FTB - Homebuyers report back - advice please!!

bella1985

Hi,

Me and my boyfriend had an offer on a 3 bed semi 1930s house (we love) accepted a couple of weeks ago. It had only just come on the market. We got the homebuyers report back yesterday. The house has had a couple of damp proof courses - possibly an original one and one was done in 2001 (and I've been told by the sellers this is under guarantee). The HBR highlighted a few issues:

The DPC in 2001 has been injected at a slightly higher level being at a level above internal floor surfaces (therefore may not offer protection below ground supporting timbers so this should be investigated).

There was some damp in one of the rooms. In the same room, when tests for raising damp were done there were high levels of moisture. (been told to get someone in to investigate)

The mains electricity is old and upgrading may be required so we should get it checked and tested.

Please can someone give me advice as I'm not entirely sure what I should be doing next! The house is so much nicer than anything else we looked at and it seems to have been well looked after by the sellers. I spoke to the sellers last night and asked if they could send me the guarantee to look at. I think the work was done by someone they know which makes me slightly more sceptical about it.

Thanks in advance for any help - its much appreciated!!

bryanb

As it's a 1930S house, look at the fuse box, is it wired fuses or mcb (trips)? are the sockets square pins? Are any cables you can see the flattish grey ones? Are the lght switches modern flat type or old round ones?
Unfortunately if you get a damp specialist to check, it's in their interest to find damp so be wary there.

princessamy86

This is fairly standard stuff for a homebuyers report for a property of that age, so first of all don't panic! Second, get a damp and timber specialist to do a report for you-some of these firms offer a free survey, in our area they cost around £70. Similarly, an electrician can do an electrical report for you, in our area around £100. Once you get these reports they will identify if any further work needs doing, and you can either carry on and purchase at the agreed price or negotiate a reduction based on the work that needs doing.

bella1985

Thanks for the advice!!

Does anyone know where you can find a reputable damp/timber specialist?? I want to make sure it gets checked out properly (and I'm not just being sold something!)

David_Aldred

Hi Bella,
The damp / timber inspections fall into two main camps. You can ask a contractor who may undertake an inspection for free or minimal charge but they are at the end of the day contractors looking for work and common sense may suggest nothing in this life is ever for free especially in the building industry. There are good and bad contractors and the trouble is you may have little idea who you are inviting even including nationwide contractors given many undertaking inspections are paid upon comission to find work. In any case rising dampness cannot be proven by electrical damp meters and anyone telling you otherwise is misleading you.

Alternatively you could have an independent surveyor undertake an inspection who will go into far more detail than the contractor and their free or minimal fee inspection. The independent specialist will cost you more for their time but this may be offset if it saves you thousands of pounds on inappropriate treatment plus there is the comfort of knowing you are getting truly impartial advice as opposed to perhaps in some cases sold a treatment the contractor is there to make a profit from. In addition the list of issues discussed within their reports is likely to be far wider ranging than simply an interest from the contractor in selling a specific treatment.

In either case the choice is yours. Choose a person who is CSRT or CTIS / CRDS qualified and who has professional indemnity insurance to cover the reports they write and advice they give to you. This type of insurance is not the same as contractors public liability insurance. A list of contractors and independent freelance / consultant surveyors may be found upon the Property Care Association (PCA) website for you to call and have a chat with. Hope this helps, kindest regards, David Aldred Independent damp and timebr surveyor

bella1985

That's really helpful - thank you. That was my concern with asking a contractor to come in, I want someone's honest opinion and not to be sold something unnecessarily!

There's been an update today - the vendor has had the person who did their damp proof course in to look at the problems highlighted in the homebuyers report. This person (who is the vendors friend) has said it should be easily fixable. I've asked for the DPC guarantee to be sent to me to review and asked for details on what this guy said needs doing. They haven't rang me back to discuss yet.

