House survey results. Help please

Wark1626

Evening,
I recently had a house survey completed on a property I have had an offer accepted on - £247,500. This is an 80 year old house and superficially is well presented. However the survey turned up a few problems as follows. There was a query over possible damp so I had a damp expert have a look and he discovered £700 worth of damp. There is a likelihood the tiled roof will need replacing in the next 2/3 years at the cost of approx £5,000. Further it appears that "the walls have not been provided with lintel restraint over the
window/door openings. Brickwork has dislodged and dropped in places, further
disturbance could potentially occur if left unattended". I am told this will cost approx £600 to repair. These are the problems that we are aware of. We cannot afford to purchase the house and then pay for the problems to be fixed. How should we best negotiate a new price? or should we just walk away?
Many thanks for your assistance

BitterAndTwisted

Maybe the house is priced taking into account its deficiencies and the cost to rectify them.

Roofs inevitably need money spent on them at some point and another £1500 is really neither here not there in the great scheme of things. Sounds like you can't afford this one.

m0t

I would have thought it would cost more than £600 to fix missing lintels. I had one put in recently and it was £140 for the steel on its own, not including labour, and there is plenty of making good left to do.

First port of call is to work out what the worst position you can accept is - could you afford to pay for all the work to be done? If not then you can't buy the house unless they decrease the price.

Out of those things the roof is the only thing that would concern me - its a big job and very disruptive to do.

ethank

Is another option to present the survey to the seller and ask them if they are willing to fix the issues prior to completion and then put it in the contract of sale.

If I was asked I would only fix the items that were placed on the mortgage offer, which the lender said needed to be fixed immediately.

getmore4less

Damp what does the report say? you can find damp if you try hard enough.

Roof - what will need replacing, if the timbers are good and tiles look ok chances are it is an A*** cover by the surveyor.


when did the other problem happen could be years ago and nothing has moved for years, could be recent,

movement what movements is a question to ask.

any trees near.

80 year old house is going to need work on an on going basis budget for it.

G_M

1) I am always suspicious of damp findings in these reports, whether by the initial surveyor,or the subsequent salesman from the damp proof company.

Unless of course damp was apparent. Did the housesmell damp? Was wall-paper peeling? etc

2) If the roof does not need re-tiling for 2/3 years, and even then it is only a 'likelihood', then clearly the roof haslife in it still. There are no immediate missing tiles etc, so it'll keep the rain out. The surveyor is being cautious.

3) No lintel restraint. I do wonder how old the property is? How long have the lintels been missing.....?

As we get many posts like this, I do wonder if people these days understand the concept of house maintenance? Houses (especially older ones) need maintaining & that's part of homeownership. When you buy a 2nd hand car, or indeed even a new one, you expect to have to change the oil (within less than 2/3/ years!), to replace the tyres, and fix anything else that breaks.

Oh! hell! Sorry. Better stop ranting!

Kynthia

Wark1626 wrote: »

We cannot afford to purchase the house and then pay for the problems to be fixed.

Houses have on-going maintenance costs and you are going to have to pay for them or leave them to get worse. If you can't afford this then you can't afford to own a house.


Now you need to decide whether any of these issues raised in the survey mean the property is no longer worth what you agreed to pay. If the surveyor didn't down value the property then the surveyor and mortgage lender are happy that even with any issues raised in the survey the purchase price is fine. So do you personally think you would have offered less if you had known, do you think the seller will agree the issues are serious enough to reduce the price or will they think someone else will pay more than you, and do you still want the property?

Wark1626

Please keep the comments coming. I do appreciate your views.

Kynthia

Was it an independant damp surveyor that quoted £700 or a company that 'coincidental' can do the repair work too?


What was actually said about the roof as it sounds like nothing to serious if it 'might' need work in a few years.


Where did the quote for the lintel work come from, a builder or the surveyor who did the homebuyers report?

AlexMac

Assuming you are really keen on the house and that it ticks other boxes; location, room number & size and how good it makes you feel when you walk in (amateur feng shui) proximity to shops, schools, transport, cheapest house in the best street you can afford (rather than Vice-versa) so there's the potential for added value, OK at night and weekends (assuming you've staked it out to ensure no anti-social neighbours )... etc

... then as other have said, the survey points are typical and no big deal on a 1930's house.

But depending on whether you are in a buyers or a sellers market locally, how desperate the sellers are to move, how robust a buyer you are (in funds, no chain...?) you might as well suggest a discount- maybe starting high then meeting somewhere in the middle when (if they have any sense) they negotiate back...

Go for it- its real money

Road_Hog

Wark1626 wrote: »

Evening,
I recently had a house survey completed on a property I have had an offer accepted on - £247,500. This is an 80 year old house and superficially is well presented. However the survey turned up a few problems as follows. There was a query over possible damp so I had a damp expert have a look and he discovered £700 worth of damp. There is a likelihood the tiled roof will need replacing in the next 2/3 years at the cost of approx £5,000. Further it appears that "the walls have not been provided with lintel restraint over the
window/door openings. Brickwork has dislodged and dropped in places, further
disturbance could potentially occur if left unattended". I am told this will cost approx £600 to repair. These are the problems that we are aware of. We cannot afford to purchase the house and then pay for the problems to be fixed. How should we best negotiate a new price? or should we just walk away?
Many thanks for your assistance

If you don't have £5K to spend on a £250K house, then walk away.