Nervous after survey - structural movement (?), damp and cavity wall ties eroded

shortcrust

ProDave wrote: »

I question if it is really a cavity wall. That would be unusual for 1930's

AdrianC wrote: »

It would be very normal for 30s.

My house was built in the 30s without cavity walls and my surveyor questioned the build date because "cavity walls were ubiquitous by 1930".

quotememiserable

kissprudence wrote: »

Reasons:
- eroded cavity wall ties

How could he know that, unless he drilled the wall? More often they say something like 'with a property this age corrosion of cavity wall ties may be an issue and we recommend a wall tie survey'. Although the problem can then be that the only companies who offer such surveys also offer remedial packages, and always find corrosion that needs their attention. In practice ties are mild steel and normally a littled rusted the day they go in. Partly because the bond to the cement better that way.

AnotherJoe

AdrianC wrote: »

Quite. Not buying anything that "needs" cavity ties simply means not buying anywhere with cavity walls...

My bad I was thinking of those big X's you see, different thing entirely. In any case, if they have corroded I'd have thought a mare to fix.

Davesnave

quotememiserable wrote: »

How could he know that, unless he drilled the wall? More often they say something like 'with a property this age corrosion of cavity wall ties may be an issue and we recommend a wall tie survey'. Although the problem can then be that the only companies who offer such surveys also offer remedial packages, and always find corrosion that needs their attention. In practice ties are mild steel and normally a littled rusted the day they go in. Partly because the bond to the cement better that way.

I think some ties are more prone to cause problems, because when they rust, they expand, forcing bricks apart. Fishtail ties are worst for this, while the thinner butterfly type are less prone to expand and damage the wall.

Some independent timber & damp surveyors will also cover detection of corroded ties. A few are listed here:

http://www.independentdampsurveyors.co.uk/6.html

Modern methods of tie replacement mean that it's not a big job on a 2 storey property. It might cost around £1500 on the one the OP mentions; hardly something to walk away from on its own, but certainly something to get a price reduction for.

Lauralou79

The problem with this is that it's out of the OP Hands as the valuationhas come at £0 so the lender won't lend for the mortgage anyway.
My property survey ( 30s semi!) mentioned the usual cavity wall ties 'may' be eroded employ a expert etc etc. ( it's all fine) But it was valued at asking price. So my feeling it's more to do with the vertical crack?

Davesnave

Yes, the value is £0 until the issues have been investigated and the house given a clean bill of health, or major defects rectified. Someone has to spend money now, and the OP has indicated it won't be them.

That's fair enough. While these are only potential issues at this point, there are plenty of other 2 bed houses in Bradford without them.

As someone else has indicated, this property may well have had the cost of some remedial works factored into the price, making it appear attractive and good value. It might be, but only to someone able and willing to throw money at it.

Car1980

Wall ties used before 1981 were of a poorer material and most houses have needed some wall ties replacing since then. My parents paid £3000 to get them replaced in a 4 bed detached in 1996.

wantonnoodle

Our house needed new wall ties and 3 new lintels following the requested structural and cavity wall surveys that were identified during the valuation.

Until we had the surveys done, our lender valued the property at purchase price, however they had a 100% retention on it. After they were done, the retention was reduced to 5%. This was not something we could afford to cover, so we negotiated with the vendor, who agreed to get the work done to the standard requested by the lender. The work cost around £3000, and the guarantee certificates were transferred to us as part of the conveyancing. All the surveys and rectification work was done before a single penny was spent on legal fees (the contract pack only arrived with our sols mid surveys, and we instructed them to hold fire on the searches).

I think the vendor figured that if he didn't get the work done, and we walked away, anyone else buying with a mortgage would be likely to face the same problems. This would have massively reduced the potential market for the house, and given that the house had been on the market for a few months anyway, would have made it a near impossible one to sell.