Confused about a homebuyers report

BobYoung

I have recently had a homebuyers report done on a property I am in the process of purchasing.

The report says "In my opinion the current market value on 15th December 2010 as inspected was: £230,000." and this is the price we have agreed to pay.

Within the report there were two areas marked as the red condition 3 that require immediate attention. They were:

"The property has one chimney stack which is made of brick. The stack is shared with a neighbour. The chimney flashings are formed in lead to provide a waterproof barrier against the masonry.
The flashings have been coated with a tar like material as a temporary repair and appear to be still leaking and should be renewed.
You should regularly check for and water leakage until this work is done. This is serious and you should obtain quotations from an appropriately qualified person or specialist
company for the work prior to exchange of contracts."

AND

"The ground floor is of suspended timber construction. The garage floor is, however, solid. The first floor is formed in timber.
Air circulation beneath the suspended timber floor is inadequate as there are not enough vents in the external walls and as this can lead to decay, the sub-floor ventilation needs to be improved.
There is wet rot affecting the ground floor floor joists and you should obtain quotations for repairing or replacing the defective timbers and treating the fungal attack to stop any further decay.
This investigation should be undertaken by an appropriately qualified person or specialist company before you exchange contracts so that you are fully aware of the condition of the property before you
commit to its purchase."

I have arranged for some quotes for this work but my question is whether the valuation reflects the fact that the work needs doing OR that it will be worth the valuation price if the work is done.

If it is the case that the valuation is valid despite these issues then I suppose it would be unfair of me for ask for some money off the agreed price towards the remedial work (although I might ask them to go halves on in it any event).

Also the boiler was switched off when the surveyor went round (vendor lives overseas). If the boiler did not work after contracts were exchanged then would this be my responsibility? If so then what is the point of stating what the house includes on the Fixures and Fittings form?

I have called the surveyor but he wasn't in the office so I wondered if anyone on the forum could give me some advise on this.

Yorkie1

I would personally say that neither of these items could have been known about by you at the time of offer and therefore I'd go back to the seller once your quotes are in and try to negotiate - either they get it rectified by a provably competent person, or knock off the amount (or half at least) from the sale price. They may refuse to budge, in which case you will have to decide whether to proceed or not. Your views may depend on how much it will cost to put right.

betmunch

In your quotes it says "as inspected" therefore I believe the price the surveyor has put on the property includes the fact you have work to do. Not the price after work has been completed.

BobYoung

In case anyone is interested I got a call back from the surveyor.

As ever it is not a definitive answer!

He said the valuation is effectively based on the issues highlighted not being too expensive to resolve. They are flagged to make you aware of them and they should be investigated further to get an idea of the cost involved with the remedial work.

He said if the costs are aroung £1000 then that would be fine but if they are approaching £5000 then I should be looking for the vendor to bear the cost or meet half way with them.

stueyhants

I had similiar issue when I bought earlier this year. Offered a price, survey came back with a number of faults which would cost 2.5k to rectify. The valuation came back as the same price as my offer, but I lowered my offer by the whole 2.5k. The EA tried to say well the valuation matched your offer so it must be ok. Rubbish, what is the liklihood of the surveyor doing an indepedent valuation of the property and coming up with the exact same figure you picked. They just pick a range of values and as long as your offer is in that range they match what you offered, hardly a proper valuation.
Just remeber your offer was probably based on normal wear and tear work required on the house, the survey is showing more than that. I would lower you offer for the full amount of remedial work. Its a buyers market and the seller would be unwise to play hardball right now.