Update on house we are renting and crack (for those who know)

snowmaid

Doozergirl wrote: »

If you can see it moving :eek:

We painted out the box room end November last year. We have noticed that there is a new crack that has appeared above the door frame. That is in a period of less than 6 months. There are just cracks appearing all over! :eek:

Phirefly

I followed your story with interest as it was concerning the subject close to my heart, buying the house you rent.

It must be really interesting to see now from a safe viewpoint what you might have gone through as buyers had you proceeded.

I can't recall what you said your plan was once the house was sold? Say this sale fell through but you'd gleaned a lot more info about the crack and felt confident about the costs involved in tackling it, would you ever reconsider making an offer? Your LL might realise that he's not going to sell for the price he wants unless he remedies it himself, that or drop the price?

snowmaid

Phirefly wrote: »

I followed your story with interest as it was concerning the subject close to my heart, buying the house you rent.

It must be really interesting to see now from a safe viewpoint what you might have gone through as buyers had you proceeded.

I can't recall what you said your plan was once the house was sold? Say this sale fell through but you'd gleaned a lot more info about the crack and felt confident about the costs involved in tackling it, would you ever reconsider making an offer? Your LL might realise that he's not going to sell for the price he wants unless he remedies it himself, that or drop the price?

We are buying elsewhere, searches being done at the moment. We really had to think long and hard about this. We have been through a 'mourning' period, have fought with one another! :rolleyes: but concluded that we would rather not buy. We are well aware that the house we are moving to could develop subsidence problems etc, but I think living in a house and noticing cracks develop before your eyes over a space of a few months and being aware of the huge one outside, makes things a little more scarier! The house we are buying is £5000 more than the one we are in, but the kitchen doesn't need doing, has an on-suite etc etc, albeit on a busier road with a smaller garden. It would take a lot more than £5000 to bring our rented house up to the same standard as the one we are buying.

Phirefly

Sounds like an extremely sensible plan!

And as I'm sure you well know, things tend to happen as they're meant.

Good luck

marybishop

Hi Snowmaid - you may remember I followed your previous thread with great interest! It's now getting even more interesting - do keep us posted if you manage to eavesdrop when the SE comes round. Still think you're doing the right thing. Perhaps the LL wishes he'd taken it all a bit more seriously now!

Good luck with your purchase.

snowmaid

marybishop wrote: »

Hi Snowmaid - you may remember I followed your previous thread with great interest! It's now getting even more interesting - do keep us posted if you manage to eavesdrop when the SE comes round. Still think you're doing the right thing. Perhaps the LL wishes he'd taken it all a bit more seriously now!

Good luck with your purchase.

Hello! Yes, I do remember you following the thread and giving good advice too! :T It is getting interesting and I really would love access to the structual survey, alas...this isn't going to happen! It may well be nothing serious at all...but oh well, so be it. When the LL brought that family member of his around to give a quote and it wasn't going through the insurance company, all warning bells were ringing. So we will see.

mystic_trev

It looks like a case of subsidence and, if it is the Landlord can't patch it up and sell it without telling a prospective purchaser, as you know, and I imagine lots of others do! The other problem is that anyone buying a house that has had a subsidence problem is that they will have to pay a highly loaded Insurance premium!

ashcarrot

If its a patch job aren't they going to have to declare it during the exchange contracty thingy wotsit and if they dont surely they'd be in the poo when they found work done when it starts shifting again, I can't imagine the steel rods will fix it permenantly.

snowmaid

ashcarrot wrote: »

If its a patch job aren't they going to have to declare it during the exchange contracty thingy wotsit and if they dont surely they'd be in the poo when they found work done when it starts shifting again, I can't imagine the steel rods will fix it permenantly.

Well, that is exactly why we decided not to buy the property. As extremely unqualified/experienced people in building even we could see that what they were proposing would not be adequate. :eek:

We weren't prepared to pay for a survey of £1000 to find out it may cost thousands to fix and then not go ahead and buy. The fact that they weren't contacting their insurance company to come and have a look made us nervous and I certainly wasn't going to pay for a survey, walk away from the house and then have them benefit from a survey that I as a buyer have paid for!

silvercar

If they don't know its subsidence, they can decide to fix the problem and then sell. It would be upto the buyer to get a structural survey done, "caveat emptor" if they don't.

If someone bought and found out later that there was subsidence, the seller wouldn't be liable as he merely fixed a crack rather than covered up subsidence. The buyer's building insurance would probably pay out for the subsidence claim. Potential hassle with builders and a £1,000 excess.