How far would you go to investigate house problems when buying?

Denene

My sister is in the process of buying her first home.

According to the estate agent, the previous purchaser pulled out after the homebuyer's survey mentioned there might be damp problems, but my sister was still interested enough to put in an offer.

She got a homebuyer's survey which again highlighted potential damp problems, so she got an independent damp surveyor (not a damp-proofing company), who says the problem may require lifting of the hardwood floor and digging out the sub-floor. The roof may also need partially replaced - the tiles are asbestos, which might complicate this. The wiring may also need replaced.

She's now looking at paying a builder and electrician to come and give quotes for this work as well. She's explained to the estate agent (no direct contact with owner) that if expensive work is required, she would need to drop her offer, but there hasn't been any indication that the seller would be willing or able to accept a lower price.

Would you keep spending money investigating these problems with no feedback from or contact with the owner, or is it time to give it up? She's not averse to doing the work if it's required, but she might not be able to afford a £10k+ repair bill unless the owner can accept a lower offer.

Is it better to put things on hold until the owner comes back to her? She's already brought this up with the estate agent, but not received any firm response. And even then, what kind of response should she expect/hope for from the seller?

G_M

You've learned enough to know that there are expneses ahead.

She has to either

* accept these extra costs, and budget for them (as well as the disruptive work), or
* tell the seller now that her offer will be reduced (and se what the response is), or
* walk away

HampshireH

Hiya

She needs to look at the additional costs and they will be significant.

I have recently been involved with a property (through work) where the floor needed lifting due to damp and it needed a new membrane, sub base etc before new floor. It then needed re-plastering in many areas due to the damp having risen and blown all the plaster etc

- The property will then require redecorating.
- It would be best to have a full electrical check - which as you say may require a re-wire.

Now depending on how bad the damp is on the ground, you may need to go further. For example. The whole of the ground floor of the property I have experience with was affected. This meant that the kitchen also had to be ripped out to resolve the problem. Therefore it made sense to install a new one rather than refit the old one (additional expense). Gas services needed to be capped for plastering work and then refitted upon completion (more expense).

This too had roofing issues and needed repair work.

Asbestos tile will definitely complicate things as most roofing companies would usually need to employ a contractor to dispose - these costs aren't cheap and it would be worth carrying out a full survey of the entire property in advance of all works to ensure other asbestos is safe to work around.

Not a cheap fix by the sound of it unless she has good friends in good places.

Denene

Thanks for the replies. I agree that getting the floor and the roof repaired could be only the beginning of the expenses.

The seller has refused to discuss any kind of reduction until she gets a firm quotation for the work - probably reasonably for them, but it means more time, hassle and potential cost for her, with no idea whether the seller will be willing to negotiate at the end of it.

The selling price is ~£120k, so £10k+ would a lot of money to pour into it. HampshireH, that sounds like even more work than I would have thought about, and potentially spiralling costs.

To be honest, I think she would be better walking away at this point; it would be disappointing for her, but probably better in the long run

fairy_lights

Has any homebuyers survey ever not shown up signs of damp?
Could she actually see any signs of damp in the property?

ReadingTim

Denene wrote: »

She got a homebuyer's survey which again highlighted potential damp problems, so she got an independent damp surveyor (not a damp-proofing company), who says the problem may require lifting of the hardwood floor and digging out the sub-floor. The roof may also need partially replaced - the tiles are asbestos, which might complicate this. The wiring may also need replaced.

"potential", "may", "might", nothing very definitive really is it? Yes, all of these things could happen. Whether they will is a different story, and she either needs to speak to the surveyor to get a proper idea - a sort of off the record chat, as they're unlikely to put it in writing; or simply a take a view herself, bearing in mind some potential issues are inherent with older properties - the only way to insure against these is to buy a new build.

The seller is being entirely sensible to require some evidence that there's an actual problem, rather than merely a potential one, plus they'll probably want a range of quotes to show she's not trying to take advantage of them by inflating the likely cost of repair/rectification. This is completely normal, but if she's not comfortable with making this kind of decision, then she's better off walking away and finding something newer, presumably with less issues, real or potential...

FBaby

She's explained to the estate agent (no direct contact with owner) that if expensive work is required, she would need to drop her offer, but there hasn't been any indication that the seller would be willing or able to accept a lower price.

maybe the price agreed already factors in a reduction for these issues that the owner knew about. I had the same thing happening, house value was reduced by over 10% as it required some upgrade (including some windows needing double glazing). The buyers still negotiated a further £5k which was agreed. They then said they wanted to do a second survey, which turned out not to be a survey at all but inviting a number of trade people to work out quotes, and then used those laughable quotes to try to reduce the price again by another £20K. We insisted in a copy of those quotes and it was obvious they were massively inflated (probably his mates). We told him to get lost, pulled out, put it back on the market and we decided to rent. Best decision possible as the house increased massively in value after that. He would have got it if he hadn't been so greedy.

HampshireH

Yes. The example gave had clear evidence of significant movement and damp problems. Not just "may".

If she is desperate for this particular house she should do all available investigations.