Survery Results - Not good. Help please!

moanymoany

1. Do you really want the property?

If yes, start some negotiations over the price. If there was no planning permission it may have been badly built - the damp... there do seem to be quite a few problems.

If they refuse your - substantially reduced - offer they will face the same with anyone else who wants to buy. The current market is a BUYERS market so take advantage.

lincroft1710

If a structural engineer cannot tell you what has caused the extension to sink then I'm not sure who can. When encountering similar problems my first thought was subsidence - but this may not be the case here. The absolute worst case scenario would be that the extension would have to be demolished and rebuilt, but again I would stress this may not be the case. As Incisor has said you can keep commissioning reports/surveys, but you have got to decide - reject property or accept at a much reduced price to allow for whatever remedial works are needed.

Cazza

Hi, I'd be tempted to have an "informal" discussion with your structural enginer and ask him if he would buy the house, bearing in mind he has no idea what is causing the problems. Usually, in situations like this, the reports come back and they sort out the issues, but the structural engineer seems to have opened a whole new can of worms! My gut instinct at the moment would be that you should consider waking away. It's one thing to have an expensive problem you can fix, but if you don't know what the problem is in the first place.........:think:

JimmyTheWig

How unique is this property?
How much does it suit you?

Unless this is a one-off property that suits you down to a T (sp?) then I'm not convinced you should go for it.

At this stage I wouldn't bother paying out for any more surveys. I think what you have shows that serious work is needed. You either want the house and are prepared to do that serious work or you're not.
The final price you pay needs to take that serious work into account.

The trouble is, how do you put a price on that serious work?
Has the surveyor put a valuation on the property?

As has been said, if a structural engineer can't find the problem, who can? Probably no-one. So the only way I can think of fixing the problem is pulling the extension down and starting again. At which point you have the planning permission problem, for which I don't think you could get an indemnity against if you get the work done.

Plus you've got the whole business of buildings insurance. Who's going to insure a property that appears to be sinking in one corner.

I think I'd want to get the price reduced by the cost of demolishing the extension and having it rebuilt before I thought about going any further.
In this market there must be a better house for you to buy...

penguine

We were in the middle of buying a house in June and walked away due to issues raised in the survey which were less serious than what you've encountered. Our mortgage advisor (who's also a longtime friend of the family) asked us if we really loved the house, and we realised we didn't. It had just looked really attractive compared to what we thought we could afford a year earlier. We then started looking around estate agents' windows and discovered that a lot of similar (or better) houses were now for sale at slightly lower prices -- the market had fallen that much in just 6 weeks.

So, I think you need to ask yourself how much you really want this particular property, and if you would be happier living somewhere else especially if prices are falling and a house in better condition is likely to cost you less in another 6-12 months...

The money you've already spent on surveys, etc, is a drop in the bucket compared to how much you'll have overpaid on the house + interest on the mortgage if prices fall another 10-20% (which even conservative experts are saying is more likely).

SquatNow

Plenty more houses out there.

At least 15 houses for every buyer in fact.

Houses are expensive. If you have any doubts whatsoever just buy a different house... is it really worth the risk/hassle for this 1 "special" house?