Plasterboard walls not acceptable!

[CoffeeCup]

I have been in contact with a high street bank regarding mortgaging one of my properties.

During the conversation with the advisor I was asked about the construction of the building. One of the questions was 'Construction type of the walls?' Which I answered Brick, in fact they are 9" brick walls. This seemed to be of concern to the advisor when she passed the information on to the Valuation team at head office.

I was asked 'Are the walls dry lined?' Which the answer is Yes. The walls are dry lined and then a plaster skim coat followed by emulsion, all pretty standard.

Problem I'm told.

Does anyone have any idea why dry lined wall are a problem. Most of the new builds use plasterboard. I know construction companies like plasterboard over bonding/cement undercoats because the fewer wet trades the quicker the completion but

Why would this have any bearing on a mortgage application?:confused:

I haven't has a chance to drill the advisor/valuation team for an answer yet.

[Colincbayley]

Sounds like perfect standard construction to me. Can't see what there problem is.

[CoffeeCup]

Day 2 and I'm still none the wiser.

Just a little background ....

There is a non refundable charge of £615 made up of admin fee and valuation fee on this mortgage. Of course that is a lot of money to hand over if there is no guarantee they will offer me a mortgage.

The property is slightly non standard in that it a former commercial building(warehouse) with change of use to residential flats. It's also got a flat roof and solid 9" walls.

Here is the response the Bank's mortgage rep received, from their Head Office valuations bod.


Having seen the photo,s and noted that the property is flat roofed ,I am of the opinion that this property is not likely to be favourably received by our panel valuer,the solid walls would also present a problem as they are likely to require dry-lining,?<name omitted> has further discussed the case with underwriters and should it receive a positive comment following inspection their would be a full retention.I believe that the customer would be taking a risk with the valuation fee as I am of the opinion that this does not represent good security

I just can't make any sense of the dry lining comment.

The flat roof is new using the latest materials with a life expectancy of over 20 years. In fact its been BBA certified accelerated test to 20 years with no deterioration in performance.

This information was emailed to the valuation guy at Head office. Response the same 'not good security'

I'm glad that I pushed for more information prior to parting with my cash but can't help thinking 'how many people get declined and lose money due to this undisclosed criteria?'

[CoffeeCup]

The Non refundable fee of £615 is broken down as follows:-

£270 Valuation Fee
£345 Banks commission for facilitating, accepting and assessing the valuation report.

That's a lot of money for someone to pull up and say 'sorry mate, don't do flat roofs or plasterboard'

Possibly that's a little facetious but I feel unless probed deeper and sent some photos I would be in that position.

One of the questions in the application it asks is roof construction. There is an option to tick 'flat'. If they don't consider buildings with flat roofs good security why take the money off someone in the first place for the valuation?
I can understand a flat roof may impact on a valuation. Lets say for arguments sake it devalues a property by 20K over a pitched roof. As long as my borrowing falls within the 75% LTV (as in this case), How can a property be regarded as 'not good security'?

I know a few of you more experienced guys will just say cut your loses and find another lendor, Of course that is what I intend to do. It's just I feel although I've wasted time, petrol, parking and a credit check on this company, I would like to at least take away a better understanding of the decision making process.

[Matt Churchill]

I'm with everyone else on this. I've never heard of issues with interior walls. Surely as has been said, it is standard construction?

Flat roofs are not an issue either, as long as it is constructed properly. For example, I've just done a studio for someone which has a flat roof, no problem at all.

The fee structure seems weird to me as well. I know some lenders have an internal charge linked to the valuation, but it is only normally around £75, not the £345 as quoted to you.

I would definitely look to a different lender, either the one you are dealing with has some strange criteria, of the staff you are dealing with don't know what they are doing!

[CoffeeCup]

I would definitely look to a different lender, either the one you are dealing with has some strange criteria, of the staff you are dealing with don't know what they are doing!

I have a sneaking suspicion it's the latter.

Is there any value is pursuing a complaint ? At least the sender of the mail would be made accountable for his words. The company concerned must spend a small fortune on advertising, marketing, promotion and sponsorship etc to get customers through the door. I have two good sized mortgages to place with them and yet I'm left confused and disgruntled.

Who has responsibility for bringing in new business? Business development managers? Would they be interested in my experience of the backroom staff? And could they verify that I have been given good information?

Anyway, I don't want to make this a crusade, I've got far more important to deal with, but if there is *any mileage in it for me*, then I may start the ball rolling:cool:

[Matt Churchill]

I have a sneaking suspicion it's the latter.

Is there any value is pursuing a complaint ? At least the sender of the mail would be made accountable for his words. The company concerned must spend a small fortune on advertising, marketing, promotion and sponsorship etc to get customers through the door. I have two good sized mortgages to place with them and yet I'm left confused and disgruntled.

Who has responsibility for bringing in new business? Business development managers? Would they be interested in my experience of the backroom staff? And could they verify that I have been given good information?

Anyway, I don't want to make this a crusade, I've got far more important to deal with, but if there is *any mileage in it for me*, then I may start the ball rolling:cool:
With 17 years in banking, this is sadly all too regular an occurence. In my experience, some staff in banks don't put themselves in the place of the customer and often times they are not the "experts" they should be.

You could complain, but, there is a good chance it would not aide your plight at all. It may do, but at best it is a 50/50 call.

New business will depend on the sector of the bank you are dealing with and what there set up is. Some have Bus Devt managers (in fact I'm married to one!) and others don't and some have such people in certain sectors only.

The sad admission is that I suspect if you told a Bus Devt manager of your troubles, they'd not be terribly surprised and would no doubt try and help. However, as with all staff you'd need to be confident that the person you were dealing with was better than the last!

In short, personally I'd not bother complaining, as it will take time to go through their complaints procedure and may delay the business you are trying to do, and ultimately achieve very little.

Matt