Lender raised a query about the cladding?? Is it worth purchasing with red flags?

Nb5123

We made an offer on a 1 bedroom spacious apartment in Brentwood for £230,000, which got accepted and were in the process of getting our mortgage but because I didn’t hear from the mortgage advisor for a while I emailed to ask for an update and she said the lenders have raised a query around the cladding of the building so she’s waiting for our solicitors to raise it and provide a letter. This has made us feel worried as we were told the building has an EWS1 certificate and is safe. 

It’s a building which used to be business offices but got developed into apartments in 2019.

Now that we think about it, there are quite a few apartments being sold in that same building at least around 8/9 which all seem underpriced too as when we looked at the purchase price of the one we’re in the process of buying it was originally  £265,000 and now they accepted £230,000 which makes us wonder why it’s lost so much value as it’s a very modern flat and in a great location of Brentwood. Also, it feels like the mortgage advisor should have got in touch straight away and told us that there’s been a query raised but we only found out because I asked for an update, she works under the estate agents that we are buying from so not sure if that’s also weird?

We’re not sure if we should pull out as there seems to be a few red flags now or should we just wait and see? We don’t want to put ourselves into something that will cause us problems down the line. Has anyone had a similar experience or could advise anything pls??? 

Mutton_Geoff

I'd seriously think hard about a one bedroom place. You'll soon grow out of it and your options for a lodger, friends staying over, home office, junk room, hobby room etc are not available to you in a one bedroom house/flat. Sounds like you've even sold it to yourself by using the word "spacious" in your first sentence.

You're using the agents mortgage advisor, I do hope you're not using their "recommended" solicitor as well   

propertyhunter

Make sure the solicitor you are using is independent of the estate agent. Do your due diligence - check that there are reserve funds in the accounts of the management company and that there are no large anticipated costs to fix anything, including cladding - it's a new development so there shouldn't be anything major needed this early. What did the EWS1 say? What rating did you get?

I'm a bit worried by there being 8-9 flats on sale when they have only been living there for a short amount of time, if that. How many flats are there in the development. It's fine if there are 8-9 flats out of 200, but more worrying if there's 30 in the block. 

Nb5123

Mutton_Geoff said:

I'd seriously think hard about a one bedroom place. You'll soon grow out of it and your options for a lodger, friends staying over, home office, junk room, hobby room etc are not available to you in a one bedroom house/flat. Sounds like you've even sold it to yourself by using the word "spacious" in your first sentence.

You're using the agents mortgage advisor, I do hope you're not using their "recommended" solicitor as well   

Yeah you’re right we wasn’t very keen on buying a 1 bed flat but unfortunately can’t afford nothing else within our budget and my parents just came back from overseas so we’re stuck in a house with them as a newly married couple which as you can imagine isn’t the best long term & renting is just so expensive!
& yes we did use the recommended solicitor now I’m realising that defo wasn’t a good Move 😭😭

Nb5123

propertyhunter said:

Make sure the solicitor you are using is independent of the estate agent. Do your due diligence - check that there are reserve funds in the accounts of the management company and that there are no large anticipated costs to fix anything, including cladding - it's a new development so there shouldn't be anything major needed this early. What did the EWS1 say? What rating did you get?

I'm a bit worried by there being 8-9 flats on sale when they have only been living there for a short amount of time, if that. How many flats are there in the development. It's fine if there are 8-9 flats out of 200, but more worrying if there's 30 in the block. 

It’s not independent and this is where we messed up, I’m going to see if we can get the fee we paid back and hopefully get an independent one. I didn’t see the EWS1 certificate I was just told by the estate agents that they definitely have one. 

It’s a block of around 100 something flats I would say so I guess it’s not that many but there seems to be more and more flats popping up everyday. 

We just don’t know what to do right now 

propertyhunter

Whatever you do, don't feel pressured into proceeding with this purchase if you are unsure about it.

I made the mistake of using the developer's solicitor when I bought my first property - which was a flat too. I signed into a lease that doubled the ground rent every 25 years and at the time the solicitor didn't really highlight the issues of this (he probably wasn't on my side!). Luckily I managed to sell it with the buyer aware of the implications of short assured tenancy that comes with a ground rent that could surpass £1000 in London (you could lose the flat to the freeholder if the ground rent payments aren't made over successive months). This is why you need a solicitor acting in your best interests, not when there is any shred of possibility that they aren't. 

CRISPIANNE3

Remember in a down turn one bedroom flats are the first to fall.

Sarah1Mitty2

True, this doesn`t sound like a good idea at all to be honest.