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Original poster

Mortgaging a house without radiators

28 replies

Plantyperson · 22/04/2022 15:58

Hi

My fiancé and I have been on the property hunt as first time buyers for the past 2 years now.. with two sales falling through because of survey results and bank refusing to lend full amount and sellers not willing to budge in the slightest.

In last years property market we’d never consider a house that needs renovations bigger than painting over some walls and changing the carpets but we’re finding the houses we like drifting further from our financial capabilities week by week now!

So we’re viewing a property tomorrow that’s come up and it has lots of potential and is cheap and wouldn’t max us out on a mortgage ..: But whilst going through the photos I realised that there’s no radiators in any of the shots, which would explain the somewhat cheap price point.

Question is should we not bother with it as I honestly don’t know if banks won’t mortgage that kind of property? ( I’ve called up our advisor but he doesn’t know either) There’s an electric fire downstairs and working bathrooms so must be some kind of system in place for hot water - just no radiators from the looks of it.

The plan would be to use our savings to put in heating and then after a while take out a small loan to finance other less urgent renovations as we won’t be near our max on borrowing with the mortgage, I’m not sure, having a lot of first time buyer doubts and feeling given up/scared atm!

Any recent advice on remortgaging run down properties would be super helpful thanks! 🤗

OP posts:
BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz · 22/04/2022 16:02

I'd be more curious as to why there's no obvious heating. Is it in an area which has no gas, or nowhere to store oil?

Electric heating solely would be enough to put me off a house.

nancy75 · 22/04/2022 16:02

I think it’s usually just a requirement to have a useable kitchen, and even that can be very basic. Loads of houses don’t have central heating

PrincessRamone · 22/04/2022 16:03

Are you sure it doesn’t just have under floor heating? Surely it says in the description.

Original poster
Plantyperson · 22/04/2022 16:04

The house is a terraced, pretty much in the city centre and surrounded by other ones that do have central heating, so I’m also confused!

OP posts:
nancy75 · 22/04/2022 16:04

Unlikely to have underfloor heating if it need proper doing up. You can have a hot water system without central heating

lakeswimmer · 22/04/2022 16:05

Yes you would get a mortgage on a house without central heating. Our house doesn't have central heating and we have a mortgage. I live in a rural area without mains gas and lots of houses here, probably most of them, don't have central heating. The mortgage is based on financial risk and nothing to do with how modern it is or how it's equipped.

nancy75 · 22/04/2022 16:06

Perhaps the current owners moved in pre central heating & never got it put in?

ADayAlwaysHasToEnd · 22/04/2022 16:07

Heating isn't normally a requirement for a mortgage. Normally it has to have some form of kitchen and bathroom. But I've never seen heating specified.

I would however enquire about why there is not heating in the property

Original poster
Plantyperson · 22/04/2022 16:14

Thanks so much everyone, I’ll ask about it when we go and see it tomorrow. Feeling more confident now! 😊

OP posts:
MyBottleOfRibena · 22/04/2022 16:17

My old house only had a gas fire in the front room, I rented it, but my landlord defo had a mortgage on it

prediction500 · 22/04/2022 16:21

Does it have vents on the floor for warm air heating?
You can get a mortgage without radiators

Thestoppedfan · 22/04/2022 16:22

You definitely can. My mums house only had central heating put in about 5 years ago and she had no issues getting a mortgage. It’s bloody freezing when you get out of the bath though!

lakeswimmer · 22/04/2022 16:25

We went to view a house recently which had gas (there was a gas cooker and gas fire) but no radiators as it didn't have central heating. The vendor was an elderly lady who'd been there a long time and probably just hadn't got round to installing it for some reason.

maddiemookins16mum · 22/04/2022 16:31

My mums house had warm air vents. No problem selling it.

User7493268965 · 22/04/2022 18:30

It may have an instantaneous gas water heater for hot water if it hasn't been modernised much or just a hot water cylinder. Can't see any reason why you wouldn't get a mortgage because of no central heating. In the 70s and 80s many had warm air heating so it may have that

User7493268965 · 22/04/2022 18:32

If it's an older terrace it's unlikely to have warm air heating, it's probably got gas fires

Ladybutterflyaway · 22/04/2022 18:36

I'm more shocked your adviser doesn't know. Isn't that what you're paying them for? I would massively lose confidence in them for that.

And as an ex-mortgage adviser and underwriter no hearing is usually fine. No bathroom or kitchen however is more of an issue....

ReviewingTheSituation · 22/04/2022 18:38

We had warm air vents in our house when we bought it (which we promptly removed and had rads put in!). No problems with mortgage.
2 other houses on the street recently sold with the same, and I know for sure that 1 buyer had a mortgage.

FIL's house (probate sale) had no central heating (just 2 oil radiators and a gas fire) - no problems selling it (buyer def had a mortgage)

My parents' house just had 2 storage heaters and a log burner - no issues selling and I assume they had a mortgage too.

Aberration · 22/04/2022 18:49

I know some first time buyers who bought a house without heating. It was a very small house but i remember being very surprised at how cheap it was to put heating in (£6-8k comes to mind but don’t quote me on that) They only lived there 2 years due to family circumstances but they more than made their money back by the amount the house value increased! No mortgage issues!

i don’t know why it had no heating. It was in a deprived part of town so I suppose previous residents couldn’t afford it,

CrabPuff · 22/04/2022 18:55

My old house had the most basic kitchen of a. Welsh dressser and a coal fired Oven and wood burner in the living room. Central heating is not a mortgage issue. My old house had an immersion heater for hot water and a fire for heating so nothing else was essential.

giggbig · 22/04/2022 19:02

We made an offer on a house without radiators. It went way over though & we know at that new amount the bank wouldn't lend so bailed out.

Limoux · 22/04/2022 19:06

Sink in kitchen and toilet in bathroom is the minimum to be mortagable in my experience

Fe345fleur · 22/04/2022 19:25

Ours didn't have any gas central heating when we bought it last year. For some reason in our area it's quite common and we came across it a lot. We had no problem getting a mortgage. Maybe use the issue to negotiate the price as you'll have to budget to put it in? Check for signs of damp too, if it's not been heated properly for a long time.

It wasn't too much hastle to put gas central heating in and took about a day. The most disruptive bit was having a hole drilled in exterior wall to install the vent for the boiler.

Our house needs a lot of cosmetic work too and we can't do it all at once. My advicevfor a house that needs renovation would be to think about what you can live with and for how long. So we prioritised heating and removing the artex from the walls...! But our kitchen and bathroom are old but not a total horror, so can wait until we have the cash together. If everything is horrendous you might find the bargain isn't worth the stress 🙂

70kid · 22/04/2022 19:33

My late parents had GCH put in 2017
it cost £750 to have the gas connected from outside
Then around £4000 for a Worcester Combi Boiler and 8 radiators installed

OctopusSay · 22/04/2022 19:40

Our first house had no central heating and it's not that long ago. We sold about 10 years ago and it still didn't have central heating (we had fires and some electric heaters, plus immersion heater). There was a large tree that bothered mortgage lenders but the heating was never an issue.