More love for Ecology*

[Conor]

We've had nothing but good experiences with Ecology since first making initial enquiries, through from the application and subsequent drawdowns. 

 

Many others have retold this same experience so there's no doubt we're not the only ones.

 

Thought I'd throw a bit more perspective on how they operate from our recent experiences.

 

We recently agreed an easement with a local developer to put a storm drain through our site to a discharge point at the Burn behind our house. The solicitor advised us that in most cases the mortgage company would retain the land payment. Not Ecology. "Work away lads, the cash is yours. An no, it doesn't affect our valuation or your loan entitlement." Score!

 

Secondly, we went to planning and amended the design. Informed Ecology and advised them of the change of design, anticipated value increase and also our increased costs. No bother again. "If the value goes up from the surveyors report, you can access the retention sooner. And if you need more money, you can make a further application with no legal fees." Sweet.

 

And throughout this we've been able to pick up the phone and get through to our account manager who doesn't even need to look up our details on the computer or ask us a million questions as she knows her stuff inside out. And only extra fees we've been charged is the £250 valuation survey.

 

 

 

*I have not received a gratuity for this post from Ecology, quite the opposite in fact ?

[Ralph]

I think we may have the same account manager, excellent customer service. 

[andy]

Agree, nothing but great service from them.

[Wagas]

Yes, they are excellent. Gave me a fantastic income multiple. Slowest part of the whole process was getting a telephone appointment. So contact them early on. 

 

Should be everyone's first port of call for self build finance. 

[Bozza]

Made some good decisions & some bad decisions in my self building journey.  Going with Ecology was one of the best ones for sure.   Isn’t it great to be able to recommend a company without reservation.  Especially one that plays such a crucial part of the self building process.    That company will see some great success in the future if they keep going the same way,, I just hope some bigger company doesn’t take them over and make them just like the rest.  

[Adsibob]

On 18/06/2021 at 08:02, Wagas said:

Gave me a fantastic income multiple.

What multiplier did they give you?

[Wagas]

5.5

[KillyfadNewBuild]

On 03/07/2021 at 16:56, Wagas said:

5.5

 

Thanks for confirming this Wagas, I am long time reader of the forum and was wondering this same question as Adsibob.

[Ferdinand]

The biggest limitation on Ecology may well be the size.

 

They do about £40m of mortgages a year, which is perhaps 80-150 mortgages.

 

You'll like it, but there are not a lot.

[eandg]

On Ecology, we'll soon be drawing down our second payment (after land) and they've advised that they'll only get a valuation if required. In an ideal world I'd be asking for £60k but not sure the value will have increased by £75k by groundworkers/general uplift. Does anyone have any experience of an ask which may not be subject to valuation and potential asks? We'd have about £180,000 left to draw down after this if that makes any difference.  

[Conor]

Our surveyor said not to get him for the first draw down until we had the walls up to first floor level. He said there's little value in ground works and foundations, even though it's one of the most costly stages. I think we'd spend £40k digging a hole and laying a slab, but it only took another £11k to get the walls up for our first valuation.

 

Another pint to note is that the valuation is done in the context of the final expected value. So if the final value has gone up 10% since your initial application, then you can expect to get a little bit more at each stage (until you hit the total available).

 

As property prices rose so much in the last year, we got our final drawdown long before we finished as the final value went up by a rediculous £100k.(I think it was undervalued at the start)

Edited January 19, 2022 by Conor

[eandg]

1 hour ago, Conor said:

Our surveyor said not to get him for the first draw down until we had the walls up to first floor level. He said there's little value in ground works and foundations, even though it's one of the most costly stages. I think we'd spend £40k digging a hole and laying a slab, but it only took another £11k to get the walls up for our first valuation.

 

Another pint to note is that the valuation is done in the context of the final expected value. So if the final value has gone up 10% since your initial application, then you can expect to get a little bit more at each stage (until you hit the total available).

 

As property prices rose so much in the last year, we got our final drawdown long before we finished as the final value went up by a rediculous £100k.(I think it was undervalued at the start)

Thanks - thought the same with groundworks but we will 1) be very tight if we can't get a decent chunk of the £60k we'll have spent and 2) we had a low initial land value so hard to think that it wouldn't be worth there or thereabouts of what we'd need it to be with a cleared site to floor slab and some initial landscaping. I guess the question is how much may ecology give us without a valuation?