Single skin

Singleskin

I purchased my home almost 10 years ago and I have only just discovered it is a single skin construction. I easily obtained a mortgage back then in 2014. Recently my neighbour opposite has tried to sell their property. A first time buyer came along but could not get a mortgage on it due to it being a single skin construction. I feel I have been duped as was not made aware of this at the time I purchased my home.  I am really upset that I may not be able to sell. Is this a new change?

(Removed by Forum Team)

Singleskin

Single skin. Is this a new change? 

propertyrental

What survey did you have done?

Banks' lending criteria change all the time.

Albermarle

Can you give a bit more detail as 'single skin' maybe interpreted differently by different people.

stuart45

Singleskin said:

Single skin. Is this a new change? 

It's nothing new if you mean your external walls are 4 inch brickwork and nothing else apart from internal plaster or plasterboard.

mark_cycling00

Maybe remove your full name from your post as potentially you're inadvertently identifying your neighbour. 

Also you don't want "on record" a lot of info about yourself (correct or incorrect) just in case 

mexican_dave

I don't know what your survey said, but if you relied on the mortgage companies own Valuation Survey, then that was an error. Another way you might have realised the property is not up-to-sctatch is via the EPC report. A single skin 4" wall without a lot of insulation, will not keep the heat in your house, making you energy costs high. Suggest you look at the EPC (it's freely available on-line, £0) as an absolute guess it might have a EPC rating of F or less, assuming you haven't done something to improve it since you purchased the property. The EPC should have sounded alarm bells before you purchased, selling agent has to make one available at time of sale. The mortgage companies are now refusing mortgages on properties with poor EPCs, but reckon that was after you purchased, part of a green initiative. Sorry there is no good news here.

Albermarle

Interested to see these comments, so did a quick google and yes it seems some mortgage companies seem a bit reluctant to lend on some single wall properties.
A bit surprised by this, as there must be Millions of Victorian/Edwardian houses in the UK, some very upmarket and desirable. Many better built in some ways than newer houses
I presume that  all these houses can not really be semi unmortgageable, as this could bring the housing market crashing down. Presume that it  is more that mortgage companies are taking into account solid wall construction/EPC ratings, more than they did in the past when assessing the overall mortgageability of a house, as opposed to refusing mortages carte blanche for solid wall houses?

Or am I, and others, including some of the websites I looked at ,confusing single skin with solid wall ( 9 inches thick ) ??

ArbitraryRandom

As others, I would think it's important to establish what is actually is meant by 'single skin' (literally a brick thick - as can be found with poor garage conversions) or simply built with no cavity wall (like virtually all the houses built pre-1930) or are we talking 'non-standard construction'? 

Also, a first time buyer pulling out because they couldn't get a mortgage - doesn't mean mortgages aren't available... it might be the bank would only loan at an interest rate higher than the prospective buyer could afford/was willing to pay, or they approached the wrong bank (which is where brokers can help). 

Singleskin

Thanks for all your comments. Some were useful

lincroft1710

I would have thought that the construction is more likely to be 9" solid brickwork than just 4.5" single brick.Or it may be an outer 4.5" brick wall with a filled cavity then an inner specialised timber wall.