Mortgage retention until damp survey/works completed

[toni1602]

Hi,

I am in the process of porting my existing mortgage (Santander) to a new house.

The house that I am buying is an older property (built circa 1850). The valuation report stated that a damp report and all remedial work must be carried out with a retention of the full amount of my mortgage. I have had an independent survey which recommends the following:

• Immediately replace failed external rainwater goods with new (gutter is blocked and causing penetrating damp below).
• Commercial size dehumidifier is installed for two weeks to aid drying.
• Attempt to dry landing wall before immediately undertaking expensive internal structural waterproofing.
• The dining room wall could be left as is. However, if the dampness is to be controlled then internal structural waterproofing will be required.

Another part of the report also notes that there are areas of the roof that require repairs.

Will I have to get the work done before completion or will Santander negotiate on this? I'm reluctant to put too much money into the property before the sale has gone through. I have emailed my solicitor but I'm impatient 😂

We've had retentions before , the work was completed after completion then the mortgage company released the retention amount.

Thanks.

My issue is that the current retention is for the full amount of the mortgage. That was before the damp report was completed though.

That is extremely poor advice from the surveyor.

Waterproofing the walls of a solid-walled/traditional building is the absolute worst thing you can do, it will result in sodden walls which lose their structural integrity, displaced moisture, and very poor thermal efficiency.

This is another reason that I'm reluctant to get the work done first.

I did quite a lot of reading about damp before instructing a surveyor. The clause in my mortgage insisted that it was done by someone who is a member of the PCA. I made sure that I used someone independent as I didn't want a company that would recommend an injected DPC.

I agree, waterproofing a 150 old house is an absolutely terrible idea. I am baffled as to how it even got on the report in the first place.

An industrial dehumidifier sounds like overkill to me too. It's been really wet this year, all old houses are suffering, but perhaps the surveyor was an idiot who couldn't figure that out. Is it currently being lived in and heated? If not, there's your answer, it needs regular heating and probably a couple of decent dehumidifiers.

If you really like the house and want to put the work in to make them realise how stupid it is and make the waterproofing requirement go away, I would join Your Old House UK - Repair And Conservation on Facebook to get some advice. They are used to dealing with such silly things.

Thanks for this. I'll have a look. I'm hoping that they'll come back and say that I don't need to do it before we complete anyway.

No, it's completely empty and been unoccupied for around a year (at least I think).

The group will help, they are a great bunch. They need to send a surveyor who is experienced in old houses, this one clearly was not. Just the fact that it's been empty for a year should be enough to suss out why it's damp! Hopefully they can help with how to challenge it with your bank and get a surveyor who knows what they are doing.

How can you buy / complete if Santander won’t pay until you’ve completed the works?
They expect you to exchange then do the work before completion? I’d be very wary. You could lose thousands if something unexpected happens, though no doubt there’ll be an expensive insurance available?
Unless this house is an absolute bargain I’d be thinking about getting the vendor to repair the issues, or withdrawing altogether. The house sounds like a money pit anyway with no cavity walls.

@toni1602 is the house listed or in a conservation area?

@OneForTheToad cavity walls have only really been a thing since the turn of the 20th century, though there was a long overlap while solid walled houses continued to be built for some time. Solid walls just have different requirements and the need to work with their breathability and not against it. Damp in a solid walled house is almost always the result of poor maintenance and inappropriate modern materials, doesn't have to cost loads at all to fix.

If the roof and the gutters are causing the damp, you need to fix them and then wait to see if the problems go away. We had an injected DPC in our last house to combat rising damp, but it wasn't that old a house. The injected DPC worked very well and wasn't very expensive at the time.

This is why the question on my original post is about whether Santander will negotiate on the retention.

A house of this age wouldn't have cavity walls - they weren't a thing when it was built.

Not listed but in a conservation area.

That's my plan but there is potential that the whole roof will be replaced. I don't want to have to pay for repairs before completion only to replace the roof afterwards!

@toni1602 sorry to drag up an old post but we’re in a sort of similar position now - how did yours end up with the bank?

Sorry, but I haven't completed yet so can't say for sure.

The vendors have agreed to fix the guttering and follow the advice given about using a dehumidifier to dry it out. My solicitor asked me if I was happy with this and I said yes as long as you think it will satisfy the mortgage company but she hasn't come back to me!

I'll let you know if I do get any further.

Thanks for your reply - good luck!

I suggest you check out Heritage House's website. They also do surveys in some areas of the UK.