How to pay for remedial work - us? vendors?

matt8787

Hi

We're in the process of buying a place, but the surveys have thrown up various damp issues, with the inspectors estimating a cost of £6-7k to carry out remedial work.

First thoughts are to ask for this to be knocked off the asking price. But that would only bring down the monthly mortgage payments by a nominal amount, rather than give us the necessary £6-7k for the repair works.

All of our money is being sunk into the deposit/stamp duty, so we don't have a spare £6-7k to pay for it.

So my next thought is to ask for the vendors to pay for it - but what if they don't have £6-7k spare to pay for it.

Obviously we want this to be settled before committing to purchasing the house.

Any advice on how to go about getting the work paid for greatly received.

thanks

AnnieO1234

The first question you need to work out the answer to is whether the property is worth what you've offered? If you're already under value then I'm guessing you will be told to whistle dixie in respect of any concession relating to the damp.

The second question is whether the damp is obvious, do you believe the vendor knows about it? Did you pick up on it when you viewed the property? If you didn't, and depending on the survey results in respect of how serious the problem is, then is there a possibility of leaving it for say six months and saving up to get the repairs completed? That is is you really really love this house of course.

Ax

matt8787

Yes, the property is worth what we've offered

The damp isn't obvious, but affects the ground floor floors and walls - if it doesn't get done now it'll need to get done at some point - no point in spending money on carpets, paint, etc, only to have to rip it all up further down the line

societys_child

Surveyors sometimes come up with gold plated estimates and it's possible the work may cost much less. Would have thought the first thing would be to have a word with the estate agent who can pass the info onto the vendors, wait and see what they say.

Did the surveyor say what the cause is?

supernothing

Can't really help on what your next move should be but a surveyor brought up a high damp reading on my house walls, no signs of any damp in all the years we've lived here. Upon further inspection it's condensation.
If you can get it checked out rather than take the word of the surveyor you could save yourself lots of problems.

matt8787

this is from a separate damp & timber report, so think its a bonafide assessment.

I'm perfectly willing to be accepting of the survey, as I want any issues to be addressed in advance of moving in.

My main query surrounds next steps in financing the remedial work

moromir

That quote does sound incredibly excessive...

I had all the external walls of my property injected with chemical dampproof course, replastered to mid height and skimmed to ceiling height for roughly £1800.00, and this is in Essex.

moneyistooshorttomention

As you say...the vendors may not have the money to pay for it (ie work on their "previous home").

It's certainly the case that, for many people, our "previous home" might not be "perfect"....but we have been landed with a vendor for our "next home" that is (one way or another) refusing to acknowledge that the house they are selling isn't "perfect" either and the money simply isn't there to cope with both "house to come" being imperfect and "house that is being left" is also imperfect.

A conundrum that does indeed cause many virtual headaches to many of us....

Then, if you add on however-many-problems with "house that is being sold" are down to the previous owner, but THEY didn't "meet their responsibilities" it really can be "Ohmygawd my head hurts" territory trying to work out what to do...

lessonlearned

£6k for damp remedials sounds excessive. Get at least three estimates.

Did the survey highlight what was causing the damp.

We had a survey done and lender wanted £1500 retention because the surveyor said the sub floor was affected. Didn't say how or what needed to be done, so we got some independent people in to give it the once over before we bought the house. No where near £1500.;) Nothing wrong with the sub floor. Maybe one slightly "crumbly" joist, which is easy enough to replace or strengthen.

In our case the remedy to the damp is actually very simple. Some damn fool has blocked up all the air vents in the cellar. We will replace those and add a couple more for good measure and then wait and see. If necessary we will replace any joists after we have allowed time for everything to dry out.

We had exactly the same problem with another house. Unblocked the vents, allowed the air to circulate and everything dried out within a couple of weeks.

Those damp meters are a total waste of space.

Before you go to a lot of expense with so called damp specialists do a few simple checks yourself - roof, guttering, air vents, pointing to the brickwork, blocked or ineffective drains, poor drainage in the garden. Check that garden soil is not piled high against the brick-work. Check that vegetation such as ivy or virginia creeper isn't soaking the bricks.

Another big culprit is condensation - again fairly easy to put right, just air the place out and turn up the heating.

Even if the damp is advanced and you do need to have chemicals injected and new plasterwork etc it should not cost you £6K.

cattie

Whenever I've renegotiated as a buyer or as a vendor, 50/50 for the most part is the split on surveyor recommended works that has been agreed.

In each case an estimate from at least one reputable tradesman has been provided.

Surveyors always tend to over estimate cost of required works, so you really need to get proper reputable trades people to give you at least an idea of approx cost.

Odie_Schmodie

I am in almost exactly the same situation, except after the two quotes from two damp proof companies came in at 800 pounds and 4000 pounds, and vendor was adamant that it's all penetrating damp (property has been empty for the past year or so) I decided to actually live in the house first to see how true the damp problem is. All I will try and do is add some airbricks. The vendors have, however, agreed to doing some repairs in the roof. They don't have the money for it. What we've agreed to do now is to add a clause to the contract that "all agreed works will be completed between exchange and completion". This way the vendor knows that I am committed to buying, as long as the repairs on done. Of course it also requires that the tradesperson is willing to wait until completion! Good luck!