Lenders reject homes with spray foam insulation

Homeowners with spray foam insulation are struggling to sell or remortgage as some major lenders are rejecting properties with it fitted, the BBC has found.

A quarter of the UK’s biggest mortgage providers will not lend against homes with spray foam in the roof, our research suggests.

It is estimated as many as 250,000 homes in the UK have this type of insulation, with much of it installed under the previous government’s Green Homes Grant scheme.

“We were blissfully unaware of any issues to do with it until we put the house on the market,” said Wendy Rowe, whose family struggled to sell her late father’s home and paid thousands to have the insulation removed.

Some mortgage firms are reluctant to deal with homes with spray foam insulation due to concerns over poor fitting leaving moisture trapped and roof timbers at risk of decay.

But the Insulation Manufacturers Association said spray foam can be beneficial if properly installed, and it was worried homeowners could be needlessly driven to “cowboy” removals companies.

Ms Rowe told the BBC that when her father Alan Chawner was offered spray foam insulation in his loft, he thought it would make his ex-council property in Leicester warmer and cut his energy bills.

As a pensioner who claimed the attendance allowance, the entire £4,331 cost of the installation was covered by the Green Homes Grant scheme, which ran in England until 31 March 2021.

‘Left high and dry’

However, the work was not up to scratch, according to a report by Stephen Hodgson, the former boss of the Property Care Association (PCA) who now inspects properties with spray foam and trains surveyors.

After sales stalled and difficult conversations with lenders, Ms Rowe agreed to replace the roof entirely, splitting the cost of nearly £10,000 with new buyers.

She said it has cost the family thousands more in surveyors’ and administration fees and utility bills.

The firm that installed the spray foam, SealSixty, gave the family £400 as a gesture of goodwill and said the work met all the requirements set out by the Green Homes Grant scheme at the time.

Ms Rowe said that her family had been “left high and dry”.

“It was installed under a government initiative, and you really don’t expect them to turn their back,” she said.

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