Survey Problem??

Oddgy

Hi.
We have just had a survey done which was on our property, instructed by our Buyers lenders.

While the surveyor was round, i was following him around the house. With this in mind he was telling me what he was finding.

We havent heard anything from our buyers yet, but that is unlikely as the surveyor only came a few days ago so the buyers are probably not aware as yet, meaning we have nothing in writing...but as i was saying, he said he found:

wood worm in the floor board and also that the wall that seperates next doors loft space was incomplete.

Our house is a 1900 mid terraced, and we managed to get 500 below the asking price.

As our buyers are first time, do you think that this will cause us problems, or cost us money? As we have already reduced the price should this be thought about if the buyers come back and ask us to pay for the work to be done??

And if so, do u have any idea what it would cost, and wat we should do if they come back asking us to put it right or they will pull out?? Will they pull out do you think after all they have paid the 300/400 survey fee.

We may be jumping the gun as we dont know the official outcome of the survey, except we are sure it will cause problems as the surveyor said that he would have to let the lender know of these problems and he said he would recommend they were put right before the sale went through.

(Thankx Mate!)

We had a homebuyers survey when we bought the property 4 years ago, and none of this was brought up! The loft space was not accessed as it was nailed up by the previous owner so we had no results on that, and they never reported that their was wood worm downstaires.

The surveyor did say he wasnt sure whether it was live infestation or had been their for years, as apparantly you cant tell. (I havent a clue....i am not DIY person, and am useless in this kind of area.)

Look forward to your comments!

clutton_2

have you ever seen any sawdust around where this holes are ? if so, its live. Infestations like this can be treated fairly easily, although, it is a whole lot easier when the house is empty, as the timbers have to be sprayed directly, so carpets need to be up. So, if i were you, if it comes up, drop another £250-£500 for the infestation treatment and get them to do it before they move in.

All this is negotiable, and all part of the house buying "game "

RE roof-space, this is very common indeed - every Victorian/Edwardian terraced house i have ever bought has not had its adjoining wall meet the roof in the roof space.

Modern surveyors see this as a fire risk - if there is a fire in a loft 2-3-4- doors down, it will spread to all the other houses including yours, if this wall is not built up. Have a look and see how much of a gap there is - its often quite small, and needs just a few bricks - so could be a small job. Again, knock a £100 off if you dont want to do the work yourself, get them to do it.

But, wait and see what the purchasers come back with first, then come back and tell us !!!

Oddgy

Hi Clutton,
Well i have looked at the area that the surveyor looked at and i cant see no sawdust. However i will pull up some carpets later and see what i find.
In the mean time, i have contacted 4 companies today that are coming out on Thursday to take a look to see what the extent of the problem is, if in deed there is a problem??

I know this is early stages, and gettin estimates is probably jumping the gun as we havent had the official results from the survey yet, but i just thought it would help us to be ready and more aware in the event.

About the roofspace, your explanation does make sense, however when we purchased this house we had a homebuyer and the roof space was not mentioned as he could not make access. Was roof space/ fire walls not important 4 years ago - therefore the surveyor ensuring access to ensure this was ok??

Another thing, of we had to get this done, is it our sole responsibility or the responsibility of us and our neighbours? as it benefits and effects both of us.

To be honest we have a cellar so i have never had the need to go up into the roofspace so never knew this problem existed. If i had of done, i would have found this out a lot sooner, and for more of a security issue i would have had it sorted most definately as my fiancee often stays here alone as i work away at times!!!

Luckily the neighbours that this concerns are young couple and look "normal". So the risk of them breaking into our house by the loft space is very minimal i suppose.

clutton_2

can you not stick your head up into the roof space with a torch and see how big the gap is ? then at least you will see how much of a problem it will be ?

Oddgy

pulled a bit of carpert up last night, and found some sawdust and a black beetle. Not on the floorboards, but under and around the skirting board. :-( Not good is it. I wonder how much it will cost - this has really lowered our spirits now, big time.

clutton_2

don't get too dispirited, many thousands of houses have this, and it is successfully treated. What size was the beetle ? look up death-watch beetle on the web

LittleTinker

I would suggest that you get a couple of quotes for the treatment of the woodworm.

