report from surveryor. Please Help!

michaelington

Hi

I'll try to keep this fairly concise. So im a FTB and my offer has been accepted on a house. The surveyor from the lender went to evaluate the house and came back with 2 problems. The first being higher levels than expected for radon gas, higher than levels suggested by the Health Protection Agency. The second being cracking above an altered rear door. Basically a conservatory has been added and the opening has cracking according to the report. Further to these issues it turns out there are no building regulations for this.

Now with all this in mind I dont know whether to walk away or proceed. Really stressed out with all this.

Thanks in advance!

McBozo

unless you get a full structural engineer to take a look you will never know. personally it looks like something to stay clear of or negotiate 20K less on!

cattie

Have you actually spoken to your surveyor? It is always best to try to speak to them once you have the report back as often they can explain things to you fully & either reassure you regarding the purchase & cost of any necessary works, or tell you if they think the property isn't an ideal purchase in their opinion.

michaelington

This is part of the problem. I cannot speak to the surveyor. I am trying to make a decision based on not very much information.

bigadaj

Whereabouts are you in the country, elevated radon gas is associated with certain geology, typically granite, ironstone or coal measures and one or two other things.

You need to determine how the radon has been determined to be high, has it been based on its location or on actual monitoring, if it's the latter it's normal for this to take some time.

Radon gas is low level radiation, so theoretically increased risk for things like cancer, but if it's an older house then people have lived there for some time with no adverse effects being obvious. A newer property is likely to contain mitigation measures, these are typically barriers such as thickened dpm or similar plastic layers normally combined with ventilation measures, often air bricks beneath a suspended floor slab. Retrospectively doing such works are awkward and expensive so difficult to resolve in an older house.

However such problems are likely to occur in all similar areas in that area as the geology is similar so it's by no means a unique problem to this house.

The Cracking problem sounds like differential settlement between the extension conservatory and the body of the house, which is normally solved by fitting a flexible joint, again difficult to do retrospectively. Minor cracking wouldn't be of too much concern, but what can happened is that a house is constructed with deep foundations like piles and minor extensions are then built on strip footings. In the latter case the extension often has to be demolished and rebuilt with suitable foundations.

Yorkie1

Why can't you speak to the surveyor?

Was this a proper homebuyer's survey or just a valuation for the lender?

If it was the former then you are the client and therefore can speak to the surveyor to clarify anything you want to.