Purchasing a house with damp

Fangg27

Hi,

I'm in the middle of house purchase and evidence of damp was found in the home buyers report. The estate agent sent in a damp-proofing company and they gave an estimate of £1000 to carry out a damp-proof course and re-plaster the rooms. A builder friend of mine thinks the quote sounds very low and says I should be cautious as the seller has, thus far, only offered to contribute £500 to the cost of these works.

I'm now in two minds about carrying on with the purchase. We are right at the end of our budget and to have to pay for re-decoration, plus we would have the inconvenience of building work being carried out before we move in - we thought this was a house which required no work. The house is nice but by no means perfect and not a bargain (the price we paid matched up exactly with the valuation).

I came on here to get some advice on whether or not it is worth buying a house with a damp problem and, if it is worth it, how much should I expect the seller to contribute to the costs involved?

Thanks in advance.

ilikewatch

Every house I have ever bought has had damp identified in the homebuyers report, in one case it was noticeable and caused by damaged guttering. In every other case the damp was not noticeable, I took no action, and was never bothered by it. Did your homebuyers report also comment on the age of the consumer unit :-)

tbs624

Fangg27 wrote: »

I'm in the middle of house purchase and evidence of damp was found in the home buyers report. The estate agent sent in a damp-proofing company and they gave an estimate of £1000 to carry out a damp-proof course and re-plaster the rooms. A builder friend of mine thinks the quote sounds very low and says I should be cautious as the seller has, thus far, only offered to contribute £500 to the cost of these works.

Why would you rely on the advice given by

(a) someone sent in by the EA. whose job it is to work on behalf of the vendor & get the property sold, and
(b) someone who also has a vested interest in getting remedial work done?

Get an independent damp surveyor in. Have a look at Jeff Howell's comments on damp ( google him - he has a building background, writes books on property matters and has a property column in one of the national newspapers)

What exactly did the HBR says about the evidence of damp in the property?

As for who coughs up for what proportion of the work, that one is down to negotiation between you and the vendor. You say that the property valued up, despite the HBR?

jozbo

the valuation would never come back with a higher price than your agreed offer, only lower if they think you're paying too much.

so don't take that as evidence of not having got a bargain..

tbs624

jozbo wrote: »

the valuation would never come back with a higher price than your agreed offer, only lower if they think you're paying too much.

You appear to have misunderstood my phrase "valued up", as in valuing up at what the buyer was paying for the property:)

jozbo wrote: »

....so don't take that as evidence of not having got a bargain..

The point is that if you are expecting a vendor to contribute to remedials they will flag up the fact that the property has valued up at the agreed selling price despite the presence of the damp.

jozbo

Fangg27 wrote: »

The house is nice but by no means perfect and not a bargain (the price we paid matched up exactly with the valuation).

I was just referring to the OP's comment above re valuation

kingstreet

Pay for your own independent surveyor as suggested earlier.

Don't rely on contractors who get work out of "reports" they do free.

Most damp is moisture ingress due to issues like leaking rainwater goods, slipped tiles, or soil bridging the damp course. Little is due to rising damp and often new damp courses are not required but are good earners for the firms doing the quotes.

G_M

Fangg27 wrote: »

Hi,

I'm in the middle of house purchase and evidence of damp was found in the home buyers report. The estate agent sent in a damp-proofing company ....:)

Found how? By using a so-called damp-meter that actually measure electrical current? Very unreliabe!

Id there actual evidence of damp? Musty smell? Mould? Water running down the walls?

90% of these reported damp houses have no damp. And where there IS damp, 90% of the time the cause is a leaking gutter or flower bed built up against the external wall.

Read this here.

However, do not rely on a report arranged by the seller, or his agent (you do realise the estate agent works for the seller, not you don't you?).

And do not rely on a report by a salesman (oops, sorry - 'suveyor') who works for a damp proofing company. He will,surprise!, find damp that his company can fix!

monkeyboy72

weve just had about 3 months of continuos rain so most properties at the moment have increased water levels outside, after a month of drought and sunshine the surveyors little machine wouldnt pick up a thing, Id imagine the property is a victorian semi?, they always show damp, worst case scenario rather than having the internal walls stripped etc, google 'dutch damproof method' all the work is done externally with very little inconvenience and usually less money

Locky

Consult an independent specialist recommended by the Property Care Association, rather than a damp proofing company.

We were buying a house and had it checked by a company that told us over £1000 of work needed doing, while the specialist said it was fine!

MiniSis

Be very careful as I had damp come up on my hbr. I stupidly agreed to the EA getting damp companies in both quotes ranged from £1300-£2900. With completely different identifie damp areas on both. There is no evidence of damp.

However having pulled up the carpet I can see the extent of he fact there is no sub floor venilation, the floorboards have sunk around the masonry. I just need an airbrick our in outside as per hbr, not £3k worth of chemicals pumped into the wall, which won't solve the issue!!

Don't let it put you off, most houses especially if old have some damp.

Good luck and I agree about getting an independent in