Buying a beautiful wreck

ReadingTim

The length of time this place has been on the market together with the method of sale (auction, with potential for pre-bid survey limited) suggests you won't get a mortgage on this place.

So, the first question is whether you can afford to buy this place, only then can you need to calculate whether you have enough left over to do it up.

You might have skipped over the buying bit because you have the cash, so there's no need to discuss it; but if you haven't then you need to think about it pretty soon, otherwise it's just a flight of fantasy.

Cakeguts

Today I have been to visit this property. I noticed a lot of no parking notices all over the place around the property so my first question would be if this is why they aren't doing any viewings? I guess that the access is a private road and so anyone wanting to view would not be able to drive in and parking on Huddersfield Road at the end of the track is not suitable for a lot of cars.

This house is in much worse state than I expected it to be. The ridge of the roof along the top of the terraced houses end is lower than the rest of the row suggesting that there may be a roof problem. So anyone buying this property would need to look at the roof timbers. The roof over the bit that is probably the smithy is sagging in two places. One of which suggests that there is a problem with the roof timbers so it might need a whole new roof including all the timbers.

The biggest problem though that I could find was with the stability of the wall facing up the hill towards Huddersfield road. The corner of this wall where it meets the smithy bit has suffered some sort of structural problem. There is a tie bar in the wall just above the window nearest the corner and some cracking in the stone work round it. On the wall where the smithy is joined on and just round the corner from the 1st tie bar there are 2 more in the wall joining the smithy. This all suggests to me that there is a structural problem with that corner.

This property is going to be a major renovation job. It isn't something that you could renovate with a small budget and a few months. There is also going to be a problem with access for builders. It is possible that the wall with the tie bars will need to be rebuilt if it is still moving or if it is unstable.

To renovate something of this size and in this condition is going to take an expert with plenty of cash. It isn't really the kind of thing that a first time renovator would want to get into especially if cash for the work is tight. I think you could easily get through £50,000 just trying to sort out the structure and the roofs and before you try to do anything to the inside.

Taylor132

Thanks Cakeguts. That was a really detailed and informative post.

To be perfectly honest the actual building (damp, structural etc) is a fantastic challenge for me. £50k + to get it sound and then a lifetime to make it beautiful with what we can do and on a budget is right up my street...

However....after reviewing the auction pack this would have to be a big old NO from me. The site of the house is basically cut up into many plots and all individually registered at companies house. If you buy this house all you actually get is the building. You do have an absolute right over the front garden and the area where the septic tank is but these would still be legally owned by the old evicted owners. It gets worse.....you and the old evicted owners would also be responsible for part (not even all of it!) of that horrendous road leading down to the house.

All in all, I don't want to walk into what could be my dream house with neighbours (the old owners own a lot of land around that area ) that automatically hate you (maybe a bit of an exaggeration but lets be honest its not the best footing to start with.)

So onwards and upwards.....

Upsidedown_Bear

I've just checked and it sold for £155 000. Lets hope the new owners knew what they were doing when they bid :cool:

Taylor132

Thanks for finding that out. I was very curious. I have absolutely everything crossed for them.

It could be an absolutely beautiful home.

System

Too many bedrooms...poor investment

Taylor132

Berbastrike - just curious.....why would too many bedrooms be a poor investment?

System

You would spend alot of money refurbishing, heating and maintaining them, whilst they were empty. Unless you have 7 kids of course.

Taylor132

Kids, family and friends are the reason I would want that number of bedrooms.

t0rt0ise

A developer will do it all quickly split into two and sell. It'll make someone a nice profit.