Understanding a Home Buyers Report - Are these big problems?

AlexMac

Having owned three or four late 19th/early 20th century houses I’d say these are typical of homes of this period- the good news is what the surveyor has not said! For example they have not identified really expensive problems typical of unrestored Victorian homes, such as
- the roof tiles/slates need replacing ; £8-12K.
- damp in the timbers of the floor which is presumably ‘suspended’, joist and floorboards type; air bricks improve ventilation to the sub-floor to prevent wet or dry rot in the wood; a few £k
- rising damp due to absent or deteriorated damp-course or earth piled up outside walls: a few £k
- need for total re-wiring ( a few £k) old or faulty boiler requiring replacement (£2k); 4 years is about half-way through a modern boilers’ design life and many last longer. Regular inspection/servicing is mainly to ensure gas safety, not prolong boiler life as they either work or don’t. If the fuse board is the modern ‘trip switch’ type rather than the old Bakelite plug-in fuses, the electrics are probably fine, even though I bet it doesn’t comply with modern installations (for example with earth wires to all ceiling lights and visble green and yellow earthing wires to metal tags on every radiator, sink and waterpipe- like almost every house I’ve ever known lacks!).
As regards the specifics, yes, take a builder round as already suggested, but although I’m not technical nor an expert, my guesses based on 30 years owning places like this are :
- “Defects in the chimney stack - suggest fixing/removing but would require scaffolding to access”. The scaffolding might cost several hundred pounds depending on location and height but the work could be a little as re-pointing and new flashing (the join to the roof tiles) at a couple of hundred, or a comparable sum to demolish it (but keep it if you can for the option of re-opening the fireplaces)
- “Ventilation beneath the timber ground is inadequate and additional air bricks or grills required”. Peanuts
- “Evidence of wood-boring beetle infestation to the timber boarded partitioning beneath staircase - likely to have spread. Partly historic, with some recent attack”. I reckon surveyors carry woodworm (or sawdust) with them, and a timber company would find a problem and suggest toxic spaying at a few hundred pounds, but unless your lender’s stressed I’d just keep an eye on it or try a DIY fix
- “Cellar needs damp-proofing (We knew this needed finishing, its currently just a dirty cellar, but not sure how much work is involved with damp-proofing?)”. Every Victorian cellar is damp. It’s underground, below the damp-proof course of slate or bitumen in the brick walls, just above ground-level (if there is one) and damp inevitably travels from the soil through brick. Only a problem if you want to use it as a habitable room, in which case you’re into several £k to line (‘tank’) the walls and floor with various permutations of membrane, waterproofing, cement, plasterboard and plaster, But if you just use it to store coal and junk, just like the Victorians did, ventilation is adequate.
- “Evidence of deflection and distortion to the roof structure. a heavier roof covering has been provided but no obvious strengthening has been undertaken to the original framework. Strengthen suggested”. This is probably because the original slates have been replaced with heavier modern clay tiles (have they?). Again, this could be the surveyor being picky (you often see this with re-roofer Victorian houses; sometimes with visible bowing of the roof-ridge), but worth getting a builder to check, because at worst, the extra weight can push the triangular A-shaped frames down and outwards, and in extreme cases, exert outwards lateral pressure on the brick wall on which the roof rests. But you can do a lot for a few hundred quid- a couple of £k at worst.
Overall, I’d say only the roof point merits thorough investigation; and if you proceed, as you should if you really like the house, I bet almost all these so-called faults will be exactly the same when you sell it on in 15 years! Victorian houses are amazingly resilient;
And the cynical thing to do would be to go round with a builder, as you’re entitled to do, share the survey with the owner and chisel a few £k off the sale price on the strength of reasonable cost estimates. Don’t assume that you can get the vendor to pay to make the house new again- just focus on the one or two main costs and say you’ll swallow the rest to give the impression you’re prepared to meet in the middle.

But negotiate nice- our last sale of such a property had my wife seething when the buyer commissioned a much more picky survey, with lesser problems, and tried to argue £15k off- she wanted to tell him to go forth and procreate, but I pressed her to compromise and we sold - so good luck

summerday

Brilliant advice AlexMac!

fisttimebuyers

Alexmac - thank you so much for such a detailed response - we went ahead with the house and get the keys next Tuesday!!

I've never done any forums before but thank you so much - it's always great to here from other regular people (not builders trying to make money out of the report) as to what is normal to expect from one of these, frankly, quite frightening reports!!

Thanks again! ... Fingers crossed it will be the best decision we've ever made!