Buying house with Dodgy/unsafe/dangerous loft conversation.Advice on putting it right

Frank_Sebem

Just looking for some general advice here. Firstly it's important to note that I have previously bought a small terraced House with the sole intention of renovating it and selling it on at a profit.

Last year I had an illness that prevented me from going to work. Luckily I work for a family firm so I was granted 6 months absence on full pay. Anyway, in that time I decided to keep myself busy so I bought a run down house, renovated it (I used various tradesman) & am in a position to sell it on. Here's the facts:

Purchase price £45,000

Renovation Costs £18,000 (Central Heating, re-roof, re-wire, re-plastering, windows, doors etc)

Current Market value of House on this road £75,000.

So, the wife & I really enjoyed project managing the whole job and we got a lot of satisfaction from it, not to mention a nice profit (if we sold it today).

Anyway, enough of that... I just wanted to give you peeps a heads up on who we are, why we are doing this etc and that we aware how hard it can be.

So, today we looked at a repossesion House that is up for sale at £57,000. We went to view it and as expected it needs a re-wire (estimate £2,500), roof is fine, new central heating system (estimate £2,500) and has damp etc. However, there is one big problem that I need advice on....

As we went upstairs we noticed a small staircase up to what looked like a 3rd storey. Now, it is important to note that this is a small terraced House in the middle of a row of other Terraced Houses. Anyway... As we walked up these 'stairs' (into what is now obviously the loft) we stood still. So if you can imagine we are stood still in the 'loft' facing forward with one house adjoining wall directly behind my back and the other house adjoining wall directly in front of me. (The House we are stood in is No: 20 and I am looking forward to No: 22, with No: 18 behind my back) Now, looking round this loft area it is clear that this is clearly a bad attempt at a loft conversion because to the left (running from the house behind us (No: 18) to the other house directly in front if me (No:22) there is what looks like a beam (that is covered by plasterboard & painted). There is a similar beam on the right hand side from No:18 through to No: 22. So, it is clear these 'beams' are probably load bearing. Now, here is the problem.... The beams appear to be sagging in the middle, so I guess that these beams are not proper RSJ 's. on pointing this out to the estate agent she told me "The sale has fallen through twice because of structural problems". She went on... "They don't tell us what the problems are. They just tell us it's fallen through".
So, as I expected, the problem is probably that this is a badly built & possibly even unauthorised attempt at a loft conversion. So, I told the agent I could not pay the asking price of £57,000 because it needs a Re-wire, new central heating system, replaster and other works which I think would cost £10,000. Then I have to put aside £7,000 to sort the dodgy loft conversion out. That will set me back £17,000.

So, if they come back and accept my offer of £40,000 I want to know how bad this problem can be? What can the worst problem be with this roof/bad loft conversion? If it turns out that the whole lot is dangerous/unsteady etc and needs to be scrapped what is the worst case scenario in terms of work/labour/tradesman & cost?
I'm guessing the worst thing that could happen is that the whole roof will have to come off (slates and all) and 2 new RSJ's will need installing in place of these sagging beams. Then everything will have to be plastered etc and put right. If this was the case, surely it can't be any more than a few grand?? Can it?? Surely I'm well in on £7,000???

Also, supposing this is a poor attempt and has no planning permission how do I stand considering that when I bought the House this loft conversion was already in place? Do I have to put it back to how it was originally or can I just proceed with putting it right in the proper manner and claim that it is not my fault because this is how I bought the House?

Thanks all.

joinaman

Not sure if this a loft "conversion" or a standard terraced/back to back loft room
The all have a smaller steeper staircase up to the loft
The "beams" you are describing sound like standard roof purlings, around 11" x 4" that have been wrapped with plasterboard to look better
They are "loadbearing" but only for the main roof, they do not carry any load to the floors or walls( except on to
the party wall between you and your neighbors
Have a look at the roof from outside, is the ridge line( top of roof) fairly straight and level, if so no worries. If it is sagging then you may have problems, but depending on how old the house is, it is normal to have some movement/deflection in the timbers
If you do not need to use the full room area, you could fit timber support props between the purling and the loft floor, making sure they line up with the walls below to transfer the load. This would prevent any further movement if required, but it just sounds like an old house roof/loft are
Has any other works been carried out, alterations to existing floor, walls removed, dormers fitted ? These are alterations that would possibly weaken the building, but most of these houses are designed to be used as extra room/bedrooms, so have bigger floor joists etc, when built

Frank_Sebem

Thank you for your advice mate.

Hintza

Whoa..............

Get a structural engineer in.

This is akin to buy one car and then selling it for a profit and thinking you are now a car salesman/mechanic etc.

It is so easy to get carried away with a good renovation behind you. Spend a few hundred pounds now and it might save you a fortune in the long run. If you are posting on here you are obviously quite worried about it.