Damp ande timber report

Jen2girls

Our buyer is getting a damp and timber report carried out tomorrow on our property. Now we have only been here ourselves for 4 years yet on the buyers survey she said it is saying there are high moisture levels in the cellar due to an incomplete damp proof course. I can clearly see the damp proof course all the way around the property, and it wasn't something that came up on our survey, all be it 4 years ago. My worry is that this damp and timber company carry out the reports for free and work on a commission basis so it is very much in their interests to find lots of work, which the vendor will then try and knock off our agreed price. Agreed price is already 10k below asking price, and we are not in a position to drop any further. There are no retentions on the mortgage and the survey has agreed the valuation at our agreed price. Has anybody had experience of anything similar? X x x

celyn90

We had a damp report done as a buyer even though we knew that there was no hope of getting a discount further (house was a repo). The company that quoted us were very reasonable and even provided a breakdown of the cost for each part of the repair. Even if it had been a private sale, we wouldn't have gone back to the vendor with something so small and easily fixable.

If you don't want to drop the price, don't drop the price. We only did it so we knew what we could expect and have some idea about the condition of the house and because the survey suggested it as a cautionary point. It didn't throw up anything we weren't happy to sort out ourselves or uncover any nasties we hadn't seen.

The house we bought was also valued at price we offered too with no retention because of the damp spot.

kingstreet

Jen2girls wrote: »

Our buyer is getting a damp and timber report carried out tomorrow on our property. Now we have only been here ourselves for 4 years yet on the buyers survey she said it is saying there are high moisture levels in the cellar due to an incomplete damp proof course. I can clearly see the damp proof course all the way around the property, and it wasn't something that came up on our survey, all be it 4 years ago. My worry is that this damp and timber company carry out the reports for free and work on a commission basis so it is very much in their interests to find lots of work, which the vendor will then try and knock off our agreed price. Agreed price is already 10k below asking price, and we are not in a position to drop any further. There are no retentions on the mortgage and the survey has agreed the valuation at our agreed price. Has anybody had experience of anything similar? X x x

Be prepared to commission an independent surveyor who does not benefit from work being done. You'll have to pay for the report, but it will be considerably less biased than one which is contractor prepared.

Look here;-

http://www.property-care.org/

Choose independent surveyor in the area you need.

Tell purchaser's person tomorrow you are having an independent survey carried out too. It might concentrate their mind on the problems that are actually there.

If your report indicates problems, be prepared to negotiate. I'd also ask to see what the valuation of the property is, in its current condition. It may well be they are getting a bargain and trying it on for extra cash!

Jen2girls

Kingstreet, the value of the property in its current condition is £165k which is the agreed sale price. Thank you for the info on the independent surveyor this will be something that I will look at instructing. The surveyor who carried out the original survey spoke to me at length about what a lovely property it was and how the buyer was getting a lot for their money, which is leading me to believe that this damp and timber report is in aid of trying to knock a few extra thousand off an already really good price.

G_M

Jen2girls wrote: »

..... she said it is saying there are high moisture levels in the cellar due to an incomplete damp proof course. I can clearly see the damp proof course all the way around the property, x

Sorry. Illogical. A damp proof course 'around the property' is designed to stop rising damp ie damp from ground level rising up the external walls.

The cellar is below ground level, so a dpc will have no effect on it.

Damp cellars are common, but fixing them is completely different (and more complex/expensive) to installing a dpc.

IS the cellar damp? If it were, you'd know! If so, you have a problem. If not, you don't.

kingstreet

G_M wrote: »

Sorry. Illogical. A damp proof course 'around the property' is designed to stop rising damp ie damp from ground level rising up the external walls.

The cellar is below ground level, so a dpc will have no effect on it.

Damp cellars are common, but fixing them is completely different (and more complex/expensive) to installing a dpc.

IS the cellar damp? If it were, you'd know! If so, you have a problem. If not, you don't.

Oops. I'm guilty of not reading the opening post thoroughly. It's the cellar?

Well, in that case I'm pretty sure that soil in contact with the brickwork can cause moisture in a cellar wall. Unless a membrane is added in a "tanking" procedure like this;-

http://basement-living.co.uk/basement-conversion/basement-tanking.html

you're likely to find high moisture readings from a cellar wall.

If the purchasers wish to use the cellar as a proper room, they will have to undergo this process, but that should be at their expense as it will almost certainly add value.

Seanymph

damp cellars cause no problems - as long as there is a damp course above them.

I had a cellar that flooded to a depth of about four inches several winters, and the insurance company pumped it out and dried it out - we had endless surveys it felt like, and the upshot was it could be tanked out, at enormous cost - it could have an automatic pump installed which switched on whenver it went underwater in a chamber lower than the cellar floor......... or we could live with it flooding which it had done for the last x hundreds of years.

We left it flooding.

It was no problem when we bought it, no problem when we sold it, and I have no doubt still floods occasionally (although not this year!).

Everyone has a damp cellar (not as damp as mine mind you!) - but cellars are not built with damp courses, unless you have named it as a useable room then it won't make a jots worth of difference.

Jen2girls

No I haven't named it as a usable room, we just use it for storage. Its not wet as in theres no puddles etc and it hasn't ever flooded, but there is a musty smell down there. I think its fair to say that there is a certain level of dampness as the floor of it is pretty much compacted earth.

Jen2girls

Well the surveyor came this afternoon and surprise surprise he found damp! He said it was along the back wall of the property rising up from the cellar hmmmm. Why is it I don't believe him. well for one it wasn't there 4 years ago on our full structural survey. 2 I can clearly see the damp proof course is in tact all the way around the property. 3 if there is rising damp why are there no signs for example the decoration that we did 3 years ago is still in tact theres no peeling of the wall paper of deterioration of the paintwork. I can see that this surveyor is now going to write in his report that a new chemical damp proof course is required costing x thousand pounds. How can I resolve this situation? I feel my only way forward is to comission an independent survey.