Got survey, what now?

leftatthelights

Hi all,

We veiwed a house recently on the market for 75k.
We had two veiwings and decided to put in an offer of 73k which was accepted straight away.
The survey has just come back and it contains a number of "catagory 3" findings (cat 1 being little or no fault, cat 3 being significant).
The three cat 3 findings were:

Existing damp proof course is defective and requires removal.
Full interior and exterior damp proof course to be installed with remedial plastering work required after completion.

Possible need for cavity wall tie replacement/repair.

Electrial installation not up to current regulations and it is suggested that a full re-wire is completed.

There is a few grand's worth of work there and I just wanted your opinions on how to deal with the vendor (via the estate agent) and if you think that it would be unreasonable to lower or offer to 70k in order for us to pay for the necessary work.

This is prob a no-brainer but want some experienced advice please.

Thanks in advance guys.

RobertoMoir

I think the question is what would be the value of the house without those faults - if it's a £120k house that's being sold for £73k to take the cost of repairs and renovation into account that's one thing but if it's a £70k house being sold for £73k then that's quite another.

leftatthelights

Hi RobertoMoir,

The house has been valued at the 73k that we offered on it.

I understand your point though.

I feel the house is worth 73k but the faults do put me off slightly therefore I feel a slightly lower offer of 70k is fair considering the work required.

David_Aldred

Hi leftatthelights,
If you can I would hold on making a revised offer until you get some detailed inspections and consequential estimates of the costs involved. The 3K amount you suggest may well not cover the cost of these works given the cost of a full rewire alone. Electrical report recommended to be NICEIC / ECA registered. Damp / timber / wall tie reports recommeded to be Property Care Association Members be that contractors or freelance / consultants (see PCA website for the difference), although there are some good qualified contractors and independents outside of the PCA if you so choose. You may also want to consider a Gas Safe Registered report.

Also bear in mind the surveyor has not proved dpc failure at all since their electrical damp meter will not prove such and those inspecting may well find a different cause such as simply contaminated plaster / debris within cavities bridging the dpc etc. You also want to know the type of wall ties as this makes a difference to how the original ones are dealt with given that some can remain within the wall whilst others need to be isolated / removed that may involve scaffolding elevations etc. Kindest regards, David Aldred Independent damp and timber surveyor

leftatthelights

Hi David,

Thank you for your valued and experienced advice. It is much appreciated!

Although I will note that in the homebuyers report, it does actually state that the existing DPC is "defective" and a full internal and external DPC estimate MUST be provided before exchange of contracts!!

Can you tell me who exactly asks the various contractors needed to provide the estimates?
Do we do it all or does the vendor arrange all the necessary trades to come in to do the estimates?

What would my/our next step be as far as the estate agent is concerned because the vendor is obviously aware that the survey has been completed so she will be expecting some sort of contact soon??

Please correct me at any stage if you think I am wrong though!!!:o

G_M

Contact the vendors, either directly or via the agent, and tell them what the survey found. Tell them you will need to get some specialist reports/quotations done before you can proceed. Don't even raise the issue of price/renegoiation until you have the reports/quotes back.

Arrange the specialists yourself. It's you that wants them in, not the vendor. And you want to be the one they report to, not the vendor.

leftatthelights

Hi G_M,

Thanks for the info!

I will start making some calls tomorrow then.

Thanks again.

timmyt

get second opinions, as surveyors always pass the buck on damp, electrics and wall ties..........

dylly

We are going through a similar thing at the moment. Had building survey completed on our first house and it has come back with a fair few points that need further investigation.

We didn't know what to do; the surveyor has been incredibly helpful and when we followed his report up with him he suggested what we should do next.

We are passing a copy of the report to our solicitor tomorrow, but been keen to keep things moving this weekend so we have phoned round various tradesmen and asked 2 builders for quotes to repair/modernise various aspects of the property (including providing 2 lintels, fixing cracked brickwork, quoting to remove all asbestos, installing ventilation to roofspace and sub floor levels etc), and arranged for an electrcial check which is happening next week for £110 plus vat. We still need to find someone to check the boiler and carry out a gas safe report.

The property we're buying is empty so we've asked tradesmen to liase with the estate agent to get access, and also offered to be there if need be.

We discussed who should pay for the electric and gas check and decided we would rather have the person/company answering to us and not feeding us some lies because they aren't reputable and we haven't chosen them. Not sure what other people do.

We're expecting about £10k worth of work to be identified. The property is a do-er upper, so much of this we'll take on the head, but it will depend on what exactly comes back. We will let our solicitor do the re- negotiating if there is any.

We may end up going back to the vendor because there is more asbestos in the property than we expected and we are keen to get the property into a modern state as possible. We knew from looking at it there was a problem with missing lintels, but the asbestos is harder to spot...

leftatthelights

Right, an update of our present situation.

My MIL went into the EA the other day with our surveyors report.
She was asked if they could have a photocopy of it (which I told her not to allow before she left) but she allowed them anyway????
The vendor will now all of a sudden, not move an inch on the price and I think the EA has copied the rear section which states that the house is worth what we initially offered for it.

Is there anything in the above which sounds strange to anybody??
Do the EA have a right to copy the report?
Do you think that if they have copied the rear section, they wouldve told the vendor that the survey says it is worth the initial asking price?

That would explain the unwillingness to move on the price??

keith969

You entrusted the dealings with your EA to your MIL? :eek:

The EA will no doubt have told the vendor that it was valued at the agreed price - remember he's working for the vendor, not you - so its no surprise that the vendor will be unwilling to budge. After all, if it were you selling, would you?