How bad is REALLY bad...? (Survey)

DanielleJH

I suspect I already know the answer to this, and it is a bit of a how long is a piece of string scenario, but we've just had the full survey back on our first house purchase. It's a 1920s house with around £20,000 of repairs needed (scored red). About £10k is landscaping that we were aware of prior to our offer, due to crumbling retaining walls. The rest is a damp problem on one half of the house that is possible cavity wall failure, a cracked roof tile that has led to rotten felt and water marked roof timbers, and damaged drainpipe/guttering. We are not handy, nor do we really have any cheaper contacts who are. The mortgage company valued it at £120k (our offer) prior to his full survey.

I'm assuming the best thing to do here is pull out. There were two other houses up at the time that we liked, both of a similar age, and both still on the market. We will lose about £700 including the survey fees at the moment. Everyone I speak to says they would never buy a house with major issues again based on experience. My main issue is my husband is a bit in love with the house!

jonnygee2

The rest is a damp problem on one half of the house that is possible cavity wall failure, a cracked roof tile that has led to rotten felt and water marked roof timbers, and damaged drainpipe/guttering.

I'd be pulling out with these problems. In my opinion these houses are best left to people with good contacts in the trades and experience of dealing with this stuff.

dunstonh

It's a 1920s house with around £20,000 of repairs needed (scored red).

Was that a full survey or a homebuyers report? The homebuyers report uses a red/amber/green system but you dont normally get that with a full survey. homebuyers reports often have red issues on things that are not bad as you think as they have not been looked at by someone with the required qualifications or as in depth as a survey would.

Our survey was 100 pages and where issues were found, it also recommended the method to fix them and what to avoid doing (as its an older property). Did you get that in your report (you wouldn't with a homebuyers report but you would expect something with the full survey).

Damaged drainpipe/guttering is easy to fix. As is rooftile and felt. Once the cause is fixed, then you decorate internally.

With ours, the vendor paid for a structural engineers report and the building work carried out to the recommendation in the survey with before, during and after photographs provided and a copy of the invoice and schedule or works. That is the sort of thing you push for when there are problems. If they want to sell it, then they will pay for it. If they dont mind waiting for someone else then they will refuse. If you dont ask, you dont get.

DaftyDuck

Many years ago, I took a builder-friend (not a surveyor) along to get a view on my latest project.

He said: "It's difficult to tell if the walls are holding the floor up, or the floor is holding the walls up: however, I'm pretty sure there's nothing but ivy holding the roof up".

Overall, purchase/rebuild cost was around 40% of the profit, so not really that bad...

I'll see if I can dredge up some photos in a few minutes ....





There you go...

So, OP, the relevance is.. I really loved that house, the age, location right next to an old churchyard, in a small but developing village... it made the risk and sacrifice worth it to me...

The valuation is at your offer - so from that, you are going in right-priced. If (if) you can get a further discount for works needed, excellent! The work you have listed is - even the wall tie and damp issue - relatively easily solved, and not hugely (!) expensive.

Your main problem is, you and your husband have contrasting views on the issue. That's what the two of you need to sort out; the building work, the disruption, the cost; they may well be worthwhile in your OH's view. Is giving him what he wants worth it to you?

It may be more than you - or he, if he is honest - want to face, and there's nothing wrong with that. There's no point giving yourself years of stress and heartache if you don't enjoy doing such projects.

But, those survey points? Pffft! Not a bad survey, really. Oh, and that wasn't the worst property I ever did up, either, and the worst was much, much larger, and rather more of a risk!

jonnygee2

Damaged drainpipe/guttering is easy to fix. As is rooftile and felt.

I think it's the cavity wall (tie?) failure and the potential damage to the roof timber thats the problem though.

Asking the seller to pay for a survey isn't a bad idea though.

quantumlobster

jonnygee2 wrote: »

I'd be pulling out with these problems. In my opinion these houses are best left to people with good contacts in the trades and experience of dealing with this stuff.

Inclined to agree. This sort of thing falls into the category of "if you have to ask the question, you've already got the answer", for me.

DanielleJH

Thanks for the quick replies. There were about 7 or 8 red urgent issues as well as 5 or 6 amber issues, I've only names the biggest/most expensive problems. I'm leaning more towards pulling out because the problems will probably take a fair whole to fix.

I'm a bit dubious about the seller offering to do it himself, as he actually bought the house in quite a poor condition to renovate and sell on a couple of years ago, so presumably he already knows about these issues in some capacity.from working on it already. I am assuming (perhaps wrongly!) that he chose to do more superficial/cheaper jobs (there's a new bathroom/kitchen, new plaster, new carpets, new radiators etc.) and decided against doing the more expensive and more hidden bits. He has yet to respond to my solicitors enquiries about certificates for the works carried out, and other bits that are a bit dodgy, but has been quick enough in sending back documents.

I do feel a bit bad pulling out over Christmas too as our solicitors are obviously now both shut until the new year and that will delay communication about it all.

James1968

Damp due to possible cavity issues could be down to failing cavity wall insulation if has been fitted.
The early stuff was 2 pack expanding foam. This stuff starts breaking down after 20 years and becomes very porose. I know this because we used the same stuff to fill our cladding panels for our air conditioning units.

If that's the case, best leave the house well alone.

Cakeguts

DaftyDuck wrote: »

Many years ago, I took a builder-friend (not a surveyor) along to get a view on my latest project.

He said: "It's difficult to tell if the walls are holding the floor up, or the floor is holding the walls up: however, I'm pretty sure there's nothing but ivy holding the roof up".

Overall, purchase/rebuild cost was around 40% of the profit, so not really that bad...

I'll see if I can dredge up some photos in a few minutes ....





There you go...

So, OP, the relevance is.. I really loved that house, the age, location right next to an old churchyard, in a small but developing village... it made the risk and sacrifice worth it to me...

The valuation is at your offer - so from that, you are going in right-priced. If (if) you can get a further discount for works needed, excellent! The work you have listed is - even the wall tie and damp issue - relatively easily solved, and not hugely (!) expensive.

Your main problem is, you and your husband have contrasting views on the issue. That's what the two of you need to sort out; the building work, the disruption, the cost; they may well be worthwhile in your OH's view. Is giving him what he wants worth it to you?

It may be more than you - or he, if he is honest - want to face, and there's nothing wrong with that. There's no point giving yourself years of stress and heartache if you don't enjoy doing such projects.

But, those survey points? Pffft! Not a bad survey, really. Oh, and that wasn't the worst property I ever did up, either, and the worst was much, much larger, and rather more of a risk!

This doesn't look too bad to me. At least it has walls and some of the roof.