Mortgage retention/advice Please help :)

[Musty Pie]

Good evening all,

As a FTB I am after a little bit of advice on my purchase situation from those a little more in the know! So the current situation (brief as I can keep it):

Partner and I find a property we love. Its a 3 bed Victorian Terraced which a lady has "done up" as a project. She buys, renovated and sells properties as her living. It has had a full gas and CH system fitted (eco boiler etc.) and a full electric rewire completed. Place is lovely, and we decided this was going to be our first home.

We put an offer in of 180k which was rejected, upped it to 182500 which was accepted.

We appointed a mortgage broker, a solicitor, and we are at the stage of filling out our mortgage application. Our financials are in track with that kind of mortgage but here is where I need some advice:

The Mortgage lender has come back to our broker after completing a valuation summary. This is one of the conditions of the mortgage process for our chosen lender.

The summary highlighted the following:

1. Damp proof report and estimate from a registered damp Contractor (eg: a Member of the Property Care Association).

2. A timber report and estimate from a reputable timber contractor (eg. a Member of the Property Care Association).


Listed above are the reports we require. Detailed below are the comment(s) made by the valuer relating to the reports:

1. Provide new timber and damp report irrespective of any Current guarantees."

In addition to this it also stated:

Essential Repairs: Yes
Details: 1. Construct fire check wall in roof space.


They have placed a retention on the mortgage of 2.5k based on the above structural works which are deemed required.

Now from my understanding the options I have are as follows:

1. The price of the property is reduced by the suggested 2.5k in order to continue with the Mortgage application. (damp proofing and timber survey pending)
2. The vendor has the required works completed on the property in order to meet the Mortgage survey requirements, the mortgage lender re-evaluates the property so we can proceed


Due to the age and nature of the property we are going to have a full structural survey completed on the property, however I do not wish to fork out for this until we have secured the mortgage application as this could be money wasted.

Are my above options correct? or am I missing something? Sorry if these are noob questions this is all new to me, and at 26 this house buying lark is a tad confusing at times...

any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[Musty Pie]

Ok I thought that this might be the case.

The Mortgage lender (according to our broker) are usually very good on the valuation survey so I am kind of pleased something like this has been highlighted.

I have approached the EA to purpose the reduction in the purchase price I guess we now just wait and see what she says.

Thanks I will update in as things change.

 

[Musty Pie]

Ironically like the OP I bought my first house at 26, it was a 3 bed Victorian terrace and the survey said it needed DPC and a firewall in the loft as well, amongst other things
In our case we ended up taking a 50% contribution towards the work from the vendor; in hindsight, we probably should have demanded the full amount but were worried about the sale falling through and it being a waste of our full structural survey.

This is interesting. Thank you for your input!

I am still awaiting to see what the EA/vendor say reference the findings.

Not keen for the sale to fall through, but also not keen on paying 500-1000 on a full structural survey if its a waste of money.

Our broker advised that we do not pay a penny for a survey to be completed until the mortgage application is accepted. Which makes perfect sense.

 

[Musty Pie]

Thanks for all of the input people!

Small update:

I have had a call from the EA today. They have explained that they have been in contact with the vendor reference the application issues and the retention suggested by the mortgage company.

The vendor is going to get the work completed in order to meet the requirements of the mortgage application (Fire check wall constructed) as she was not willing to lower the price of the property to meet the suggested value.

In addition to this she has passed her solicitor all of the certificates ref damp proof checking and timber etc which she had completed when she was renovating the property.

These will be passed into us in due course, which I hope will meet the requirements as these are still relatively new certificates.

If not worst case we may have to pay for new ones.

I have explained that there is time restrictions in place, as the application for the mortgage is not indefinite, and she has agreed to get the work completed and certified as a priority.

Is there anything that I should be wary of? Or is this all positive news?

 

[Musty Pie]

OK so small update:

The Mortgage company have requested "fresh" surveys be completed so we will be unable to use the current ones for the mortgage application.

The MA has explained that the Mortgage surveyor must have spotted something with either the timber or damp to request fresh surveys. So this is making me naturally warey...

I have requested that the EA have new surveys completed and the guarentees be completed so we can proceed with the mortgage application.

Is there anything else that I should be aware of?

Thanks in advance