We were hoping to port our existing mortgage to a property that requires modernisation.   Our lender (Halifax) used a third party valuation service to value the property.  Unfortunately, they did an actual inspection of the property and they have refused to value it and have stated the following.

THERE IS STRUCTURAL MOVEMENT IN THE FORM OF INTERNAL CRACKING AND CRACKING TO MASONRY. WE CANNOT PROVIDE DETAILS ON THE FULL EXTENT OF MOVEMENT AND LOCATION THIS IS OUTSIDE THE SCOPE OF THIS VALUATION REPORT. YOU NOW NEED TO GET A STRUCTURAL ENGINEEROR CHARTERED BUILDING SURVEYOR TO MAKE A DETAILED INVESTIGATION PROVIDING YOU WITH A FULL REPORT IDENTIFYING THE CAUSE, TOGETHER WITH THE COSTS OF THE WORK NECESSARY TO ENSURE FUTURE STABILITY. I CANNOT GIVE A VALUATION UNTIL I HAVE SEEN THE REPORT. THERE IS EVIDENCE OF DAMPNESS TO IN WALLS AND TIMBERS IN CONTACT MAY BE DEFECTIVE. YOU SHOULD INSTRUCT A SPECIALIST DAMP AND TIMBER TREATMENT CONTRACTOR TO INVESTIGATE THE FULL EXTENT, THE COST AND CARRY OUT NECESSARY WORK. THE LIMITATIONS OF THIS VALUATION REPORT WILL NOT HIGHLIGHT THE SPECIFIC LOCATION OF CONCERN. 

 

The lender is only lending us 20% of the purchase price, so zero risk to them as the plot alone would be worth more than that.   My only concern here, is that we get the structural survey / damp report done and they expect the associated works to be completed before they would lend.   The vendor is not going to do that, as it's a probate sale ...

 

ps - we had a level 2 survey done ourselves and the surveyor stated that the damp / cracks were nothing to be concerned about as we are planning of demolishing the extension.  He mentioned high damp under the suspended timber floor, but I had factored in having the floor ripped out and a concrete one put in.

 

Anyone, have any wisdom they can share about what the options are?

talk to a broker

Yeah, there’s very little common sense and/or leeway for the junior mortgage guy + algorithm doing the ‘evaluating’ - particularly for the large lenders. A smaller / specialist lender may be able to demonstrate more actual intelligence. Good luck - shouldn’t be a problem for the right outfit. They will probably try to squeeze some extra % out of you until you fall into the ‘standard’ group again.

Probably a bit late now, but we were in a very similar situation in 2023, and it was a lot of hard work but we did manage to convince the mortgage company to lend on the house.

 

Probate sale. Had been vacant for around 10 years with the associated damp and suggested minor structural issues. In fact the report read almost identical to yours.

 

We were planning on a full renovation anyway, so the issues raised by the surveyor didn't really worry us.

 

We instructed our own structural assessment of the house, paid for a drainage survey, provided loads of quotes for having the roof repaired and a few other things highlighted by the mortgage valuation report.

 

We then compiled all of this in to a pack and sent it to the mortgage and valuation company along with a detailed covering letter of how we would fund the works, and a letter from the selling agent stating the expected increase in value once the works were completed.

 

Similar to you, this was also on porting a regular residential mortgage.

 

It worked and they offered a mortgage on it.

The Halifax did decide to lend in the end, but we pulled out of the purchase.  Property had a shared septic tank with no history, and the neighbouring properties didn't have anything in their deeds to say that they needed to contribute to the maintenance.  Just decided that it was too much of a risk, so pulled out.  Worked out well though, as we've finally found a building plot.