Spray Seal foam insulation - affect on mortgage

jam83

Hello,

So we are in the process of remortgaging our house to help us pay for new windows and an extension. The surveyor has just been out and has raised a potential red flag about spray seal foam insulation in the loft. This was put in by the previous owners approx 20 years ago. The surveyor said that most mortgage companies won't mortgage a property that has this type of insulation due to problems that it can cause with damp (he did say that our timbers were ok though). In a bit of a panic I have looked through our documents from when we bought the house which says that they were unable to access the loft. I'm worried now that they remove our mortgage or ask us to redo the roof our something. 

Does anyone know which mortgage lenders allow this type of insulation, as I have looked online and can't find any details of specific lenders. I will obviously be speaking to my own lender when they get the survey back, but I know this can take a long time and don't want to be sat here worrying in the meantime. 

Any advice of anyone who has experienced similar, or who knows more than me about the mortgage industry would be greatly appreciated

jam83

I also forgot to mention that I have a receipt which shows that it was installed before we moved in, as the previous owners luckily left us lots of receipts and guarantees when we moved in

jam83

Edit: I have re-read the survey. It says that they were unable to access all of the loft due to boxes being stored, but on next page it does mention it but didn't raise it as an issue other than it not being a long term solution and that it will eventually have to be replaced. The mortgage company's homebuyer's report doesn't mention it at all. As they should have already been aware of this can they legitimately now raise it as an issue? We have lived here for 8 years

MWT

Unlikely to affect your existing mortgage, but could prevent your current lender from agreeing to a re-mortgage and may present a problem with other lenders if re-mortgaging to a different lender.

Who is your current lender?

jam83

The Newcastle 

MWT

jam83 said:

The Newcastle 

They don't explicitly list it as one of their 'unacceptable' criteria so I'd expect their reaction to depend on the surveyors report and valuation.

jam83

Nervous wait for me then 😬

jam83

Thank you for the info

MWT

Just to be clear, in this case has the spray foam been applied to the inside of the roof surface, or just to the 'floor' of the loft space between the horizontal rafters?

davidmcn

Your current lender isn't going to "raise it as an issue" and has no means of "removing" your mortgage, so stop panicking about that.

jam83

It’s sprayed onto the inside of the roof only. The inside of the roof is fully covered apart from where there is a window. All the big beams that are not part of the roof are uncovered.

Davidmcn I’m glad to hear they can’t remove the mortgage as the surveyor was quite dramatic about it (despite admitting himself that all of the timbers in my roof appear to be free of damp and rot, which is apparently the concern with this type of foam insulation).