[Ant]

Hi all, having squeezed every bit of productivity out of my smallish garden over the years i have finally decided that we need more land and need to expand to include stock of the four legged type. My family are all keen to lend a hand with ideas of pigs sheep and goats in addition to our current chickens. We think we have found a suitable property with 4 acres but its a steep learning curve which we will need take on in stages. The biggest hurdle i suspect is getting a lender to help with a mortgage. Has anyone any experience in this area? I was speaking with my solicitor and he set the alarm bells ringing in my head when he talked about possible problems with securing a mortgage on a 'registered' small holding. I know the property has no agg tie and i suspect the holding will be registered as they currently have a few sheep. Surely though the mortgage company would not be aware the property is registered or would this be picked up in the survey or at conveyancing stage. I'm desperate for this to work out but I'm not sure I'm going down the right path with a standard mortgage, perhaps i need to find a specialist lender? although we do plan to use the holding purely for a residential/own consumption purpose. Any ideas would be much appreciated, Thanks Anthony - Thinking about it i suppose one option if i hit a snag with the mortgage company is to try to seperate the Deeds between the land and the house, that way the lender doesnt have any issues with securing a loan on 'agricultural' land/buildings. Oh well we will see what snags we hit! and deal with them the best we can. Update 09/07/09 - Mortgage offer recieved - no special conditions attached so thats good news, same day kids off school and have suspected swine flu and are on Tamiflu, isnt life fun!

[doganjo]

Hi Ant
You don't say wher you are, but in Scotland it makes no difference if it is registered or not as far as I know.  we had a croft number and that made no difference either.  We had a mortgage of £30K on an £80k property way back in 1994.  Long since paid off thank goodness, and two homes further down the line.

[Hilarysmum]

When in doubt   ..... change the solicitor . ......

[Roxy]

We had this problem when buying our place. I am pretty certain that because, although I already had 8 acres nearby, because the farm only had 12 acres, the acreage did not cause a problem with a residential mortgage because it was not enough land for a commercial enterprise, or words to that effect.  But the mortgage is a residential one, and therefore I am not supposed to use the land for commercial gain, or would have to have a business mortgage, which would be higher payments I suspect.

[Farmer]

Hi Ant,

Telephone/contact your local NFU office, they maybe able to advise you and may also help with finding a mortgage broker - personally I don't think you will have a problem raising a residential mortgage...what you do with the land is your business providing you are not setting up a commercial enterprise from day one. i hope it all works out for you and wish you every success...you won't regret it...its a wonderful life!

Regards, Farmer
 

[doganjo]

We had 21 acres, John had a gardening business, a hill walking business - both of which the Building Society knew about - no problems whatsoever.  That was in Scotland.  Don't know where you are.