Kensington mortgages

CookandClean123

Hi i'm going through the RTB process and council value house at £415,000. We then got a separate independent building RCIS survey and valuation and it came out at the same price £415,000. We applied for a mortgage with Kensington and they instructed a survey however the Valuation came back at £0 due to a tree in our front garden which is close to the house so our application is declined . Our broker is saying we need an Arboricultural consultant and then it is not 100% it will be approved. Is this normal we are so worried now and don't know what to do. a tree survey were we are is around £850 so don't want to pay and then we are still rejected and based we are going with Kensington are options are quite limited.  

Mark_d

Yes it is normal for mortgage lenders to have a valuation done on a property.  If the tree is likely to cause subsidence and structure damage to your property the the lender might not want to lend against it.  I assume there would also be issues for you in getting buildings insurance.

CookandClean123

@Mark_d we had a previous our own survey and they stated that we should just monitor it and could consider cutting it but didn't say it was a risk.

If i get a specific tree survey I've asked someone to take a look and they have said it wont cause any damage is there a chance the app could still get declined? 

Mark_d

Different specialists can give expert opinions which differ...and ultimately what matters is which opinion is accepted by the bank.

Your 415k valuation may be a reasonable figure based on the property as-is, the location etc.  However the bank needs to consider the risks because whilst the property might be worth 415k today it might be worth only 1k tomorrow if the house collapses.

A tree specialist would be able to help in terms of estimating what could happen with the tree but the tree specialist wouldn't necessarily be an expert in understanding the consequential impact on the building.

Personally I wouldn't buy a property like this because even if you could get a mortgage in the first instance, you could still have issues in future when it comes to getting a remortgage or getting buildings insurance.

CookandClean123

but i can just cut the tree down right so its not really an issue as i have lived here for 3 years and it has not caused any issues 

CookandClean123

Mark_d said:

Different specialists can give expert opinions which differ...and ultimately what matters is which opinion is accepted by the bank.

Your 415k valuation may be a reasonable figure based on the property as-is, the location etc.  However the bank needs to consider the risks because whilst the property might be worth 415k today it might be worth only 1k tomorrow if the house collapses.

A tree specialist would be able to help in terms of estimating what could happen with the tree but the tree specialist wouldn't necessarily be an expert in understanding the consequential impact on the building.

Personally I wouldn't buy a property like this because even if you could get a mortgage in the first instance, you could still have issues in future when it comes to getting a remortgage or getting buildings insurance.

but i can just cut the tree down right so its not really an issue as i have lived here for 3 years and it has not caused any issues 

BonaDea

A lot of trees have tree preservation orders meaning you can't cut it down or prune it without planning permission - check with your council whether the tree has a TPO.