Valuation showed Damp and Woodworm

michaeljpconlon

Hi

I've had an offer accepted on house and mortgage approved in full. I've read the valuation they've valued it at the price we offered. The valuation report identifies some damp and woodworm should i go back to the vendor and ask if its covered under their house insurance or for them to fix it or reduce the price of the house?

M

amateur_house

What does the surveyor advise you to do? My survey found damp and advised me to ask for guarantees - there were none that the vendor knew of (probate house). And I think they normally advise you to get an independent damp survey to find out the extent of the problem. That's what my survey said I should do anyway. Then depending on the cost of repairs / remedial work you may be able to re-negotiate the price with the vendor.

Davesnave

michaeljpconlon wrote: »

Hi

I've had an offer accepted on house and mortgage approved in full. I've read the valuation they've valued it at the price we offered. The valuation report identifies some damp and woodworm should i go back to the vendor and ask if its covered under their house insurance or for them to fix it or reduce the price of the house?

M

Damp and woodworm are maintenance issues, not typically covered by insurance, but regardless of that, why would you be asking for a reduction when the house is valued at what you offered?

As above, you'd need a specialist report before being sure that the issue highlighted is both active and likely to involve you in significant expense.

G_M

damp and woodworm is a huge scam. Many surveys raise this, usually worded as a 'possibility' and recommending further investigation.

Most buyers then instruct a damp proofing ompany to inspect and surprisingly the salesman they send round to do a free 'survey' identifies damp, woodworm etc, and then quotes £X,000 to fix it.

In 95% of cases the 'damp' was identified by an electrical conductivity meter (NOT a meter that measues damp as such) and the woodworm by the presence of holes in wood (made by woodworm 30 years previous and long-gone!)

The trouble is that in 5% of cases there really may be a problem.

You need someone totally independant, with no sale motivation, to check.