Extra surveys...

mrjenp

OK - just to fill people in

5 Jul: Offer accepted
16 Jul: Structural survey done (independent, not through mortgage company)
Today: Survey report received

From reading the report, there are recommendations for further specialist surveys wrt

• Roof (original slate, some roof tiles have slipped and been held in place with lead, re-roofing "not essential at present")
• Cavity Wall Ties (not checked, might be worn out though)
• Electrics ("[FONT=&quot]Cable where viewed appeared to be of a grey uPVC covered style although the age of the cabling is not known. The majority of cabling is likely to be quite old.")[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Central Heating (Boiler quite old, hot water tank is in an "unsightly location")
  [/FONT]

Now, we're FTBs buying a terraced house from ~1900 - I assume there won't be many houses of this ilk which don't have the problems listed above to some degree...is it common for people to have these extra surveys done, or am I overreacting to surveyor-speak?

LisaLou1982

Sounds pretty common to me

Re Cavity Wall ties - is there any reason to think that these need replacing?

If the reroof isnt essential at present then you just need to keep in mind that you will need to do it at some point. My house is over 100yrs old and still has the original roof. Absolutely nothing wrong with it (but i do keep an eye on it to make sure no tiles have slipped etc) but i do know that it will need reroofing in the next 10yrs or so.

Re Central heating - is the heating system working? have the current owners had many problems? Would you want to replace this straight away?

It sounds like a pretty normal survey to me with no major issues.

mrjenp

Thanks for the swift reply LisaLou I thought it certainly could have been a lot worse for a property of that age, it's just easy to get carried away with the negative language in these reports!

Re Cavity Wall ties - is there any reason to think that these need replacing?

No, the report just inferred it from the age of the property, rather than any problems with the state of the walls themselves.

Re Central heating - is the heating system working? have the current owners had many problems? Would you want to replace this straight away?

Yes it's working, no problems that I know of - it is pretty old, but i'm not too bothered as long as it works ok for the next 18 months or so.

vet8

Our buyer's survey came back with a similar list of things to be checked again and our house is only 50 years old.

He also said it needed a wall ties check, but the wall ties man came out he was here for about 10 minutes and said that, even from looking it was clear there was no failure in the wall ties at all. I think surveyors just put in all this stuff to cover their backs.

LisaLou1982

No Worries.

One of the easiest ways to check cavity wall tie failure is to check if there are horizontal cracks across the brick or render, as well as looking to see if the walls are bowing outwards. If this is the case, then i would get someone out to check and clarify further for you, but if not, then you should be fine. TBH, if the surveyor had picked something up like that then id have thought he would recommend a structural surveyors report.

Sounds like youve got a pretty good house though from what youve said!! Good luck with it

blackshirtuk

mrjenp wrote: »

Roof (original slate, some roof tiles have slipped and been held in place with lead, re-roofing "not essential at present")

• Cavity Wall Ties (not checked, might be worn out though)
• Electrics ("[FONT=&quot]Cable where viewed appeared to be of a grey uPVC covered style although the age of the cabling is not known. The majority of cabling is likely to be quite old.")[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Central Heating (Boiler quite old, hot water tank is in an "unsightly location")
  [/FONT]

Every house i have bought (7) the surveyor has said the same about roof and wall ties! The cable is a new one on me, but grey uPVC is at least fairly recent. it used to be white upvc which is all over our current house, safe and not an issue.

What you need to remember is that the surveyor primarily doesn't want to sued by you at a later date. So they will cover themselves with the above "advice"

As others have said only worry if you have noticed bowing walls or leak patches from the roof etc. As for the boiler, any boiler "could" go wrong tomorrow, new or old.