Survey back, house is in a terrible state.

Annie1960

Don't send the report to the vendors yet, not until you have spoken to the structural engineer. You will then be in a better position to know if you want to try to negotiate on price, or whether the works are more minor.

jellie

Horseygirl123 wrote: »

It'll still be standing when all these new builds have blown away.

My house is 20 years old so is reasonably newly built, at least compared to yours.

I'm concerned about your statement that it's going to be "blown away" and I'm interested in what you think will cause this to happen. Will it just float away with the next strong winds, or will it be something a little more dramatic?

makeyourdaddyproud

jellie wrote: »

My house is 20 years old so is reasonably newly built, at least compared to yours.

I'm concerned about your statement that it's going to be "blown away" and I'm interested in what you think will cause this to happen. Will it just float away with the next strong winds, or will it be something a little more dramatic?

It's a polite euphemism for the cheap piles of rubbish built since 1980.

There's only so much chipboard or plasterboard one should accept for the money. It's laughable.

Pandilex

Points on the survey:

2 story victorian end terrace house

rear wall leaning out 40mm

evidence of significant repairs between the rear and side wall (strapping, stitching)

large crack in one of the walls that goes around the building which has been repaired but reopened but appears historic

1mm wide crack on another wall

one rafter is severely rotted and damp suggesting a problem, other rafters appear ok

south roof space has a slight sag in the long rafters

severe damp across front wall (1st floor), fairly uniform, so the render will require hacking off and replacing but will take many months for the wall to dry

side wall has some patches of damp in the stairwell and quite noticable damp at the rear of the parapet on the 1st floor

chimney breasts have been removed and unless there are building regs. approval a beam needs installing to support the roof.

some modification to the rooms (making it open plan) will have required building regulations, as well as a bathroom extension.

front living room has damp between window and door

there is noticable damp in the hallway beside the door in the hall/living room

side wall of kitchen is dry lined but not checked due to cupboards


His conclusions are:

- damp proof course
- ensuring building regs exist for the mentioned works
- checking the reason for the extensive repairs at the back
- there's a downpipe at the back that should be checked to see if the downpipe and the underground drain are connected correctly
- the crack is not important at the moment and looks ok
- the rotten rafter and roof need investigating


The building regs stuff, I believe that comes from the solicitor's checks which I am waiting for. They have supplied some documentation so far but I am unable to interpret it and there are no insurance-backed guarantees so will chat with solicitor next week. I also asked the structural engineer if I could talk the report through with him just because the issues look really serious.

I can't imagine replacing a rafter and fixing all those damp issues would be cheap, nor would excavating the drainage to check it's connected. Hopefully the engineer can shed some light on rough costs, I don't know.

All suggestions welcome

slopemaster

Pandilex wrote: »

All suggestions welcome

Run away?

(Sorry)

IDoDoodles

We're in a similar position. Just got the surveyor's report back, and it's a lot grimmer than we'd been expecting, even for a property we were expecting to have to modernise/fix up somewhat.

When we questioned it again however, we realised that it was not to be terribly unexpected. The house was built circa 1900, and it's a solid enough Victorian semi but it's not been updated in yonks, and requires a lot of love. As its been tenanted out for some time too there's a number of things that need fixing that may otherwise have been done some time ago in an owner-occupied property.

Our current list includes:
- woodworm
- replaster entirely
- replace some floor timbers
- better/new aeration blocks in cellar
- replace all skirting and trim
- fix hallway tiles
- complete rewire
- new guttering
- improvements to loft conversion (while it meets Building Regs its a shoddy job)
- tear out and rebuild conservatory
- replace all windows
- fix chimney stacks and widen drainage
- probably need to replace boiler in a year or two

... and thats before the stuff we WANTED to do like extend and get a new kitchen and convert the cellar.

There's some smaller items but they're as-and-when we can rather than "hazardous" which is the Level 3 stuff that won't wait for anything.
As FTBs it's not a small list and quite frankly we're terrified.

We called the surveyor immediately to get his opinion, as we understand that they HAVE to put everything in the report legally which makes some things scarier than they really are.
We now have a clearer idea, and a list of priorities. It's still a huge amount of stuff, but we know how to drive through it better now. We've since called the solicitor too to check paperwork for the loft etc.
Monday is sort-out-quotes day.

