Building Survey Report - Areas of concern

cajef

I have bought and sold several houses, and have never asked or been asked to remove carpets and allow floorboards to be lifted, do you think as a vendor you would allow anyone to do this when they may not even buy the property, how would you expect things to be refitted, in my view you are expecting too much of the vendor.

I certainly would not allow any surveyor to do this to any property I was selling so the answer to your question is the survey would not take place and it would be up to the buyer whether they wished to continue with the purchase.

mazibee

cajef wrote: »

I have bought and sold several houses, and have never asked or been asked to remove carpets and allow floorboards to be lifted, do you think as a vendor you would allow anyone to do this when they may not even buy the property, how would you expect things to be refitted, in my view you are expecting too much of the vendor.

I certainly would not allow any surveyor to do this to any property I was selling so the answer to your question is the survey would not take place and it would be up to the buyer whether they wished to continue with the purchase.

So it means that we should proceed with our buying process, Once bought after that we carry on with the damp and timber survey.


Its our good luck if the report comes OK and bad luck if it need work worth an £xxxx amount.


There must be some solution so that survey can be done before exchange of contracts so that if there is a big problem , price can be negotiated with the vendor.

Davesnave

mazibee wrote: »

There must be some solution so that ii can be done before exchange of contracts so that if there is a big problem , price can be negotiated with the vendor.

Not that I know of.


You know the condition of the visible parts of the house and you know the price, so you take those things into consideration when deciding what level of risk you'll accept.

When we bought our house we anticipated correctly there would be something wrong that we'd not spotted, but it wasn't a concern because the price was very fair.

cajef

mazibee wrote: »

Its our good luck if the report comes OK and bad luck if it need work worth an £xxxx amount.

That is the risk you take when you purchase any property, when we bought our present house it had been an ex rental property and was in a poor state needing a lot of work including new kitchen, bathroom, windows etc. etc, plus carpets and decoration right through.

We knew that just from viewing and were prepared for anything else we may find, like Davesnave we were happy with the price we got it for as it was fair for the condition and we did not need any expensive and unecessary surveys.

Albala

Davesnave wrote: »

If reports I've read on here are anything to go by, you will also struggle to get an independent timber and damp specialist in many parts of the country.


Most people like the 'free' surveys that firms in this type of work offer!

Even if you pay for one, you tend just to get the same 'the meter said' and 'it's probably rising damp' stuff. Plus a quotation for a new DPC and replastering, with the caveat that it might not actually be rising damp (so no comeback if that doesn't solve the problem- if there even is a problem).

Albala

mazibee wrote: »

So it means that we should proceed with our buying process, Once bought after that we carry on with the damp and timber survey.


Its our good luck if the report comes OK and bad luck if it need work worth an £xxxx amount.


There must be some solution so that survey can be done before exchange of contracts so that if there is a big problem, price can be negotiated with the vendor.

If your survey said there were high levels of readings, you could get one of the usual surveys, including quotes. If that says the same, then negotiate a discount by providing the quote and splitting the costs, that way you and the vendor could, say, halve the financial risks.
If I was a vendor and was convinced there was no problem in spite of the surveys, I might commission a proper intrusive survey myself if I didn't want to have a price drop but wanted to be fair about it, but I suspect few sellers would do that. An intrusive survey might cost more than a buyer would agree to drop the price by, that's the downside.
I'd tend to go go off things like- did it feel damp or smell damp (easier if it is winter/early spring when damp tends to be worst). Were there any visible signs? Did the carpets smell fusty? Then I'd read the surveys, negotiate what I could, and take a calculated risk on it being worse than I thought. Which is, in fact, exactly what I've just had to do. It's all very unsatisfactory, for both buyer and seller.

I think it is high time that some sort of national standard was established about damp investigations, rather like energy surveys. And that they should be as intrusive as is necessary to do them properly (i.e. not just using 'damp meters'), and compulsory for all properties. It would get rid of the scams, the delays and uncertainty in the buying process, and identify where there were real problems, which could then be sorted out. Beneficial for the national housing stock and people's health as well.

FreeBear

Albala wrote: »

I think it is high time that some sort of national standard was established about damp investigations, rather like energy surveys. And that they should be as intrusive as is necessary to do them properly (i.e. not just using 'damp meters'), and compulsory for all properties. It would get rid of the scams

But the PCA would lobby hard to allow the indiscriminate use of damp meters (the ones with two or four prongs) as it allows minimally trained surveyors salesmen to diagnose damp problems - Used correctly, damp meters do have their uses when testing for damp in untreated timber. They can also be used to give an indicator of damp in walls, but a carbide meter should be used to confirm the results.


Even if there were a national standard for these surveys, it wouldn't put an end to the scams - The purveyors of dodgy products would just find another way to fleece victims. Examples -
The Schrijver System https://www.mybuilder.com/questions/v/566/will-the-holland-damp-proofing-air-vent-system-work
Electro Osmosis https://www.heritage-house.org/damp-and-condensation/the-damp-con-collection/electro-osmosis-damp-proofing-systems-an-expensive-fraud.html

mazibee

cajef wrote: »

That is the risk you take when you purchase any property, when we bought our present house it had been an ex rental property and was in a poor state needing a lot of work including new kitchen, bathroom, windows etc. etc, plus carpets and decoration right through.

We knew that just from viewing and were prepared for anything else we may find, like Davesnave we were happy with the price we got it for as it was fair for the condition and we did not need any expensive and unecessary surveys.

I think thats the difference between an experienced buyer and FTB like us.

mazibee

I called the Damp and Timber Specialist and told him all the situation he said that there is a chance that the your RICS Building surveyor has just added to seek advise from a timber specialist to make his report safe and was explaining me all the process of wet dry rot , starch turning into sugar for rot etc

When I inquired him about what if the vendor refuses to allow him to lift the carpet and floor borad, he replied that he is an experienced independant surveyor and has no affiliations with the contractors and will explain to the vendor and can also talk to the EA on my behalf forexplaining and getting the appointment for survey.

Worst case scenario if vendor does not agree he can still visit the property and can let me know by visual inspection if there is movement in the boards/ structure.

He also said that might be propery has concrete so no need of air bricks for the floor ventilation and said that most of the RICS surveyors just tick the boxes in routine and do cut and paste of the standard reports to make their skin safe.

In a big confusion? Whether to go for the survey or not?

Davesnave

mazibee wrote: »

He also said that might be propery has concrete so no need of air bricks for the floor ventilation...

But you know the floors aren't all concrete, because your surveyor said:
"The floorboards are creaky and this can be resolved by fixing them securely to the floor joists. This work will require the removal of the floor coverings and any damaged timber replaced. Although the subfloor ventilation is in line with the standards set at the time of construction, it is limited in comparison with modern building methods."

So the suspended floors are ventilated to some degree, but not as much as deemed good practice today. Given that the house is decades old, why might this inferior ventilation suddenly give trouble? (I'm not saying that it is.) I can only think of something like raising the ground level outside, which may have happened when the block paving shown in this picture was done:
http://prntscr.com/nt6ykm

The brick surface has been laid sloping towards the house,and water is directed into an Acco drain.This wasn't a great choice, but it probably saved someone digging out a lot of material. I would want your existing surveyor's comment on that for a start! There ought to be a much greater gap beneath the door threshold and the ground.