Please tell me it isn’t as bad as it feels

[Iheardit]

Hey, writing this through tears. We brought our house 2018, since then it’s just problem after problem. Now we have leaks, roof/walls, Vallys. The house needs about 20k of work to make it watertight. We have a mortgage of approx 225k. House is worth approx 280k although I guess much less at the moment with the leaks/water damage. I earn 27k (although am on maternity leave) partner earns 32k. I have 5k of savings although this was to help cover bills while on maternity.

Our options from what I can see are try and borrow more on our mortgage. Or remortgage. We are locked in till 2023.
We currently pay £880 a month, although when I am working we over pay by £200 each month.

Any other options, I just feel so scared. It’s so much money to try and find.

Thanks

Is your house a new build? That's alot of problems so can appreciate you feeling overwhelmed.

Do you want to stay in the house? If you can't face the work you could put it in the market (price reflected by both work needed and market increase) - you can still walk away with your hands clean.

If you want to stay, then prioritise what needs doing and then finance whichever way makes sense with a reputable builder. Overpaying your mortgage is great, but not at the expense of upkeep. It is sortable, it just feels overwhelming now.

£20,000 to make it watertight? What's gone wrong there? Have you had a few estimates from reputable companies?

Thank you for such a quick reply.

It’s not a new build no, it’s an old Victorian house. We would love to stay here, the problem is it’s all water damage so needs to be fixed soon, before it causes more problems.
I was just wondering what finance options there are. The pros and cons of them. I am trying to get hold of mortgage company but been on hold for 45 mins, and have to home school.

Man, I thought my old Victorian house was a money pit... £20k to make it water tight? What’s gone wrong? Maybe there’s a way to make it cost less...

Remortgage probably best to get the work done quickly as water damage will soon cause ancillary issues and costs will potentially increase. It sounds like you would be able to afford an increase in mortgage costs as you already over pay. I suppose if you have a big cushion of overpayments you might (subject to terms) be able to take a mortgage payment holiday while you’re on Mat leave and put payments aside for a few months to save for the work, but this would also increase your mortgage cost long term. What is the actual work that needs to be done?

Some mortgage providers allow you to borrow back or underpay if you have made overpayments. Good luck.

What kind of survey did you have? Did any issues show up? Is your home insurance through your mortgage provider? Perhaps make some enquiries through your home insurance. Alternatively if you have enough equity you might be able to borrow more without having to re-mortgage, just add an existing policy to run concurrently. Sorry you’re going through this, sounds awful.

The roof needs doing, (only just found the leak, so no quote but judging by next door about 10k)
Lots of scaffolding. Then all windows the mortar used doesn’t have Lyme in it, all needs replacing, the water has slowly leaked in un noticed and rotted joists. Chimney mortar has holes in, cap chimneys off. Regutter the house as it is old/sun bleached/leaks meaning it runs down walls. The end of the house the old Owners had it redone, but it was done wrong so water soaks into the valley as no lead was put in. Lots of other jobs. There is also penetrating damp somewhere in the dining room but not sure where, it needs further investigation.

We had surveys done, but only basic ones (kicking ourselves now). Home insurance won’t cover any of it!!!

Water leaks can be very tricky to resolve so whatever you do make sure it is the cause of the problem that gets tackled, lots of builders talk a good talk but don't always know what they're talking about and if you don't it can be hard to spot this. I know this isn't the point of your thread but if you are stretching yourself financially to sort it, that last thing you want is to waste it.
Are any of the causes covered by your house insurance? It might be worth checking in case that can take some pressure off.

Oops. I see your update now.

If you can solve all that for 20k that's pretty good!
The dining room damp might be secondary from the causes you mention, if they get fixed you might find that dries out.

A 20k loan for home improvements?

Ok firstly don't panic. Get some roof quotes done. Does your whole roof need doing, or just a section? Scaffolding is about £900 so not a major chunk.

We have a ton of exterior/roof works due on ours which we knocked money off the purchase for. There's also removing and replacing mortar to be done, but we've agreed with our roofer (who is a friend) that while the scaffold is up we will get up there and rake out and repoint the mortar with them showing us the ropes. Probably will save us a grand or two as their rates are £200/day, meaning we can concentrate our money on the specialist roof work.

Similarly, you can re-mortar the side of your house - a friend of ours did this during the last lockdown. He had concrete render pulling water into the wall, so he got up there, pulled it all off and re-rendered it with a lime mix.

Obviously it's not something everyone can do but a lot of it, if you are able bodied, is something that is no more complicated that your average DIY, just takes time. If you could put some time to it you could reduce the spend quite significantly.

