Advice for seller - damp and woodworm on survey.. is this a deal breaker

bells_on_it

Hi I'm hoping for some advice as I'm a first time seller.

The buyers of my house (which is a 1905 stone built terraced house) had a home movers survey done 3 weeks ago and have just come back to me saying they want to come and see the house again (they're FTB's and I believe they're bringing her Dad who is a builder) because the report suggests extensive damp on the front wall and a beetle infestation. This is not what I was expecting as the surveyor was pretty open with me when he came, stating that there wasn't anything to be overly concerned about as there was evidence of damp near the front door (I think this may be where the rain water collects when its heavy which it has been this winter/spring/summer :think: and doesn't flow through the drainage hole very quickly) and that there was evidence of woodworm (which I'm assuming is the beetles) but that he wasn't sure if it was active? The surveyor also said he thought that they'd got a fair price for the house.

My concern is that what they've said to my estate agent doesn't tie up entirely with what he's saying, so either they're exaggerating or he's not given me the same information. Either / Or I'm worried that they will try and negotiate money off the agreed price which we can't afford to do as it will mean we don't have enough for our deposit on the house we want to buy.

I'm also reluctant to give any further money off as they have already negotiated 3k off asking price (£140k) after a cheeky offer of £130k and we agreed to include a year old Smeg range style cooker, 6 month old Smeg dishwasher, a £200 bathroom cabinet, and a butchers block table and all blinds so we think they've got a great price (also fridge freezer is integrated so they get that too). We threw a lot of that in because we nearly bought a new build though are now buying another 1900's house.

I know this is all hypothetical as they haven't been yet but has anyone had any experience of this / advice to offer / ideas of what this will cost to rectify?? I just want to be prepared for any eventualities. I don't want to jeopardise the sale as we don't want to lose the house we're buying.

Thanks for your help / advice

kingstreet

The next step is an independent timber & damp surveyor who will inspect the property and determine if these issues actually exist.

A chartered surveyor will flag up items of concern and these should be investigated, they are not the conclusion.

Think a GP instructing a consultant. The diagnosis is not yet complete. The GP thinks he knows what it is, but puts it to the specialist.

Don't get contractors in who get paid for the work, as they will mysteriously find thousands of pounds worth.

Spend a couple of hundred quid and get an impartial report done you can use to head-off your buyer's demand for money off on the say so of a hardly objective father!

http://www.independentdampsurveyors.co.uk/

By doing this, someone saved £2,500 on unnecessary wall-tie work last week;-

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/61722413#Comment_61722413

Read post 36!

bells_on_it

Thanks for coming back so quickly. This is really helpful, and there seem to be a few in my area. Would you suggest we wait for the outcome of their visit? Ie if they start trying to haggle we tell them we're going to get an independent damp & timber specialist in? Or go ahead and book the specialist in preparation?

kingstreet

Your call.

It's a good defensive measure to have up your sleeve. How about offering to go halfs with them and give them an input on the choice of surveyor?

Then there's more chance of the results being accepted on both sides if there is some work needed.

It does sometimes happen that the results indicate nothing needs doing, or at worst the soil level against the wall needs reducing, or a gutter/downspout needs replacing.

If they are going to insist on taking an interested party's word for it (the father) you can do no more than use an objective witness on your behalf.

TBH if the mortgage lender sees such issues on the valuer's report for the mortgage, they will be asking for reports from a third party anyway. They won't take the applicant's father's word for it.

somethingcorporate

If you think £130k offer on a £140k house is cheeky you are deluding yourself! Even with some secondhand ovens and dishwashers thrown in!

We got 13% off our first house (£36.5k) and have just bought our third property with 8% off the selling price (£25k) and them paying stamp duty (another £10k).

If I was buying a property that had damp issues (as ours did when we bought 2 years ago) I would fully expect them to bring a builder/damp expert round to fully assess the issues and cost of rectification as obviously their offer was made subject to issues raised on the survey and evidently the survey has raised some issues!

Same goes for the woodworm - if it is costly to fix then expect them to adjust their offer to accommodate. If this means you do not have enough to move on then you'll need to remarket your house (but expect any future buyers to have the same issues raised when they have a survey), fix the problems yourself, lower the offer on the place you are moving to or find a cheaper house to move to.