Then, with anyone who mentions it you can say to them that you are prepared to either pay for the work yourself, knock that amount of the asking price or tell them that the quote has already been taken into account.

Also, tell any future buyer that you havent had the work done as yet because you thought that it would be far easier to have it done by the purchaser who will have an empty house at some point, the details of which you can work out later. Its all negotiable.

As for the loft space......get a few bricks and brick it up yourself. Bricks are cheap enough....in fact, if you know of a site that is coming down, you may even be able to find old ones good enough for the job. It isnt worth going to your neighbour for half the cost.

Hope you sell soon

Oddgy

:-( :-( :-(
We got a fone call today from our EA, the buyers Survey report has come through to them. And yes there is a problem. The lender has held a retention fee on the morgage.
With this is mind: the following problems were highlighted:
Damp readings ground floor, possibly infection of Wood Worm, and Brickwork in Loft. The latter two i was aware of as i spoke earlier on these posts, but now another thing has come to light.
Well roll on tomorrow - we have 4 companies coming out to give us quotes. I am in desperate need to get to bed, get to sleep, wake up and get to work, rush the day and then get home to finally find out how much of a problem it is and the most concerning thing....how much it will cost.
We already let them have it £500 off asking price. It all seems to worry us as we are working so tight to get the house we intend to buy. Its already £5k over our pre arranged budget :'-(

So what happens now?? the EA told us to get the quotes and get back in touch with them. So thats what we will do i suppose, but i mean The buyer hasnt said anything as yet, and i dont know what to expect next!!

I suppose the ball is now with them to see if they still want the house, and i expect this will hit the chord of re offering??!!! Aaaaaargggh. Our new house seems to be gettin further from our grasp.

clutton_2

every wall in almost every house in the country has a moisture content, and an unscruplous damp company can try to persuade you that is more serious than it actually is - is there wall paper falling off ? staining ? a smell ? if not, then it is not serious, and i would not pay for it to be done, let the buyer do that.

A retention - this means that the buyers will not get the whole of their mortgage monies up front, that the lender will retain some until the work is done, and will release the balance once the work is done. This is not something for you to concern your self with - it is up to them how they are going to fund this work.

the ball is now in their court, dont panic. wait and see what offer they come up with. Do not show the estimates to the EA just yet - it is up to them, if they want the work done, to find out costings.

i knew an EA who always recommended a local Damp/infestation firm, and no matter what the problem they always recommended the full treatment - we used to think there were "back handers" going on !!

stressful as this is, it is all part of the normal house buying game, try to stay cool !

Oddgy

Hello again,
Well we had the 4 companies in and guess what...they all confirmed we had no wood worm. So have no idea where the Surveyor got that idea from!!
Horay we thought, fantastic......BUT, yes there is a BUT, along with good news, comes the bad....We do have unfortunately High Damp readings downstaires.

So - the matter is in their hands, we are now waiting for quotes to be received through the post. We have no idea on costings, but is a big job apparantly.

Also - on the form, it says that they valued our property 5k under what we sold it for. However, with the work complete then the value would be back up to the fee we sold it for. So that means a 5K retention has been put on it.
Uhm we say.....!! Awfully high retention figure eh.

We have no signs of damp, no patches, no smells, no bubbly paper, no bubbly plaster - nothing. SO this is a complete surprise on how bad they are saying it is. I was here when there were shoving the machine to the walls, it went past the red and off the scale!!

So we still havent heard from the Buyers, i guess our EA will ring us soon to ask for the quotes and then possibly give us the low down on how the buyers feel about it, but not never being in this situation we dont know what to do for the best, other than as you say wait to see what offer they come up with.

I guess they will now want to see these quotes, or get their own quotes from companies??!!

BobProperty

Oddgy wrote:

.....Well we had the 4 companies in and guess what...they all confirmed we had no wood worm. So have no idea where the Surveyor got that idea from!!.....

Where did they hang the dartboard?