Potton has ceased trading

[LnP]

It's been mentioned on here before, but now confirmed. I got an email today from a Potton sales manager telling me they have ceased trading. Kingspan is pulling out of Potton and as of the 4/8/25 is no longer trading. There is potential for someone or a company to come in and buy it and build it back up, but there are no time lines to this. 

 

I think I'm right in saying they sold more self build timber frames than any other company and were the cheapest of the ones I looked at. My thoughts:

 

• Relieved I don't have an ongoing project with them. If things had gone faster with our planning application, it is quite possible that we might have.
• But I wonder what this means for people who do have an ongoing project, paid a deposit etc. They haven't gone into liquidation as far as I know, so perhaps they will stand by existing commitments.
• It is a reminder of the financial risk with timber frame, with substantial payments required before the frame is delivered.
• Does it tell us anything new about the need for financial due diligence of timber frame companies or how to do it to avoid getting caught?
• With Potton's capacity removed from the market, will there be ripples out to other suppliers in terms of price and delivery times?

[Thorfun]

i hope no one gets burned financially by this. our TF company Flight Timber went out of business and i remember at least one member on here lost money because of it. 

 

i think if i were to ever do this again i would seriously consider a stick built house. could then buy materials as required through a local BM and substantially reduce risk

[Kelvin]

That’s a blow given their size. We went to look at their showhome place a few times before deciding who to go with. I’ve no idea how Potton the finances with builds (all risk with the client etc) but I too would never build a timber kit without there being some form of client account protection. 

[JohnMo]

Even more reason to steer clear of so called kit houses and big deposits.

 

Unfortunate for the employees, that have just found out, they have no job.

[LnP]

Further information, it looks like they're making an orderly exit. If anyone had an order then they had to have it delivered by the 31st October, if not then a deposit would have been returned.

But yes, sad for people who've lost their job. 

 

[Nickfromwales]

They looked to be a finely oiled machine tbf. Hopefully nobody got burned.

[Andy Ward]

I think there's a sense in which might have been burned. We comissioned a Potton house in 2010, and it was delivered and erected very smoothly - no real problems.

It has an entire basement floor in brick and block, so strictly it's less than 50% timber frame by wall area.

We got a staged mortgage from TSB, and completed the house in 2024 (10 year warranty and everything). In 2021 Truss screwed the mortgage interest rate up to 7%.

The house is now finished, and we're living in it.

While we were both working, we could afford to carry on completing the house and paying the interest on the staged mortgage.

Then, we retired, planning a lifetime mortgage to pay off TSB.

...that's when we discovered that lifetime mortgage companies really hate timber frame houses. We couldn't get better than 17% loan-to-value, which wasn't enough.

So now, we're trying to sell a house that has been valued at £1.2m, but we can't sell it anywhere near that, perhaps because mortgage companies don't like timber framed houses. Not Potton's fault (caveat emptor), but I wish the aversion (sight unseen) to timber framed houses was better known. Have other people found this or am I being paranoid?

[Big Jimbo]

I am happy to be told different, but when i spoke to a broker about timber build he told me that unless it has either a brick or block skin, that i was knocking 64 of his 68 off his list, and that getting a mortgage would be costly and difficult.

Fine looking house.Hope you  get a quick sale.

[Bramco]

Not sure why a brick or block skin would be seen to be giving more surety - it's only a skin and the fabric is timber frame. Just goes to show how thick industries like insurance etc. can be at times...

 

I wonder how everyone in Scotland copes?  What with timber frame being much more prevalent there - afaik. Have you tried Scottish mortgage companies?

 

Also, isn't there a timber frame manufacturers association?  It may be worth contacting them.   Or just going round to a local building site - there's a lot of timber frame going up at the moment - how are they advising their clients on mortgages?

 

Or take out a buy-to-let mortgage on the property - and get a postbox address for correspondence....  😉  🙂 

 

Edited Thursday at 13:07 by Bramco

[Kelvin]

80% of house in Scotland are timber framed although most are block and rendered outer skin. You also see loads of timber clad houses especially in the Highlands and Islands. They can’t all be cash buyers or tiny mortgages. It’s not something for us to worry about for 15 years+ and even then we’ll give it to the kids and they can not worry about it either. 

[Indy]

4 hours ago, Andy Ward said:

I think there's a sense in which might have been burned. We comissioned a Potton house in 2010, and it was delivered and erected very smoothly - no real problems.

It has an entire basement floor in brick and block, so strictly it's less than 50% timber frame by wall area.

We got a staged mortgage from TSB, and completed the house in 2024 (10 year warranty and everything). In 2021 Truss screwed the mortgage interest rate up to 7%.

The house is now finished, and we're living in it.

While we were both working, we could afford to carry on completing the house and paying the interest on the staged mortgage.

Then, we retired, planning a lifetime mortgage to pay off TSB.

...that's when we discovered that lifetime mortgage companies really hate timber frame houses. We couldn't get better than 17% loan-to-value, which wasn't enough.

So now, we're trying to sell a house that has been valued at £1.2m, but we can't sell it anywhere near that, perhaps because mortgage companies don't like timber framed houses. Not Potton's fault (caveat emptor), but I wish the aversion (sight unseen) to timber framed houses was better known. Have other people found this or am I being paranoid?

 

 

This topic comes up quite often and there are a lot of people on the forum that seem to indicate that TF houses aren't a problem to insure or get mortgages on.

 

I did a lot of research and spoke to a very good friend who's also a partner at a Mortgage brokers, and the general reply was that if it's non standard - you will eventually find what you're after, but it won't be easy and it won't be cheap as you're ruling out the mass market deals which are targeted at the standard, identikit, lower risk options on the underwriters spreadsheet (block built houses).

 

Partly the reason why I chose to go masonry (the other was that TF worked out to be marginally more expensive though that could be offset by lower labour costs and a shorter schedule). 

[Kelvin]

Ours ticks all the wrong boxes and haven’t any problems insuring it for a reasonable rate. I’m not suggesting that it isn’t a problem just that it hasn’t been for us so far. But yes the more non-standard the smaller the pool of insurers and lenders there’s going to be. 

Edited Thursday at 16:09 by Kelvin

[Roundtuit]

Is timber frame really 'non-standard'? No problem here getting a mortgage or home insurance on our timber frame.  We do have a masonry outer skin though, so maybe that helps.

[SteamyTea]

1 hour ago, Roundtuit said:

Is timber frame really 'non-standard'? No problem here getting a mortgage or home insurance on our timber frame.  We do have a masonry outer skin though, so maybe that helps.

My place is TF, while I have no mortgagor, my neighbours do.  There are literally 10s of thousands of TF places in Cornwall, all seem to get mortgages easily enough.