Ex-Council House Survey: Non-Traditional Construction and Mortgages

An ex council house survey needs to answer two questions before anything else: how was the house built, and will a lender accept it? Around two million council homes have been sold to tenants under Right to Buy since 1980, and most are solid, generously sized and competitively priced. A minority were built in non-traditional ways, with precast concrete, steel frames or timber frames, that some lenders will not touch without a structural engineer's certificate. This guide explains what a surveyor looks for on a former council property, which survey level to choose, and the mortgage rules that catch buyers out.

Why does an ex-council house need a different approach?

Local authorities built at scale, and between the 1920s and the 1970s they often used fast, factory-made systems to meet housing targets. Those systems were designed for a shorter life than a brick-and-block house and were maintained as a landlord would maintain them, with periodic programmes of new windows, boilers and roofs rather than the piecemeal care of an owner-occupier. When a house was sold under Right to Buy, the buyer took on the structure but not the council's maintenance records.

That history shapes the survey. The surveyor is not only looking for the age-related defects covered in the guide to surveying a 1960s or 1970s house, but also identifying the construction type, checking whether any past repair scheme was certified, and flagging anything that a lender's valuer is likely to query.

Non-traditional construction: the types lenders worry about

"Non-traditional" simply means anything other than load-bearing masonry walls with a timber roof. The main families found in former council stock are:

• Precast reinforced concrete (PRC) houses, including Airey, Cornish Unit, Unity, Wates, Woolaway, Reema and Orlit types, mostly built between the mid-1940s and the 1960s. Many were designated defective under the Housing Defects Act 1984 (now Part XVI of the Housing Act 1985) because the steel reinforcement corroded and the concrete cracked.
• Steel-framed houses such as BISF, Trusteel and Dorlonco, which can suffer corrosion of the frame where it meets the ground or where cladding has let water in.
• In-situ concrete systems such as Wimpey No-Fines and Laing Easiform. These are usually not designated defective and most lenders treat them as near-standard, but they bring their own damp and cold-bridging problems.
• Timber-framed houses from the 1960s to the 1980s, which lenders generally accept, provided the frame is dry and the fire stopping and ventilation are in order.
• Large-panel system (LPS) flats, the concrete-panel blocks of the 1960s. Some lenders will not lend on them at all, and the survey question becomes whether the block has been structurally strengthened.

A designated defective PRC house that has been repaired under a licensed scheme should come with a PRC certificate. Where the house has been repaired to a recognised standard and certified, most high-street lenders will consider it. Where it has not, buyers usually need a specialist lender or a cash purchase. Your surveyor will tell you which category the house falls into and whether the paperwork exists; where the type is uncertain, a structural engineer's report settles the question for the lender.

What defects does a surveyor look for on a former council house?

Beyond the construction type, former council houses share a recognisable set of problems:

• Flat and shallow-pitched roofs on 1950s to 1970s houses, extensions and garages. Felt coverings have a limited life, and some flat-roofed social housing used reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete planks. The RAAC concrete guide explains why a 1950s to 1990s former council house with a flat roof deserves particular attention.
• Asbestos-containing materials, which were used widely in council stock before the 1999 ban: textured ceiling coatings, soffits and fascias, floor tiles, boiler cupboard linings, garage roofs and the panels beneath windows. The Artex and asbestos guide covers testing and removal costs.
• Cavity wall tie corrosion in brick-built council semis of the inter-war and post-war years, and problems caused by retrofitted cavity insulation. See the guides to wall ties and cavity wall insulation problems.
• Concrete deterioration: carbonation, chloride attack and spalling around lintels, balconies and panel joints, which a surveyor reads as a sign of hidden reinforcement corrosion.
• Owner alterations since sale, such as extensions, loft rooms, removed walls and through-lounges, which may have no building regulations approval. Councils rarely allowed these while the house was rented, so most date from after the Right to Buy purchase.
• Original services: council programmes replaced boilers and windows, but wiring, drainage and water pipes are frequently original.

Which survey level should you choose?

For a conventional brick-and-block former council house in reasonable condition, a RICS Level 2 HomeBuyer survey is usually sufficient, and costs around £400 to £600. It is a visual inspection that rates the main elements and flags anything needing further investigation.

A Level 3 Building Survey, at around £600 to £1,200, is the better choice where the house is non-traditional, flat-roofed, extended, visibly altered or more than about 60 years old. Under the RICS Home Survey Standard a Level 3 inspection is more thorough: the surveyor lifts accessible hatches, examines the roof void and sub-floor where possible, investigates the construction type and explains the likely cause of each defect and the options for repair. The guide to what a Level 3 survey covers sets out the difference in detail.

Where a PRC or steel-framed type is identified, the survey report will recommend a structural engineer's inspection. Lenders generally want that report, or an existing PRC certificate, before they will issue an offer. Ask the seller for any certificate at the outset, because its absence changes both the price and the lenders available to you, and have the engineer's report completed before exchange rather than after a lender's refusal.

Mortgages, Right to Buy rules and ex-council flats

Lenders assess former council property on construction type, on the surrounding estate (valuers consider the proportion of owner-occupied homes and the condition of the street) and, for flats, on the block itself. Many lenders restrict lending on ex-council flats above a certain number of storeys, with deck access, or in blocks where most units are still rented from the council.

If the seller bought the house under Right to Buy recently, two statutory rules apply in England. A proportion of the discount must be repaid if the property is sold within five years of purchase, and for ten years the council has a right of first refusal when the owner sells. Your conveyancer should check both; the official Right to Buy guidance on gov.uk explains how the rules work. Buyers who are themselves purchasing from the council need a Right to Buy valuation if they want to challenge the council's figure.

Ex-council flats carry an extra layer of risk. They are leasehold, and the council as freeholder can bill leaseholders for major works to the block under section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, with the cost of a new roof, windows or cladding sometimes running to tens of thousands of pounds per flat. Pair the survey with questions about planned works, lease length and the service charge history; the panel's leasehold surveyors can advise on a lease that is approaching 80 years.

Arrange an ex-council house survey with Survey Merchant

Survey Merchant provides RICS surveyors across the UK from a panel of 2,400+ professionals, matched to the property rather than assigned at random. For a former council house that means a surveyor who knows post-war and system-built housing in your area, can identify PRC and steel-framed types on sight, and can bring in a chartered structural engineer where a lender needs certification. Fixed fees are quoted in advance for Level 2 and Level 3 building surveys, with reports normally delivered within a few working days of inspection. To book, use the contact page or call 0204 579 8270.