House Unmortgagable Due To Location

slightlyoverweight

Hi All

I bought a house in 2021 next to a train track. HSBC happily gave me a mortgage to buy the property.

I've just had to have a lot of work done to the house (re-roof etc), and HSBC have now said that due to the location of the house I can no longer get a mortgage on it. I've tried other providers through a broker (Barclays and Halifax) and they also say the house is not sellable.

Its very confusing as both the house and train track have been there for 150 years. I feel like HSBC have totally screwed me over by giving me a mortgage in the first place.

I have a claim open with the ombudsman but wondered if others had similar issues or advice?

MyRealNameToo

Underwriting criteria change overtime, what a lender finds acceptable today doesnt mean they will find it acceptable tomorrow and there is no redress for that.

How close are the tracks to the boundary of your grounds? How close are they to the main building? Almost certainly some more flexible lenders will consider most circumstances and a decent whole of market broker should know who those are.

ACG

A valuation is carried out by a surveyor. A surveyors opinion is subjective.

However, things can change - has the train line gone from being 1 train an hour to 15 for example or are there plans in place for it to change?

Was it the same person who came out for the 3 appointments this time?

Baldytyke88

Excessive noise or vibration can lower property value by 5% to 10% and make it harder to sell, which some lenders may view as a risk.

Do you think this is the case with your house, can you dig out your documentation from 2021 and see if the closeness to the train track was mentioned?

silvercar

See a broker who will know which lenders have issues with this. It may be that certain surveyors belonging to national companies are known to have an issue with train lines in your area and a friendly estate agent may know which surveyor that is. Armed with that information a broker may know which lenders don't use that survey company.

slightlyoverweight

Hi all.

Thanks very much for your replies.

A mortgage broker is helping me to hopefully get a mortgage switch so I can merge the second charge mortgage i had to take to get roof work done.

There was no issue or mention of train track noise when I took out the mortgage with HSBC in 2021.

There has been no change to the frequency of trains or the number of tracks either, everything is as it was when I was given the initial mortgage.

I'm not near a road so it's absolute quiet 99.999% of the time