1st Time Buyer - Damp Found After Survey

Steven.Morris7

Hi,

We've had a survey done on a property & it's apparent that the downstairs rooms are suffering from damp... Quite Badly...

It looks from the outside that the building was treated... But what do i do next? Is it quite common to find problems after the survey & is it quite common to negotiate the price to cover the problems you might find?

Any help / advice would be great.

chickmug

Yes but what recommendations did your surveyor make?

In my experience the term damp is often a 'blanket term' used to indicate not only damp but condensation. Usually the latter is down to the way a person lives and so the next person may find NO damp/condensation.

To get better replies you need to give more information

G_M

apparent that the downstairs rooms are suffering from damp...

Do you mean apparant to you or apparant from the survey???

Surveyers rarely do more than stick a damp meter (themselves unreliable) on a wall and pronounce 'there's damp'. They normally then advise referring to a damp specialist. Is this what happened?

Without knowing the extent and cause you cannot do anything. Once you know extent and cause (and potential cost), yes you can negotiate on sale price.

Could be internal condensation. Could be faulty/missing dpc. Could be poor pointing. Leaking gutters. Piles of earth etc outside breaching the dpc.

Some of these are trivial, some more costly.

Speak direct to the surveyer - often they'll say more than they'll put in a formatted report. Also worth reading up a bit yourself (libraries are great places!) and taking a good look yourself. sometimes the cause can be obvious even to an untrained, but observant eye.

tbs624

Have a look at Jeff Howell's website. He has a construction background & writes columns on property matters ofr a couple of the broadsheet newspapers. Writes with much common sense on dry rot, timber treatments and damp etc.