Keep or remove foam roof insulation prior to selling a house.

[SaltySeaMaiden]

I’m attempting to sell my late parents’ house and I’ve discovered sprayed on roof insulation on the inside of the roof tiles in the loft. It’s the ‘closed cell’ type. I’m getting conflicting advice and don’t know what to do. My solicitor says don’t touch it, but a potential buyer says his mortgage provider wouldn’t give him a mortgage with it in place. It’ll cost £22k to remove, which we can easily pay.
We had a builder go up and take a look. He said it’s dry as a bone up there, and the wood is in good condition. We found the original paperwork from 1997 and it was correctly installed by a reputable national company.
My solicitor’s reasoning is that a new buyer may want to do an extension or changes to the house and the roof may be significantly altered anyway, also, the removal involves taking all the tiles off from the outside, removing the foam, and putting new felt and tiles back. This is a 120 year old house, and the danger is that other problems could be found. We may end up having to replace the WHOLE roof, rafters and beams included, landing us with a £60-80k problem.
My question is primarily for estate agents and mortgage providers: Should I remove the foam prior to an offer, or leave in place with a damp survey done by me. I have already googled the problem, but the advice is still conflicting about what I should do to sell the house. I’m looking for real world advice from people who have had experience of this issue.

Leave it in place, as you say it could easily spiral out of financial control if you start.
Expect to take an offer eg somebody revise their offer down due to this and get it sold. It’s a liability for you sitting empty.

also, some mortgage companies won’t loan for it so be prepared for that.

Different issue but a big one when I sold my parents home. I went with an agent that understood and was confident to discuss with potential buyers prior to, or at a first viewing. That quickly and naturally filtered out people that wouldnt touch it or would be difficult later. It save a lot of time on my and the agents part and we sold remarkably easily because people only viewed if they were happy to take it on. It also stopped revised offers and talking the price down as they knew upfront. Priced sensibly and sold at the advertised price.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqjrpv218r0o

We've just had a nightmare trying to buy a house with spray foam. A lot of lenders won't lend, see link article. We found one that would lend but after months with a physical valuation, structural engineer visit , they decided they wanted it removing.

No sensible buyer or lender is going to take the word of a builder having a quick look - the spray foam will be blocking any kind of proper assessment as a lot won't be visible.

From my own experience removing it now will properly save you delays down the line as it's highly likely it will need to be removed if your buyer needs a mortgage however if you are prepared for delays, you probably are better off leaving it in place and seeing what happens given the estimated costs. Having proper certification of installation may help the situation and each case is different.

When ours was removed, it showed a completely different situation to what the structural engineer had said and shows that some of the timber has been affected.

@SaltySeaMaiden ”We may end up having to replace the WHOLE roof, rafters and beams included, landing us with a £60-80k problem.”

Which is why lenders are not interested, and cash buyers will be driving a hard bargain.

Does the house appear to be suitable for a loft conversion? Most people go for a conversion rather than move. I doubt many people would buy a house with the intention of adding a conversion immediately, and still they wouldn’t be able to get a mortgage.

I’d look for more quotes for removal. £22k sounds a lot.