonry outer leaf, is the predominantly form of house construction in Scotland and - in my experience - the northern part of the UK (it's a long time since I worked in the deep south).  That is therefore unlikely to be a problem in terms of mortgage.

I therefore suspect that the problem in this case is variously that it might be single skin timber frame construction, a rainscreen over a timber frame, or (most likely) the timber weatherboarding/cladding.