It's still terrifying, and we don't have the funds right now to fix much of anything as we paid more than we were hoping for it already - so we're looking at a long... LONG project.
Sadly, the sale price matches those in the area and the rate at which prices are rising (London). We wont get any discount.

I guess we'll just have to plough through slower than we wanted. The end result (and value) will absolutely be worth it. Shame it had to come along when we were also planning a wedding though!..


ANYWAY: My advice, from what very little I know? If you love the house enough to bear with it while it needs fixing up and have your disposable income bled dry until you can bring it back to life, do it. Every house is an investment of some kind. If you're thinking of moving on again in a year or two and flipping it for a profit, run for the hills.

Sorry for the unintentional mini-hijacking vent on your thread - hope some of this helps, even to show you're definitely not alone!

Pandilex

Your input is greatly appreciated!

Do you not think you can get any kind of discount then? The issue for me isn't really falling in love with the property, it's just there are so few properties on the market that finding ANY property takes forever which sucks. The problems with the house will remain if I buy or not though so I would hope the seller will be flexible in this regard, we'll have to see. If it ends up costing £10,000 to fix the issues then the seller may be reluctant, although since I offered over 10k above asking price they might be reasonably ok with it.

My panic at the moment is that I may lose the mortgage arrangement fee and be unable to find any property, especially with people wanting to buy for summer, and that I can't interpret the severity of the issues in the report.

I wish you the best of luck the market here in Bristol sounds very similar to the one described in London.

ClareTeaches

Thanks for putting up your list of issues. I can see why it sounds scary, but I think the best thing would be to wait and see what the engineer says, see what people on here who have dealt with these sorts of issues have to say and then get some quotes/estimates for how much the serious work is likely to cost. Only then can you make your decision.

Luckily it seems the engineer has outlined what the key works/further investigations need to be, with it sounding like the DPC, roof and back repairs are the priorities. This give you some direction for what quotes/estimates to seek out.

Good luck!

IDoDoodles

Pandilex wrote: »

Do you not think you can get any kind of discount then? The issue for me isn't really falling in love with the property, it's just there are so few properties on the market that finding ANY property takes forever which sucks.

Sadly not, that was the first thing we asked! If we could knock even 2% off the asking price we'd have a head start on the repairs. Every expert we're speaking to says it's just not gonna happen in the current London market, and frustratingly we can see that as well.
There's a well-known time of year that EAs like to call Mad March (or something), when the market seems inundated from both sides. In reality, there's usually the same amount of properties available throughout the year, give or take, but in the first quarter theres an influx of buyers so the mad scramble for the same properties makes it feel like it's THE time to buy or lose out. We were assured it happens every year and not to be fazed by it!

I shouldn't worry - if you decide to leave it, then I'd imagine you'd find another within your mortgage offer period without too much trouble. Better to do that than end up resenting something that could be a millstone around your neck, but you'd have to weigh that up as it's absolutely a personal choice.

Pandilex wrote: »

The problems with the house will remain if I buy or not though so I would hope the seller will be flexible in this regard, we'll have to see. If it ends up costing £10,000 to fix the issues then the seller may be reluctant, although since I offered over 10k above asking price they might be reasonably ok with it.

I think you have room to argue this, but discuss with your solicitor for sure. Our case is somewhat different as we're talking multiples of that to fix ours to a starting standard. That plus the London market being a law unto itself means we can whistle for it. You could have better luck, even if its just a middle-ground figure discount.

Pandilex wrote: »

My panic at the moment is that I may lose the mortgage arrangement fee and be unable to find any property, especially with people wanting to buy for summer, and that I can't interpret the severity of the issues in the report.

The surveyor can give you a proper idea, so definitely have a word. We'd have been flailing about in the dark otherwise. Then get a bunch of quotes for the most pressing issues to deal with.
How long do you have until your mortgage offer expires?

Pandilex wrote: »

I wish you the best of luck the market here in Bristol sounds very similar to the one described in London.

Thank you! it's pretty brutal. Best of luck to you too

bigadaj

The terms surveyor and structural engineer seem to be used interchangeably here.

It's likely that if these are SE comments they probably mean significant problems, if just a surveyor then an indication they have seen something which just doesn't look good to them, in the latter case teh next stage is to query with an engineer.

A surveyor is a generalist with no specific experience about structural issues so it's important to differentiate.