Advice needed on home buyers report

ironmanjason

We are in the process of buying a house in south west London and have had an offer accepted and mortgage sorted etc. We arranged for an independent home buyers report for the property especially since we are FTB and the house is about 80 years (1930's) old. The survey took place today and they gave me a call to briefly discuss. there are 2 major concerns I see here -

1) Roof - there are quite a few (about 10) which have slipped and the condition of the roof is not great. It probably needs ongoing replacement of roof tiles for the next few years and probably in the 5 year mark might have to look at re-roofing.

2) Damp in the kitchen due to a small leak on the pipe ouside the kitchen which he recokns will cost a few hundred pounds to fix.


I can live with the few hundred £'s for the pipes but the roofing has got me a bit worried.

My questions to the experts - how much do you think it would cost to change the roof entirely (I read online estimates from 6k-8k) but would like to know from people who have recently done this to get a rough idea.

Considering the above two issues - is it worth negotiating with the vendors to reduce the price by a couple of grand? We paid 10k below the asking price and property was valued at price we offered as well.


Any help/guidance appreciated!

G_M

No.

A few slipped tiles? Chap on a ladder and an hour (2 max?) work. Find a local odd job man who does roof tiles and depending where you are maybe £50 - £100.

Repeat as required over the coming years.

New roof might be needed in 5 years or might not. Certainly that's not the seller's problem!

What "pipe ouside the kitchen"? A downpipe from the gutters? Your odd job man will replace that at the same time as the tiles. Add £20!

Of course, if you go to a FMB builder, or a NFRC roofing company, those costs will quadruple.


and if the 'pipe' is something else - I can't comment.

ironmanjason

Thanks G_M.

I am yet to receive the official report copy and this is only based on a brief conversation I had with the surveyor. He got me a bit worried because he mentioned considerable amount of roof tiles needs replacing now and when I asked about numbers he said if it was the odd 1 or 2 then its fine but this is considerable about 10-15. I would have also assumed 10-15 tiles which have slipped is not much.

If it helps - its a mid terraced house.

As for the pipes - he mentioned its the pipes which come from the upstairs bath and join with the pipes near the kitchen and the joint is bad or something in that tune and said to replace all the pipes will cost a couple of hundred £'s.

bigisi

£6k-£8k for a mid terrace would sound a lot to me. My survey was worse than your concerning the roof "nearing the end of it's useful life" were the words used. Like you I had negotiated £10k off the asking price and house was valued at what I paid so I didn't try to get more off.

I've had quotes from £3.6k - £6.3k for my roof (3 bed semi), finally going with one at £4.6k all in. I'm in Leeds, there may be regional variations.

ironmanjason

bigisi wrote: »

I've had quotes from £3.6k - £6.3k for my roof (3 bed semi), finally going with one at £4.6k all in. I'm in Leeds, there may be regional variations.

that's not bad.. even with a 20% mark up that's just about 5.5k and not 8k!

bigisi

ironmanjason wrote: »

that's not bad.. even with a 20% mark up that's just about 5.5k and not 8k!

Should probably mention that's also including full fascias, guttering, downpipes and re-pointing of the chimney. Just the roof would obviously be cheaper.

ironmanjason

Thanks bigisi at least i have a ball park figure now to look out for.

maisie_cat

We were told when we bought our house 12 years ago that the roof was nearing the end of it's life and that there were slipped tiles. We have spent £250 max in the intervening years getting a local roofer to survey and repair as necessary. This summer he told us that it would cost a maximum of £10k to replace entirely but said it was far from needing replacement. Ours is a 1930s 4 bed detached in Surrey.
Surveyors tend to cover themselves and every house over 30 years will get some comment about the roof. We are selling and expecting that somebody will freak out when they read the inevitable line on the survey report.
The leaky pipe is probably a quick fix as well, we had to take guttering off, clean the seals and put it back, 1 day job for amateurs.

societys_child

£6k-£8k for a mid terrace

Don't know where these surveyors get their prices, perhaps they never visit MSE . . .

supa34

Just use the report to get money knocked off the property and then use a local roofer to repair the 20odd tiles. Looking at a few hundred max