Estate Agent told us we can't negotiate lower price after survey showed problems

MrsMooMoo

m1kjm wrote: »

Does the mortgagee know about these serious structural defects yet?

Our mortgage lender (high street bank) has no idea of the issues, they went to value it only (they haven't done a full survey) and their report was one side of A4 which just had boxes ticked, the value we are paying for it was ticked, and the box which said 'damp' was not ticked - so they didn't find it.
To be honest I'm not sure they even went inside the house. That's why we got our own survey.

mouthscradle

MrsMooMoo wrote: »

Our mortgage lender (high street bank) has no idea of the issues, they went to value it only (they haven't done a full survey) and their report was one side of A4 which just had boxes ticked, the value we are paying for it was ticked, and the box which said 'damp' was not ticked - so they didn't find it.
To be honest I'm not sure they even went inside the house. That's why we got our own survey.

Is your solicitor also acting on behalf of the lender? If so, they may well have a duty to inform the lender of any issues that they become aware of that could affect the property's value or re-saleability.

TrixA

Our surveyor also found some damp-related issues in the house we are buying and following a rather torturous negotiation process the vendor has agreed to contribute £3k towards the price of the works - our solicitor called an "allowance for works" - which is approximately half the amount we were quoted. This might be a possible tactic if the vendor isn't prepared to accept a straight price reduction. Like you we got a straight lenders valuation which came back at the purchase price, followed by a structural survey which identified problems.

Also, you may already have had this advice, but the damp treatment industry is full of companies who are looking to sell you a specialist treatment and therefore have a strong interest in discovering rising damp. In the house we're buying the survey also identified damp and we got two quotes which totally differed in the scope of the recommended works and one quoted three times as much as the other. You need an independent damp survey to identify remedial works that are genuinely necessary.

ri17

The house we recently sold came up like it was practically falling down inc rising damp that we didn't know about as there were no signs.
The purchasers tried to get 8k knocked off a sale price of 95k even though despite the stuff wrong with it the valuation was still 95k.
We told them not a chance and they pulled out. Fine by us, it was back on the market a few hours later and sold again within a week for more than before. The new survey only showed the damp and the buyer wasn't bothered. His words 'its to be expected for its age'

You are well within your right to try a new lower price but they are also within theirs to decline x

Foxy-Stoat_3

If your borrowing from friends and family for the fees, £1000 for legals and maybe £400 for mortgage then you shouldn't proceed as you will be stuck in a house with damp unable to pay for the repairs/redecoration for a long time.

nancmat

Speak to your solicitor handling the case, If it was me I'd e-mail both solicitor & EA explaining situation with survey copy/quotes if requested, pointing out they will have these issues with another purchaser who has a survey.

Hedgehog99

Make offers "subject to survey".
This house sounds like a nightmare. Having to live in it while it is damp will damage your health and your possessions - the smell will penetrate linens, clothes, furnishings and books. The other potential buyers who just want to refurb for profit won't have to live in it while the work is done and they have the cash to do all the work straight away. I'm afraid you're not in their league.

MrsMooMoo

TrixA wrote: »

You need an independent damp survey to identify remedial works that are genuinely necessary.

I've had two different damp-proof companies quote for the work...is this different to an independent damp survey? I did wonder whether it was quite as bad as they mentioned as the surveyor didn't find half the damp the companies did, but I did see them using their equipment and I saw the alarm going off etc. I just presumed they were specialists and so their equipment was better than the surveyor's. Hmmmn!

DRP

MrsMooMoo wrote: »

I've had two different damp-proof companies quote for the work...is this different to an independent damp survey? I did wonder whether it was quite as bad as they mentioned as the surveyor didn't find half the damp the companies did, but I did see them using their equipment and I saw the alarm going off etc. I just presumed they were specialists and so their equipment was better than the surveyor's. Hmmmn!

generally a damp proof company won't send around a surveyor - they'll send a salesman! they have an interest in finding problems (work for them).

Our house is a catalogue of damp-related disasters due to a series of badly advised 'improvements' were followed by poor attempts at damp remedial work...I'm currently in the slow and expensive process of removing both.

e.g. why the hell did a damp company drill 1cm holes every 15 cm into my stone wall and inject a chemical dpc? it was never going to work. Why did they attempt to seal up the damp in the party wall instead fo allowing any damp to escape (which it has eventually done with near-catastrophic results)...