Ultimately, being the buyer it is their prerogative to change their offer as it is yours to reject that offer if you want to.

SG27

The problem you and they may have is that the mortgage lender (assuming they are getting one) may not lend them the full amount with issues like damp and woodworm. They will insist on potentially pointless and expensive treatments to remedy the problems.

It's likely there is no woodworm and that its historic. A good surveyor with experience of period houses should be able to tell if its active. Our beams are covered in holes but I expect they were created 300+ years ago!

bells_on_it

Thanks for your feedback. I don't feel like I'm deluding myself as houseprices are pretty stable where I live and I had a few valuations and its a good price for the condition of the property and also compared to what's sold in my area recently (looking at Zoopla sold prices etc). Where I live my house is bottom end of the property market, you don't find much cheaper than that. They still negotiated a 3% decrease and I take your point on the appliances but even so it represents over 2k brand new and they're pretty much new.

We'll see what the outcome is, to be honest we love our current house and if it wasn't for the fact we now want more space having a young family, we wouldn't move, we can't extend our current property so its a reluctant move. So to be honest we can't move on price as we wont be able to lay down the deposit on the new house, if we can't have the new house we don't need to sell as we like our current house and won't move for the sake of it.

If the outcome is there is a big problem (which I'd be surprised at as the surveyor didn't even feel it was a big issue) then we'll have to get an independent in to look at what work is required and how much to carry out or see what the buyers are looking at in terms of reduction and hope someone in the family can help us meet the deposit we need?

bells_on_it

SG27 wrote: »

The problem you and they may have is that the mortgage lender (assuming they are getting one) may not lend them the full amount with issues like damp and woodworm. They will insist on potentially pointless and expensive treatments to remedy the problems.

It's likely there is no woodworm and that its historic. A good surveyor with experience of period houses should be able to tell if its active. Our beams are covered in holes but I expect they were created 300+ years ago!

In terms of the mortgage offer we were advised last Thursday by our estate agent that they had the mortgage in place so unless that's not true the mortgage company aren't worried.

Just don't understand why they've take so long to flag this issue when the survey was done 3 weeks ago? We hadn't even found a house then. And now we've just spent 200 on our mortgage application which isn't refundable.

I hope its not active - the surveyor really didn't think we had anything to worry about so fingers crossed we don't. They're coming Saturday so at least its only a few days of worrying before we have an idea where we stand. This house buying process is not at all enjoyable!

JennyW_2

I agree with Kingstreet and obtain an individual assessment.

We are purchasing an older property and damp and infestation came up (seems the norm on older properties)

Anyway turned out the infestation was historic and the damp was to be as expected in the property due to age and easily remedied. I spoke to our surveyor and he said we had nothing to worry about and these items were not significant enough to tell the lender.

If you spend the £200 ish for your assessment it will put you in a stronger position.

That's fine her dad is a builder and he's coming along but I'll bet my money that he'll try and scare you with his builder talk

G_M

"Evidence" of damp and beatle. Especially an old house.

Surprise!

Damp is 'diagnosed' using an electrical conductor designed for wood. If it conducts electricity, the woodmust be damp.

Use it (as surveyors do) on other materials (plaster, stone, brick...) and the material itself may conduct electricity evenif bone-dry.......

(http://www.grangedampproofing.co.uk/)

Beatle. So there are some holes in some wood. Probobly made by beatles 100 years ago when the wood was fresh.

* beatles don't like dry/matured wood
* the holes from 100 years ago will notmagically disappear.

So the likelyhood of there being active, or even recent, beatle is remote. But a wood 'specialist' will happily point to the holes and tell you the house needs treating.

So every 10 years, each time the house changes hands, the house is re-treated for woodworm (at great expence), even though they b*ggered off 100 years ago and have no interest in coming back!

Moomum

We bought a Victorian house built in 1901, the survey showed damp and woodworm infestation. We were gutting the place anyway and budgeted for fixing it. However, when we got the experts in to quote for the repair and damp course we were happy to find out nothing was needed. Woodworm had been treated years before and was no sign of current infestation , the damp was being caused by a raised flowered so easily remedied. No need even for a damp or timber survey and lots of pennies saved :-)