Mortgage offer dependent on remedial works

[bananamonkey]

Anyone else been through this? Did it get resolved.

Buying an old house, there is a cellar which has some damp (small wet patch on wall, black mould inside a cupboard, bottom step rotten and needs replacing) because it has not been tanked. Had full survey, wasn't anything too scary, just what I've written above and we plan to sort out the cellar as we'd like to use it for storage and another room.

Mortgage valuation took 6 weeks from application because they couldn't get a surveyor (shortage in the area), in the end they got someone from Countrywide to do it in their behalf and this guy is a nightmare. Took ages to come through with the report then said wasn't willing to give a valuation because there were signs of rot and we needed a specialist damp and timber survey done. Did that and got quote for the works, then he wanted to know something else (but didn't specify it initially grr) so damp guy had to go back again just to confirm yes there is some black mould in the cupboard and yes it's because there's some damp and the previously quoted works would resolve it.

Another week goes by until our broker can get a straight response as he speaks to the bank who speak to their surveyors who speak to Countrywide guy so it's really inefficient. today bank says they're not willing to lend until the work is done. So now estate agent is trying to get hold of vendor now to see if he's willing to do it, it will cost few grand and I'm scared he's going to pull out.

Sorry that's really long

We are in almost the exact same situation. We're only as far as getting a structural engineers report back today and about to send it off to the broker. It suggested work amounting to £6000 needs to be done. Initially Natwest put a full retention on the mortgage until further investigation. We are also hoping the vendor will help out here too - we are not prepared to put the money in if the house is not ours yet. The EA did say something about being able to do it between exchange and completion but we'd need to find the cash. It's a 1930s semi in need of some TLC and a few issues but nothing too major. We are hoping they release funds for us... which lender are you with out of interest bananamonkey? The vendor will surely offer to help - he can't sell it till the works done can he?

Halifax. I'm really hoping the vendor will go along with it, the quote we got was £4,600. I'm not sure if he'll want his own quote as well, I'm just desperate to get it all sorted.

Good luck. Let me know how you get on. We just got the estimate from the structural engineer report. I may call around for quotes too.

We've just received a mortgage offer from Halifax after experiencing something similar. Valuation flagged up structural work and we had to get a structural engineer report. This confirmed some movement but it was historic and suggested £2,000 remedial work.
However, the valuer just took this off the value of the property so we had to renegotiate the purchase price with the vendor. We also had a full survey done which highlighted some other problems and we negotiated several thousand off the purchase price. Halifax were happy with this as it put the purchase price below the valuation price and they've issued the mortgage offer.
Hope you get it all sorted. I sympathise with you about going around the houses between valuer, broker, mortgage company etc. So frustrating and it wastes so much time!

So vendor is not willing to get the work done prior to exchange and TBH I don't blame him as the risk in therefore on his head.

We've gone back to see if they'll give us a retention instead, it's less than £5K worth work on a 65% LTV, there's a DPC for the rest of the house still in guarantee so I'm really struggling to understand why it's such a major risk that they won;t lend at all (so is EA and our broker) but the valuer is digging his heels in and saying it's a major issue so it's looking unlikely.

Think we may have to apply to a different lender and hope they have a better perspective

Just to go back to this thread, we applied for another mortgage with Santander while trying to negotiate with the original surveyor. Found out he "didn't trust" the company we use to get the damp quote but would not respond when we asked for a recommendation for a different company or whether if we used a PCA-regulated company that would be acceptable (probably pissed off our broker complained about him). We're still waiting for an answer.

Santander used the same surveyors as Halifax did so we were worried they'd come back and say no again but they did the valuation yesterday and came back today with an offer for the full amount, no remediation works needs prior to exchange. I'm so relieved!

That just demonstrates what a load of nonsense surveyors come out with!!! So pleased you have progress and will get your house. Best of luck getting to exchange asap.