Negative survey

Hoploz wrote: »

Are you buying as well? You don't mention an upward chain. How much pressure are you under to go ahead with the sale ... this will affect whether you are more likely to take a hit to mve on, or just back out and remarket.

We are not in a chain. We are still viewing other properties and have a few favourites that we could go ahead with, also not in a chain, but we would look to move to another option we have to facilitate the sale.

I think if she is buying the freehold this is going to cause a delay.

Yes, that worries me too. She was presented as a cash buyer with a cash buyer. I can imagine that her buyer isn't going to be best pleased about that either as word from our Sales Progression person at the agents suggested that person was keen to move quickly.

When she brings the builder along I think I might go round with them initially, pointing out things like 'the cellar is so good for storage - look, all these pictures remain in great condition so there's no damp!'

I will, thanks. I did that with her and her family on both occasions when she came round and she saw for herself the nature of the stored stuff - there's so much of it that it was obvious it couldn't have just been there for a short time and as I said. some of it a bit dusty rather than damp.

You're lucky to have the heads up on the survey - at least you know what to address!

I guess. It does give us something to work with if it all goes pear shaped but tbh we wouldn't re-plaster etc. The walls and ceilings are fine and if you start with replacing the old lathe and plaster ceilings which are in some of the rooms just because they're lathe and plaster then you'd have to do the lot! If it ain't broke don't fix it. We might put a proper floor in the cellar rather than the rough floor it is and do the chimney bricks now we know about them. Maybe get it re-wired and so on but we do kinda think that many of the things mentioned you'd expect to find in a house of this age - that the wiring wouldn't be modern etc. It's perfectly functional and safe and we have just been offered a Smart Meter for example without having to change anything or causing the person who looked at the bits to run screaming from the house.. The external electrics were all recently upgraded by Northern Powergrid.

Thanks folks for the two new replies above.

Agreed, she hasn't asked for a reduction and has not intimated she's backing out - it may well be she simply wants a builder to quote for a couple of bits n bobs. Hold fast!

Re the moisture meter - our friend came round with the moisture meter mentioned earlier and checked the cellar etc. His meter is very sensitive and reacts to your hand; the meter showed no problems at all throughout the house and what is considered acceptable for a cellar which is not floored i.e. at the very beginning of his yellow band indicator in the outer area of the cellar. He is accustomed to working in older houses as he approves and works on adaptations for the elderly and disabled and states categorically he can find no trace of damp (we concur) and that the surveyor is merely pointing to moisture content in areas like the cellar where it is obviously slightly higher. One thing he did absolutely refute was the surveyor's suggestion that the lintel above the cellar door was saturated (it does get rained on and it was raining the day he came) as his meter did not even beep at any point on the lintel - he suggests it would have been surface water only. He suggest the surveyor has been a tad over critical of a house this age; some of the comments being purely opinion rather than empirical fact. However he too says that despite picking up all the things you'd find in a house this age the survey still says it's worth the money so she doesn't really have much room to haggle.

We have contacted the agent today following the OP which started this thread and she assures us that at this point there's no indication of backing out and the 'buyer' has not mentioned renegotiating the price. We also checked on the 'buyer's' freehold situation mentioned above and she is moving to address this asap - obviously HER buyer will be expecting this to be done asap as well as they were unaware the property was leasehold.

Short version; we appear to still be on track and I will accompany her builder round when they arrange a time.

Something worth mentioning perhaps for the benefit of others - our friend's meter is a fairly complex looking hand held job which you can place against or on a surface. He asked if the surveyor had a pronged moisture meter (looks a bit like a taser) and we said he did. He told us that he has known people take a reading against a wall with their fingers behind the meter and touching the prong thus affecting the reading, unknown to the onlooker. Interesting!