Viewed House Evidence Of Damp

keith969

I would be concerned about the possibility of rot - in particular dry rot - if there has been a leaky roof for a while. As that can prove to be very expensive and/or tedious to sort out (I speak from experience), you should get the place surveyed by an independent damp/rot expert at the very least.

nickyx

Agree about risk of rot. The problem with general mortgage survey is that they exclude responsibility for defects they can't see because of floor coverings etc. An independent specialist might be more use though.

Errata

So in a falling market the vendor thinks a couple of tins of paint and a new cheap kitchen is worth £100k increase in value in 6 months ? Any signs of where the vendor has been stabling his horse ?

Hectors_House

Other thing is that the bolier is in the garden in an outhouse - Would anybody see this as a cause of concern it is shielded from the elements by a wooden door

Thank you[/QUOTE]

This sounds like a house I looked at on the east side of Nottingham.

We paid for an additional survey and decided to walk away when it came back that there was long-term damage to the roof that the vendor had made no effort to fix and signs of rot in the floorboards that would mean the new kitchen being pulled out for a full assessment to be made.

The boiler had been put into one of the outhouses which we thought might be awkward if we came to wanting to extend the kitchen (which is the only way to make more room with these types of houses).

It sounds like a typical do-it-up job where they've made it look nice but have avoided tackling the structural faults. You're lucky the damp is so visible or you might have gone ahead and bought a real lemon.

Hectors_House

Errata wrote: »

So in a falling market the vendor thinks a couple of tins of paint and a new cheap kitchen is worth £100k increase in value in 6 months ? Any signs of where the vendor has been stabling his horse ?

Couldn't agree more.

We looked at a LOT of these before finally finding the house we bought. It never ceased to amaze me that folk expected a lick of paint and four hundred quids worth of kitchen units justify another £50k on the price.