Do plaster repairs before viewings?

dunroving

As per thread title, this is a bit like one of those "Should I redecorate my house before I sell it?" with a bit of a difference.

I am selling a nice 3-BR semi that I had replastered throughout and repainted throughout, in 2009. All of the redecoration is still in good, clean order, and based on the "Should I redecorate?" threads, I don't intend redecorating throughout the whole house - except for potentially one issue.

The plaster in two of the three BR has cracked/sheared close to the ceiling. Long story as to why, but it is to do with poor workmanship rather than structural issues. The plaster defects developed within 12 months of the work being done, and hasn't got worse in the past 8 years.

In BR2, viewers can't miss it, as the plaster has fallen away in places along the far wall, so you can see the plaster underneath (the "crack" runs about 6 feet along the wall, close to the ceiling, width of up to about 4 cm in places). No issues with the plaster on the other three walls.

In BR3, the issue is less noticeable, as the plaster hasn't fallen away. Problems are along two of the four walls, close to the ceiling, width of up to about 6 cm from the ceiling in places.

The cracked plaster is mentioned in the Home Report (I live in Scotland), which buyers can read.

The estate agent suggested *not* repairing, on the reasoning that buyers can see exactly what the problem is, and can choose to either factor that into the offer amount or ask me to do the work (including having a choice on the colour).

I can see his logic - buyers can be suspicious of that "new paint" smell - what is it hiding? However, I feel that visible defects like this can turn people off, sometimes illogically. I have had feedback from one viewer, who effectively was worried it meant the roof was caving in.

So, for the cost of about £500 I can get all the bedroom walls repaired and repainted (same colour; cheaper). So ... should I?

pinklady21

No brainer. Get it repaired. Then provide evidence to the surveyor that it has been repaired, and ask him to amend his HR.
Failing to repair it is simply leaving you open to potential buyers using it to negotiate the price downwards, and also to wonder what else you may have neglected to repair.

dunroving

pinklady21 wrote: »

No brainer. Get it repaired. Then provide evidence to the surveyor that it has been repaired, and ask him to amend his HR.
Failing to repair it is simply leaving you open to potential buyers using it to negotiate the price downwards, and also to wonder what else you may have neglected to repair.

Hmmm, the survey says ... "Defective sections of plasterwork were noted, however, the vendor
has advised that these will be repaired prior to sale. This should be confirmed."

- not sure he will change this as the plaster was defective at the time of the survey and the comment really covers the situation. But worth asking him.

pinklady21

Agree worth asking the surveyor. When we had our HR survey done, he identified a small issue with one of our chimneys which we were not aware of. He was going to note it as a 3. We got it repaired, and he removed all reference to it in his report.
Who instructed him? (or her!) If it was your estate agent, they may already have a reasonable relationship with the surveyor and can ask the question on your behalf.

dunroving

pinklady21 wrote: »

Agree worth asking the surveyor. When we had our HR survey done, he identified a small issue with one of our chimneys which we were not aware of. He was going to note it as a 3. We got it repaired, and he removed all reference to it in his report.
Who instructed him? (or her!) If it was your estate agent, they may already have a reasonable relationship with the surveyor and can ask the question on your behalf.

I just talked with the EA and because the survey has been "published" on the system, he didn't think it could be changed. He does have a good relationship with the surveyor but said the only times he had seen anything changed was when the vendor fixed the problem before accepting the final version of the report.

I have photos of the damaged plaster so if I get it fixed and painted and a buyer enquires about how bad it was, I can show them the photos. The EA thinks the plaster won't be an issue for most buyers - it really doesn't look like the wall is falling away - there are worse things on the survey for the house I am buying in England (£1,500 worth of gable end pointing, for example!) and that's not putting me off.

I think I'd feel better showing the house in its best shape - it seems a bit daft after spending over £15k on complete internal renovations and repairs that I am swithering about paying £500 on this.

capital0ne

Put yourself in the buyers shoes - what impression would you have of a property with defective plaster when you viewed it?

DaftyDuck

I'd do it anyway... shows you care. Viewers are more likely to notice the fact than the line in the report. Since it has stated you'd repair, why not?

Otherwise you are still going to do it, but in the rush of a sale.

dunroving

Thanks all, confirmed what I was thinking. Decorator coming round on Wednesday. :T

Smodlet

I don't understand why you did not do this years ago for your own benefit, dunroving, once it stopped getting any worse. 4 inch wide cracks sound horrendous on paper. Are we certain it is only plaster and not what it is attached to that is the problem?

More to the point, you have said you will fix it so fix it! How would you feel about someone, anyone but especially your vendor or solicitor, who said they were going to do something then did not do it? You are better than that.

kylej64

dunroving wrote: »

Thanks all, confirmed what I was thinking. Decorator coming round on Wednesday. :T

I think thats a wise decision, I'm getting my flat ready to sell and will hopefully be a prospective buyer soon. Any large obvious cracks would pritty much be a deal breaker for me (I'd be wondering what else was wrong if a large crack was just being ignored).

dunroving

Smodlet wrote: »

I don't understand why you did not do this years ago for your own benefit, dunroving, once it stopped getting any worse. 4 inch wide cracks sound horrendous on paper. Are we certain it is only plaster and not what it is attached to that is the problem?

More to the point, you have said you will fix it so fix it! How would you feel about someone, anyone but especially your vendor or solicitor, who said they were going to do something then did not do it? You are better than that.

Ah, well, I can be a procrastinator, largely because until I recently retired, I was working over 60 hrs/week and any spare time was spent walking or riding my mountain bike. I did want to live long enough to reach retirement.

Having said that ...

1) The survey said the work would be done *before sale* - the house hasn't sold yet.
2) I initially left it, because, as you indicated, I wanted to be sure this wasn't a bigger problem. The last thing I wanted to do was have it repaired and then find after a further couple of years that the problem returned or got worse. It hasn't got worse in 8 years, so I am pretty sure it is due to the basic mistakes I referred to in my original post.
3) It really doesn't look as bad as it sounds. If I'm going to do something "for myself", it would be riding my bike or going for a hike. Having said that, now I have recently retired, some of those small jobs that have been staring at me for a while are getting done - one job at a time!

The closest I can find to what I have is on this page: http://www.bgchomes.com.au/general-maintenance/wall-cracking

- photo labelled "plaster shear"