Building survey through on house purchase

debdeb12

My partner and I are in the process of purchasing our first home together and last week we received the buildings survey report that we had requested.

The house we're purchasing is a three bedroom, Victoria terraced property, which the current vendors have done a lot of interior work to and kept immaculate from what I could see during my two viewings.

In the buildings survey, the chimney pointing and a 'high damp meter reading' in front bay window were both marked as a 3, so requiring urgent repair. It is stated within the survey that the surveyor was unable to access the roof and the chimney was marked on sight.

Now, I understand that surveyors have to keep the reputation of their company and was wondering if they sometimes simply err on the side of caution to play it safe and mark problems as worse than they maybe are. I have sent the survey on to a builder who has estimated all the work (chimney re-pointing and damp proof) as roughly £3,000 worse case.

I was wondering if anyone else had any experience of this or whether I am worrying about pulling our sale for nothing. Unfortunately, the valuation also came out higher than what we had paid so my fear is that if we go back to try and re-negotiate the price, the vendors will pull as they can get more money for the house.

Any help at all would be much appreciated.

oldandhappy

I can only say about our last property re the survey...damp meter reading was high in bedroom...no sign on the walls...no wallpaper coming off...no apparent damp signs on outside wall...the survey nearly put us off on many issues...the conservatory we could see was a mess in many ways...the house we wanted more than the issues...the first read of the survey we thought OMG the 2nd time we read between the lines and decided all was not so bad...we had 14 happy years there. fixed the issues with the conservatory and the damp in the bedroom never was...there was a soak away next to that wall that was not clearing that well so could have been that...but when we sold it 2014 there was no issues with the survey.It is worrying that is the problem....

debdeb12

oldandhappy wrote: »

I can only say about our last property re the survey...damp meter reading was high in bedroom...no sign on the walls...no wallpaper coming off...no apparent damp signs on outside wall...the survey nearly put us off on many issues...the conservatory we could see was a mess in many ways...the house we wanted more than the issues...the first read of the survey we thought OMG the 2nd time we read between the lines and decided all was not so bad...we had 14 happy years there. fixed the issues with the conservatory and the damp in the bedroom never was...there was a soak away next to that wall that was not clearing that well so could have been that...but when we sold it 2014 there was no issues with the survey.It is worrying that is the problem....

Thanks oldandhappy.

I'm thinking that maybe I am worrying more than I need to. Reassuring to hear that the damp came to nothing in your property.

anselld

Normal issues for old Victorian. Don't buy one if you expect it to be maintenance free.

"Damp reading" in the bay only worth addressing if it starts to cause cosmetic damage over time.

Chimney probably needs closer inspection by somebody without vested interest in doing work. Ask for an inspection rather than a quote to do the work in the first instance. If you do get it repointed make sure they use the correct lime mortar mix otherwise it will make matters worst by damaging the bricks over time.

Davesnave

If you're thinking of pulling out over minor issues like these on a house valued higher than your accepted offer, you're probably looking at this without your realism specs on.

Yes, surveyors cover their rear ends, and of course Victorian houses need regular maintenance, but if that's all that was flagged-up, you've done well.