Buying Repo - house flooded due to burst pipe

DKLS

besonders1 wrote: »

Sorry missed that posting, I suppose you could be right. It definitely was a burst pipe not the roof, the neighbour said that clean water was pouring out of the door none stop

So far I have had 4 surveyors out to prod and poke my brickwork with an assortment of funky gadgets, and luckily there is no structural damage which there could well be in your case.

Thankfully everything is covered by the insurance.

I'd walk away and look for the next repo, you shouldnt have to wait too long.

Fergie73

I had a small leak in a flat once at it was an a nightmare to fix. It ended up with the ceiling having to come down and a hell of a mess. I think it cost around £3000 and that was for one small leak (upstairs neighbour's washing machine had a small leak in a pipe).

If you were talking about a whole house, I can't begin to imagine the problems - think of the folk who were flooded last year, many are still not back in after a year, and that was water flooding from the ground up, whereas this is from the top down, so could affect all the electrics, all the plastering, everything.

Personally, I would walk away. But if you know traders who could do the work, or you were happy to take it on, you could put in a really low offer. Given the circumstances though, it would have to be really low - £20,000 tops. If the mortgage holder is sensible, they'd take it to rid of the problem, but probably won't.

Interesting thread though - I bet not many buyers think to ask the neighbours. I'm not sure I would. Imagine buying the place without knowing...

besonders1

Thanks to all that replied, I Have just had a call from the EA to say that the house has been reduced to £41K and she said it only had a "small leak". Surprisingly all the other ceilings are intact and the mortgage company had re plastered the kitchen ceiling but not the walls and cupboards so I am looking at a complete new kitchen. I know that the floorboards and staircase look dry as there are no carpets in the house. I know someone has been in to clear the house of soaked curtains and remaining furniture. I might put in a small offer of say 10-15K (I know it will be rejected) but that in my opinion would be a true bargain. A friend of mine said that I could get a de-humidifier to dry out the walls.

GDB2222

besonders1 wrote: »

Thanks to all that replied, I Have just had a call from the EA to say that the house has been reduced to £41K and she said it only had a "small leak". Surprisingly all the other ceilings are intact and the mortgage company had re plastered the kitchen ceiling but not the walls and cupboards so I am looking at a complete new kitchen. I know that the floorboards and staircase look dry as there are no carpets in the house. I know someone has been in to clear the house of soaked curtains and remaining furniture. I might put in a small offer of say 10-15K (I know it will be rejected) but that in my opinion would be a true bargain. A friend of mine said that I could get a de-humidifier to dry out the walls.

A dehumidifier! Umm, no, a small fleet of industrial strength dehumidifiers, working full time for a couple of months with the heating on full blast. I think that you are possibly being optimistic. One problem is that the woodwork may start to warp only once it is dried out. Similarly, drying out the walls may bring the salts to the surface of the plaster. You may have dry rot in some of the timbers.

The problem is that the true extent of the work may only become apparent once you get the place thoroughly dried out. Can you afford the risk of getting it wrong? Say you offer £15k and it turns out the work will cost a totally uneconomic figure like £100k, can you afford to walk away from the property, losing your £15k?

Obviously, nobody here has seen the state of the property, so it's all speculation. I suggest that you have a chat with a surveyor about this before proceeding too far.

Jorgan_2

Ask the EA if they will let your surveyor have access to the property. You are probably better spending a few hundred pounds now before purchasing the property and finding its going to cost you thousands.

KellsBells

Jorgan wrote: »

Ask the EA if they will let your surveyor have access to the property. You are probably better spending a few hundred pounds now before purchasing the property and finding its going to cost you thousands.

That's absolutely spot on. I work in repossessions (I'm an asset manager - the company in between the mortgage lender and the estate agents) and have sadly seen many people get to the stage of having paid for survey and searches and then finding they have to withdraw due to poor survey.