My wife has a mortgage on a house with the Halifax, she is at the stage where she can exchange the contracts on the sale of this house. However the Halifax has stated that the house is un-mortgageable to our buyers due to the result of a mining search and the sale may fall through. The adjoining houses are also Mortgaged with the Halifax and this mining search was the same when all three houses were mortgaged with the Halifax in the past, in fact the other two houses are closer to this mine shaft highlighted by the search.

Is there a legal requirement that the Halifax must be consistant, our buyers mortgage is lower than what my wife owes so they would be reducing the risk if anything? If this sale does fall through are we justified in giving the Halifax the keys on the grounds of inconsistancy and negligence?

my wife also has shared ownership of my house, will the bank be able to pursue the debt from this house if she hands the keys in to her old house? Am I best to have the mortgage for this house in my name alone?

-- Steven Waterhouse (steven.waterhouse@bently.com), August 17, 2000

Answers

A search done with the Coal Authority is supposed to reveal whether any past, present or future activity in the area has or might cause damage to a property.

The Halifax will have made their decision as to whether or not to grant a mortgage based on the survey's that the Coal Authority have given your buyers.

Your wife should ask the buyer's solicitors for a copy of the mining search (or ask her solicitor to do it for her).

Your wife should also go back to the solicitors who acted for her when she bought the house and take a look at the mining report that was done then.

Once you have copies of both searches, you can compare and see if there have been any significant changes since the last survey was done.

If there are no significant changes since the last survey, then your wife's solicitor can go back to Halifax and question their decision. If not, then you'll need to investigate further.

But do get copies of these mining searches, even if your sale does fall through. And please don't consider handing in the keys until this has been sorted out.

-- pendle (pendle@amun-ra.demon.co.uk), August 17, 2000.