My big concern with this is that this guy is going to either do nothing and say its been done (sorry to be so sceptical!!) or not do the job properly as he is their friend. I might be being overly paranoid but I'm terrified of buying somewhere that has a huge problem and the conflict of interest with their friend concerns me a lot.! In all fairness the damp doesn't look too bad and is isolated to two areas in one room (but how am I to know!)

My thinking with this is that I insist this guy does the work prior to exchange and I get an independent surveyor in to inspect the area and the work done? I would rather pay someone to give me there professional opinion and it'd be worth it for my piece of mind! Do you think that would be the most sensible thing to do?

DVardysShadow

bryanb wrote: »

As it's a 1930S house, look at the fuse box, is it wired fuses or mcb (trips)? are the sockets square pins? Are any cables you can see the flattish grey ones? Are the lght switches modern flat type or old round ones?
Unfortunately if you get a damp specialist to check, it's in their interest to find damp so be wary there.

Cartridge fuses are OK too. Arguably better than MCBs.

Flattish grey cable can be plastic, which is better than rubber. But they could be lead, which would require an immediate rewire.

David_Aldred

Hi Bella,
Sorry have been away for the weekend so only just read your latest post regarding the matter. Getting the chap who did the work to come back and make good for free is obviously a good start since it is better than a contractor who simply does not want to know any re-treatment that may be required.

With regard to the paperwork you could do with not only the guarantee but any other documents such as the survey report and quotation the damp proofing contractor originally did along with a sketch showing areas treated and in what manner. In addition confirmation in writing about who undertook the re-plastering associated with the damp proof course work is often an important issue should a problem arise. With regard to the re-treatment being currently proposed ask that they confirm in writing what they have found at their re-inspection and what works they are proposing to resolve the matter.

You could also opt for having a seperate contractor go in and undertake a report for you, detailing what they find in addition to issuing a quotation and ask them to do both a damp and timber inspection and see how this compared with the work being proposed by the original contractor or you could go down the independent specialist surveyor route all as described above and I guess this may come down to how much if anything you want to spend on such an inspection / report and your trust in another contractor to give you the full picture in an unbiased way. In any case whichever you decide it may be prudent to have all the facts before you prior to purchasing the property and that way you are fully aware of what you are purchasing, the problems apparent and the offers on the table with regard to putting such issues right.

Although not mentioned within your original post, if the property is of cavity wall construction you may also want to consider a cavity wall tie inspection given that any original original ferous cavity wall ties are likely to be significantly corroded and the cost of addressing this issue may be considerable. Hope this helps kindest regards, David Aldred Independent damp and timber surveyor

bella1985

Thank you for your reply David.

The vendors sent me an email today saying that their friend was going round this coming week to do some resealing work and to re-do the damp course outside (nr where the problem area is). I asked for more details, but they just said they'd let me know what had been done when it has been done. I get the impression that everything isn't going to be well documented!

Do you think I need to get an independent surveyor in before the work is done, or could I pay for a specialist surveyor to go after the work is done so they can assess the work and see if it should rectify the problem (as well as doing the damp/timber inspection). I'm happy to pay for someone to do this simply for the peace of mind of getting an unbiased opinion. My thinking was that if the inspection was done after the work has been carried out, they would be able to assess the standard of work completed (cause I would't have a clue what I was looking for!) - what do you think?

I'll make sure I ask for the other paperwork you mention - my list is growing longer by the day! Cavity wall tie replacements were done in 2001 and cavity wall insulation in 2009 - I've asked for copies of both to review.

Thank you so much for advice, I feel like I'm getting somewhere at last. If only you lived in my area!!

tyllwyd

But before you get too panicked by all of this stuff, remember that if you like older houses, surveys always tend to throw up stuff like damp/electrics/wall ties - we've had two 1930's houses and one 1900, and every time these things came up. So if you let this house go and look for another one of a similar age, you are likely to have similar kinds of comments come up on the survey.

bella1985

That's very true - wish the surveyors didn't need to cover their own backs so much though because it doen't make good reading!