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Hi, long time lurker first time poster.
In December I purchase my first house and i'm in the process of turning it into a liveable home. I purchased outright (it was cheap) but got a small mortgage of 20K for improvements. The mortgage (ANZ <100K) was processed via a mobile manager without a valuation or P/Meth testing.
I'm in the process of trying to get a mortgage top up (a further 10K) as I under estimated. They've been difficult, initially declining a mortgage top up (it didn't fit within their business profile), prompting me to go via the personal loan route ... then declining that too for no given reason.
The mobile manager then initiated contact with me and asked for info about how money was spent, what specifically new funds would be used for, and photos of work to date (they already googled for the "before" photos) - all of which I provided.
Now they want to know if the insurance company knew the state of the property at purchase and as it is now. Without alluding to anything in particular, they've been quite insistent about this. I've had a number of conversations with my insurance company (AA) and renovation/decorating fits within my cover - unless it's structural, new build, recladding etc.
The penny dropped ... it's that blimmin’ load bearing wall which the previous owner hacked into! It is a 1.7m wall on one side of a staircase, on the otherwise of the staircase is a 3.9m load bearing wall which makes up the balance of the span. My builder jacked up the ceiling and rebuilt the 1.7m wall with new timber as it was the easiest and cleanest repair. It had to be fixed, the wall had a sag, the lintel had been compromised. The builder is very competent, highly regarded but only a part timer now and not registered/licensed. The work is to code and once gibbed, no one would be any the wiser.
So, my big questions around this are:
1) if I come clean with my insurance company about this are they going to penalise me? Will I need to take out extra cover until this has been council certified?
2) Does this need to be council certified?
3) Bearing in mind I had insufficient insurance to cover structural anomalies, how likely is this to impact on my current mortgage - or a top up?
4) At time of purchase I elected not to test for P as there had been no electricity/running water here for years, the previous occupants had been the vendor and his family, the place had been largely stripped out by the vendor who due to health reasons and needing to free up funds for commercial investments decided to sell some of his run down/empty houses. The place had been broken into and vandalised over a period of about a month, so P could have been smoked but the chance of it being manufactured is pretty slim. Info about the history of the place has come from the vendor, neighbours, real estate agents (including independent agents), the school next door etc.
If the bank want P testing, can any one recommend a cost effective way to go about this? I don't buy too much into the hype, but I wouldn't be living here if I thought there was a remote chance it could have been a P lab. What I think and what the bank wants are probably not going to be equal here though.
Thanks very much for anyone who can help. It's been quite a stressful few weeks and this is all I have. I never thought I'd own a home and it's really nice to be here.
In December I purchase my first house and i'm in the process of turning it into a liveable home. I purchased outright (it was cheap) but got a small mortgage of 20K for improvements. The mortgage (ANZ <100K) was processed via a mobile manager without a valuation or P/Meth testing.
I'm in the process of trying to get a mortgage top up (a further 10K) as I under estimated. They've been difficult, initially declining a mortgage top up (it didn't fit within their business profile), prompting me to go via the personal loan route ... then declining that too for no given reason.
The mobile manager then initiated contact with me and asked for info about how money was spent, what specifically new funds would be used for, and photos of work to date (they already googled for the "before" photos) - all of which I provided.
Now they want to know if the insurance company knew the state of the property at purchase and as it is now. Without alluding to anything in particular, they've been quite insistent about this. I've had a number of conversations with my insurance company (AA) and renovation/decorating fits within my cover - unless it's structural, new build, recladding etc.
The penny dropped ... it's that blimmin’ load bearing wall which the previous owner hacked into! It is a 1.7m wall on one side of a staircase, on the otherwise of the staircase is a 3.9m load bearing wall which makes up the balance of the span. My builder jacked up the ceiling and rebuilt the 1.7m wall with new timber as it was the easiest and cleanest repair. It had to be fixed, the wall had a sag, the lintel had been compromised. The builder is very competent, highly regarded but only a part timer now and not registered/licensed. The work is to code and once gibbed, no one would be any the wiser.
So, my big questions around this are:
1) if I come clean with my insurance company about this are they going to penalise me? Will I need to take out extra cover until this has been council certified?
2) Does this need to be council certified?
3) Bearing in mind I had insufficient insurance to cover structural anomalies, how likely is this to impact on my current mortgage - or a top up?
4) At time of purchase I elected not to test for P as there had been no electricity/running water here for years, the previous occupants had been the vendor and his family, the place had been largely stripped out by the vendor who due to health reasons and needing to free up funds for commercial investments decided to sell some of his run down/empty houses. The place had been broken into and vandalised over a period of about a month, so P could have been smoked but the chance of it being manufactured is pretty slim. Info about the history of the place has come from the vendor, neighbours, real estate agents (including independent agents), the school next door etc.
If the bank want P testing, can any one recommend a cost effective way to go about this? I don't buy too much into the hype, but I wouldn't be living here if I thought there was a remote chance it could have been a P lab. What I think and what the bank wants are probably not going to be equal here though.
Thanks very much for anyone who can help. It's been quite a stressful few weeks and this is all I have. I never thought I'd own a home and it's really nice to be here.
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