Buying house next to house with structural issues.

lew_1987

Hello,

I've been lurking the forums a lot lately to help with the purchase of our first house. Now has come the time when I feel like our situation is pretty unique and I would like to ask for opinions.

We are going through all the processes of buying a semi-detached house, and have got to the point of negotiating over problems picked up in the survey. There's issues on our side which aren't major and we're confident we can sort. However, the surveyor also highlighted that next door's property is starting to bulge out at the front, and needs wall ties repairing. The surveyor has advised us not to move in without getting this resolved, and has said it may progress and affect our side. The house is owned by a landlord and when the estate agent finally managed to get in touch, it initially appears that he's not willing to repair. The landlord is now on holiday for another week or so, and because we've said that we want to try and get this resolved before moving forward, the vendors are pushing us to either proceed now or walk away.

We are unsure what to do in this situation - we've talked to various people and the advice ranges from "just move in and sue if any damage spreads to your side" and "walk away immediately". Personally I want to speak to landlord directly and see what his standpoint is, but the vendors don't seem willing to wait. We do really like this house but don't want to buy if this is going to cause major problems in the future.

Has anyone experienced anything similar? Any thoughts on the best way to proceed?

Thank you!

need_an_answer

So you are buying a property next to rented accommodation?

Some owners of these properties can be very receptive to entering into discussions with you as their "neighbour" others can be very evasive and it really depends what type of owner you have.

and also what type of tenants there are living there.

You should be able to contact the owner by obtaining a copy of the land registry documents for £3. that should give you a name and an address,which hopefully will be different to next door...

Then its up to you how you proceed,write to the owner if you wish.

However don't expect them to do any more than promise to look at the issues,you have to remember that you cant demand or control your neighbour,at best you can claim off their property insurance should the walls of next door collapse.

Personally if you want my opinion,I would probably avoid the property and go and find something with a little more certainty.

kinger101

I'd run away. I wouldn't want a bad landlord owning the adjoining property, or the risk of future structural problems.

AnotherJoe

Walk away immediately.
Its bad enough when issues are just in your responsibility to fix.
When they are in someone else's as well, the hassle and stress goes up 10x. Not just arranging it but determining whose share of the cost it is. Good luck getting money to fix your house if this absentee LL decides to let the problem spread to your house. WHat if you simply cannot fix it without his cooperation?

I used to own a house that also included one of a block of 5 garages in a block that shared the roof structure. When the roof came to need replacing, it was a complete PITA just coordinating amongst all the other owners, and the icing on the cake was one holdout owner, who as it happened was a LL, didnt give a stuff. End result being, everyone ended up patchwork fixing their little bit with no long term fix being possible.
I couldn't even think of how frustrating it woudl be if it was actually affecting the structure of my house. At least with a garage block there was no immediate effect on me, just a wet car.

Walk away immediately and leave this mess to your vendors / some other mug purchaser to fix. Don't you be that mug purchaser. (BTW who on earth is recommending you walk into a situation where taking legal action is on the cards almost immediately? Jeez some people...)


TL;DR version -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXb0zcEM-rI

PhilE

A neighbor who can't be bothered to look after his own property, thus affecting his neighbour, a vendor who demands that you buy now.

Complete joke, walk away and don't look back.

zagubov

This sounds like it'll be a source of long-term uncertainty and stress, and I would avoid like the plague.

Silvertabby

Don't walk away - RUN !

jbainbridge

You're being unrealistic if you are expecting someone you've never met to commit to these repairs before you've even moved in.

Walk away.

DCFC79

Id also walk away.


You say you really like the house but do you like it enough knowing the neighbour isn't willing to get it repaired ?

lew_1987

DCFC79 wrote: »

Id also walk away.


You say you really like the house but do you like it enough knowing the neighbour isn't willing to get it repaired ?

We got an amazing feeling about the house, but the area it's in isn't great so it's not quite our perfect home! We are concerned with this that future repairs that are required will turn out the same way (the chimney is also shared between the two properties).

Thanks for the replies everyone, I think that's a pretty resounding NOPE We will speak to our estate agent tomorrow and tell them that this is too much of a concern for us.

Hectors_House

I’d be asking myself why the seller is so keen to push you along and complete.

I’d walk away too. You have no way to make your neighbour effect repairs, or if he does, do it properly and just not as cheaply as he can.

Off topic, it’s sad to read threads where people are contemplating buying places like this cus, I assume they are cheaper. It shouldn’t come to this.