Terraced house with damp on the internal wall- possible causes?

Natalie_Byrom

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if you might be able to help me? My partner and I are first time buyers and we are looking at a mid-terrace house that needs A LOT of work. We viewed it and there is damp on the inside wall in the kitchen which will need sorting. The problem is, the adjoining house is owned by the sellers of the one we are considering buying and we have been told they are unlikely to want to spend any money rectifying any problems that affect us. Can you fix the damp on one side of a terraced house wall without bothering the adjacent house, or will it just come back? Any advice at all would be very much appreciated!

Wookey

Is this damp on the party wall or on an internal wall wholly within the prospective house?

As it's in the kitchen my first thought would be a leaking pipe somewhere, if it's on the party wall does the adjoining house have damp in the same area?

ST1991

We have a similar problem with a house we bought last year. Terraced house that is old.

There is a damp band on the internal (ajoining/party) walls inside, that appears the be from when a DPC was put in but not put in high enough, pushing moisture up above the DPC, now stuck in the plaster.
I have been told a way to fix this is to chip off the damp plaster and replaster this part only, although not sure how good that advise is!

Our next door neighbour had an issue when the previous owner's tenant used a non-condensing tumble drier in a cupboard without ventilation, and their adjoining wall started to un-peel its own wallpaper, but this has since rectified itself since we moved in and have the common sense not to do that.

So - it could perhaps be an issue from next door, making your walls damp?
You could put in a DPC, but really you want to fix the underlying issue.

Natalie_Byrom

Hi both, Thanks so much for responding. Wookey it is on the party wall- it's very difficult to say whether the other side has a problem though my best bet would be yes. The adjoining houses are currently owned by the same person who has been letting them to students in an appalling state- I can't actually believe someone would let property that is this badly in need of repair. So I would suspect that the other side has a similar problem, but that the owner is not going to be concerned at all with fixing it. Does this make it a really bad idea to put in an offer? It sounds like from your experience ST1991 that having your neighbours cooperation is pretty key to sorting things out...

Thanks so much again for your help and advice- very much appreciated.

tired_dad

Buyer beware. Once purchased it's your problem. Vendor owns next door would twitch me slightly as I would wonder if they are hiding anything.

I would get a detailed survey. Use conveyancer to ask lots of questions so you have a legal trail of what was declared. In future if something comes up that was withheld you could sue.

Primrose

Frankly I would run for the hills on this one. If next door is owned by somebody who is not conscientious about keeping the property they own in good repair, you are up for a lifetime (or however long you live in that property) being plagued by possible expensive frustrations (like garden trees/shrubs not being pruned and other issues which will potentially drag down the value of your own property).


Damp problems can be VERY expensive to locate and repair. All these potential negatives relating to next door will make it harder to sell your property when the time comes. Sounds like landlord is just out to make money and while you may not be thinking that far ahead, such an owner could have a negative impact on your ability to sell and trade up later on when the time comes.

Also rented property is much more vulnerable to damage due to the carelessness of tenants who have no skin in the property game . AVOID and put your hard saved deposit to somewhere with less risks. First ownership of a property is hard enough anyway. Don't make it more difficult for yourselves.