Selling property and rising damp

boring1

Hi - my property is on the market and we have had an offer of £8k below asking price.
We knew we had some damp in the front bay window and thought it was a leaking window sill which we were going to get fixed - turns out it's quite possibly rising damp. Now my neighbour coicendetally treats this for a living so will fix it for us - told us it will take about 4 weeks etc to dry out.

My question is - should I accept the lower offer on the house and say when the damp is indentified on the survey I won't negotitate any lower.

Ask for a bit more on the offer (another £3k) and say the survey will pick up a damp problems but we are happy to get it rectified.

Do I even mention the damp until it is picked up on the survey?

These questions are keeping me awake at night so any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

Doozergirl

Who says it's rising damp? And why? Your neighbour who "coincidentally" fixes it?

I think you're best placed to know where it comes from. Pictures would be good to see. Inside and outside of your bay.

If you have an issue, I think you're best to disclose it as you otherwise set yourself on the back foot with the buyer. If you get it sorted then you can focus on accepting an offer that doesn't involve the buyer setting a price on the problem. Tell them you know there is an issue and you are in the process of getting it sorted.

Is that their first offer? No one accepts the first offer, do they?

boring1

I am not able to upload photos yet. I have photos on my phone is there any other way I can send them?
Thank you

Tom99

boring1 wrote: »

I am not able to upload photos yet. I have photos on my phone is there any other way I can send them?
Thank you

Upload them here

https://imgbb.com/

Insert a gap in the link you post and someone will fix it for you.

boring1

https://ibb.co/b8xmf 7
https://ibb.co/jioRf 7
https://ibb.co/n16ZY S

Tom99

Can't get your links to work, I am not sure why. Try again but with no gaps as it looks like you are allowed to link to a website

AdrianC

Ain't no such thing as "rising damp". Damp has utterly predictable common-sense causes, and every house built since Victoria was on the throne has a DPC.

Usual cause is ground levels breaching the DPC, or damaged gutters/downpipes.

Damp-proofing sales people will tell you anything.

boring1

https://ibb.co/b8xmf7
https://ibb.co/jioRf7
https://ibb.co/n16ZYS

G_M

Hard to tell from the pictures, but my guess is it's either the window sill (as you originally thought), or the paving that's been laid right up against the external wall is too high (breachng the damp proof course).

Rising damp, as others have said, is very rare, and very often mis-diagnosed (usually in order to sell a dp product).

Who diagnosed it as rising damp? The neighbour?

Fix the window and re-paint. Remove the paving along the wall and replace with shingle to a depth of 1 foot.

AdrianC

Who on earth paved that? Just look at that airbrick, letting water straight into the underfloor! You can see the waterlogged nature of the render below the DPC - and the level of the DPC is immediately obvious.

<holds head in hands>

The crack in the sill won't help one bit, either. Think like water.

Doozergirl

As above. You've got quite a lot of general maintenance issues there.

The airbrick at that level with water being allowed to pour in is bad. The concrete right up to the wall is bad. The rendering right down to the ground is bad. The crack in the cill needs addressing.

I don't know what your neighbour does but what needs to happen is that the concrete paving is cut back about 30cm, Dig out around the bay and then back fill with pea gravel so you have a nice 150mm gap below that airbrick. Chip the render back up to above the DPC and refinish it with a bell bead finishing just above DPC level. Endure there are no cracks in the render. Chip back and re-render the whole bay if necessary.

Sort the window cill out.

Allow the wall to dry out. The internal plaster doesn't look so bad. Get a dehumidifier on it.

Always best to address these issues before selling. It shouldn't be expensive to fix but people will be froghtened by it and there's no way a surveyor won't pick up the bad work outside.