Thanks everyone so much, everything feels worse when you are alone (can’t meet up with anyone due to lockdown) and no sleep (4 month sleep regression) hadn’t thought about a loan. Can borrow 15k for 4 years paying £331 back a month. Which although is long. It doesn’t seem as terrifying now. Have got mortgage company phoning back in next 5 days, to discuss mortgage options.

My partner can do the simple tasks (he will repaint the render when scaffolding is up, he can also replaster when it comes to it). He can also do any knocking out/knocking things down. Depending on the job it maybe worth him just working overtime, he earns approx £250 for a Sunday. Although it’s all worth looking at because of the tax.

We are also hoping to get a few more quotes this week. Our house is very tall (built on a hill) with 3.5 metre tall rooms.

a long loan whilst rates are pretty low would probably be your best bet. or if you can purchase any of the materials on behalf of the builder on 0% to pay the minimum payments back to spread it over even longer / reduce monthly repayments for the whole job.

That’s so wrong that Home Insurance won’t cover you, any chance you could appeal? You mentioned next door, have they recently had work done? Are you attached and did the issues arise around the same time? Just wondering if your roof might have been disturbed whilst work was being carried out on the other property. Hope you get it sorted like a PP said, don’t panic and hope you get some decent quotes.

I don't think home insurance will cover water ingress due to roof works falling due or badly-done external maintenance. They'd cover eg a water pipe bursting inside but the other stuff is not a surprise event, it's something they would expect you to be on top of.

A further advance on your mortgage will generally be cheaper than a personal loan.

When you were overpaying your mortgage did you reduce the term or reduce the monthly payments? Is £880 the new required payment?

Speak to your lender as well as a broker. It is sometimes worth paying the ERC to get a better deal elsewhere.

I would Investigate housing grants.

www.entitledto.co.uk/help/home-improvements-grants

You may get nothing - but worth trying.

@Stinkerbells

That’s so wrong that Home Insurance won’t cover you, any chance you could appeal? You mentioned next door, have they recently had work done? Are you attached and did the issues arise around the same time? Just wondering if your roof might have been disturbed whilst work was being carried out on the other property. Hope you get it sorted like a PP said, don’t panic and hope you get some decent quotes.

@stinkerbells It’s not wrong at all! Otherwise we’d all buy houses at a rock bottom price because they’re falling apart, then get tens of thousands of pounds worth of work done for the cost of a £400ish premium?! Why do you think insurance would cover existing damage and further damage caused by that?

I would remortgage for the lowest interest rate on the money, but mentally treat it as a x year loan, overpaying the mortgage by that amount to clear it.

It sounds like a gorgeous home (huge ceilinged Victorian!) so hang on to that!

@Cocomarine if the house was purchased at a rock bottom price in the knowledge that the house needed major work like a new roof - with the intention to claim on insurance then I might agree however this clearly isn’t the case. What starts off as one issue can lead to further damage, perhaps rendering the property inhabitable and in extreme cases un-mortgageable. Which is why I asked if the insurance is linked with the lender. Such issues come with hefty excesses so it wouldn’t just be the cost of the annual premium would it? Quite often insurances may pay out for elements of an issue, leaving the householder to shoulder part of the cost. It all depends on the policy T&C’s and how the leaks have occurred. Without knowing the full extent of the situation we’re all just guessing really. In the same circumstances as OP I would exhaust all avenues.

@Iheardit how long has this been going on for? if it’s down to lack of maintenance then no the insurance might not pay out however if it is due to adverse weather or a third party the insurance may cover the cost of getting the property watertight but probably not the resulting water damage.

Thank you everyone for such great advice, and talking me out of a negative crying heap

@ItsReallyOnlyMe. Will have a look at that link thank you :)

@Palavah will definitely speak to a broker as well as our lender. I think we were paying off, as far as I can recall it was bringing what we owed down. So our mortgage is £880 and we paid £1080 (until October 2020 when I went on mat leave) this hasn’t reduced the term or monthly payments of our mortgage yet, but from what I can understand is that when we remortgage we will owe less (hope that makes sense).

@Stinkerbells I think it is the case - OP bought a Victorian house but opted for only the most basic of surveys, which she admits was a mistake. From what she describes, almost all of the work required (damp, leaks, water damage from leaks, no lime in mortar, insufficient chimnet mortar) would be both pre-existing and predictable in that type of property. Possibly not the neighbour’s work being completed incorrectly, if that wouldn’t have been visible on a survey - but that should be claimed from the neighbour’s insurance. You can’t buy a pig in a poke and expect insurance to fix it all.

if you join nextdoor.co.uk you will probably get good recommendations for local reputable traders