Issues raised from building survey

isadora127

I've just had the survey report back from a house I've recently made an offer on and several issues have been highlighted.

Rising damp has been noted on the party wall to the adjacent house on the ground floor and penetrating damp in the party wall to the same house but upstairs on the landing where the chimney breast of next door's house is positioned.

Penetrating damp has also been noted in one of the bedrooms which is probably caused by a leak from the flat roof of the neighbours' extension (neighbour on other side).

There is sagging of the ceiling in one the bedrooms and the surveyor doesn't think an RSJ has been installed following the conversion of the downstairs into an open-plan design. The vendor had previously told me that the wall was non-supporting and was a flimsy wooden stud partitioning. I'm no expert but as the house is a Victorian terrace I would have thought that the walls would have been stone built.

Because the house is old I fully expected some issues to be raised (such as no damp-proof course present) but now I'm worried how much all this is going to cost to fix. I'm waiting to hear back from my solicitor once she's had a read through it but am just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience please?

SmashedAvacado

There is sagging of the ceiling in one the bedrooms and the surveyor doesn't think an RSJ has been installed following the conversion of the downstairs into an open-plan design. The vendor had previously told me that the wall was non-supporting and was a flimsy wooden stud partitioning. I'm no expert but as the house is a Victorian terrace I would have thought that the walls would have been stone built.

This is a bit confusing. I am not a builder, but would expect to see the sagging on the ceiling of the downstairs room - as opposed to on the upstairs room - but presumably if this has caused the sagging upstairs then this is a lot more serious ti impact a whole floor above

Your solicitor won't advise you on this - but you should ask more questions about the work done and in particular whether building control was sought. it presumably wasnt.

The damp is a separate issue but presumably easy enough to cost to sort out and if the place needs redoing, then you need to tackle in advance of redecoration.

isadora127

Thanks Smashed, that's a good point you've raised. The report definitely states the sagging is in one of the bedrooms upstairs. I will query it with the surveyor.

cloo

Have you talked to the surveyor in more depth about these? Always worth having a discussion to give you an idea of seriousness, risks, costs etc.

Sibz

That's a ton of work. Also if it involves an adjoining building, it sounds like a lot of legal paperwork etc. Have you met the neighbours?