Survey - Advise?

Jimmy9012

Hi folks,

We are buying our first home. Bank approved mortgage and did their valuation survey, all went fine. We had our own home buyers survey and are awaiting the report, however the engineer called me for a phone update to tell what he had seen.

The house is a Redrow house from 2016. The current owners have owned since built, and are selling to move back home to Europe.

The surveyor has said three things:

1) The downstairs toilet rooms sink drains very slowly.

2) The house is made from a wooden frame, with brick on the outside. He says this is standard for new homes in the UK and is not a problem, but worth knowing.

3) The damp course is lower than UK standards. This is a problem as you do not want the wood (referenced in #2) to rot.

I have done some research on number 2. As this is standard, I think I am fine with that. I am worried though about 1 & 3 though.

Following research, it seems Redrow ignore the actual 'standards' and say they put in place what is needed. Does anybody have any advice? I guess worst case I have to spend a few thousand for a builder to add a new course of damp proofing myself? I dont think warranty (8 years left) will help as its at the height they say they install.

Number 1 is also a concern. If the pipe is blocked (hair for example), the sellers surely would have cleared it before our surveyor visited? If they could not clear it (which I assume most people would try before selling), then surely is this a bigger problem like a collapsed pipe or drain?

What should I do here? (My first time!)...

I guess, ask solicitor to get the sellers to investigate the sink and fix, and provide proof of fix? I dont think I can do anything regarding the damp proofing though..

Should I retract my offer?

Best,
Jim

G_M

1) The drain is nothing. Easy to sort. Ignore.


2) as you say "worth knowing."


3) if the dpc is too low, simply dig down to lower the ground level round the exterior of the property. bit of excercise one weekend.


Enjoy your new home

Doozergirl

G_M wrote: »

1) The drain is nothing. Easy to sort. Ignore.


2) as you say "worth knowing."


3) if the dpc is too low, simply dig down to lower the ground level round the exterior of the property. bit of excercise one weekend.


Enjoy your new home

Nothing else to add!

FreeBear

1) Try the simple thing first - A sink plunger may well clear the blockage. Or unscrew the bottom of the P trap and clean it out. Could well be nothing more than hair & gunk causing the blockage.

2) Sounds like "cassette construction". A quick way to build properties as the wooden panels can be constructed off site and then craned in to position.

3) Dig a trench around the outside of the property and install a french drain. Messing around trying to put a secondary DPC in is not going to do much in the long term.

Jimmy9012

Ok, understood on point 3. Dig a trench. Simple. Same with 2, thats fine, its how its done now I guess.

With 1, I cant really go over and start doing plumbing before owning the home!
Should I have my solicitor instruct them to fix and confirm the sink is fixed?

Slithery

Jimmy9012 wrote: »

Number 1 is also a concern. If the pipe is blocked (hair for example), the sellers surely would have cleared it before our surveyor visited? If they could not clear it (which I assume most people would try before selling), then surely is this a bigger problem like a collapsed pipe or drain?

It isn't a concern, you just think far too highly of the general public (individually some of them can be fine, but taken as a whole they're generally all a bunch of eejits). I've viewed plenty of properties that haven't even been cleaned for 20 years, let alone plunging the sink...


Edit - Working in customer service may have slightly clouded my perspective here...

jonnygee2

With 1, I cant really go over and start doing plumbing before owning the home!

I think G_M was suggesting you fixed it after you moved in ;-)

It's a partially blocked sink. If you aren't prepared to deal with that yourself, owning a home is come as quite a shock to you!

Jimmy9012

jonnygee2 wrote: »

I think G_M was suggesting you fixed it after you moved in ;-)

It's a partially blocked sink. If you aren't prepared to deal with that yourself, owning a home is come as quite a shock to you!

Well, my point based from the surveyor is that this *could* just be a blocked sink, but it also *could be* a collapsed pipe under the flooring running to the drain, which would be costly to fix (as the surveyor said)...

Is it not sensible to ask the solicitor to get the sellers to find out if its the former or the latter... before spending hundreds of thousands...

Doozergirl

Why would a brand new house have a collapsed drain?

You can ask them whatever you like but it isn't standard to ask people to sort it. How do you know it's sorted? There's no certificate or guarantee for it.

Book a CCTV survey of the drains if you're worried. Cost about £100.

babyblade41

The joys of property ownership !!! Just having the walls plastered and art skimmed on the ceilings this past weekend and now I have no ceilings downstairs...start one job which become even bigger jobs as you go through

All of the above are solutions to what could be your future home and for me that would be a result ..good luck and don't panic

Chandler85

If it's just the sink in the downstairs toilet, then it really isn't an issue.


I'm assuming it has another sink (kitchen) downstairs which is fine. It has at least 1 sink upstairs, which must be fine.


Don't worry about it and enjoy the house!