Survey Worries

dave_the_fox

Hi guys, great site!
I have a question for you all. its a bit lengthy so my apoligies.
I am a FTB and are currently in the process of buyin a house for 130k.
now i have my mortgage and solicitor etc and everything was running smoothly. now the house i am buyin is a 1897 mid-terrace. as its quite an old building i decided to go for the better out the two surveys nationwide were offering (around £470 if i remember right!) and i have now recieved my report. and its worried me no end. lol. i dont no what to do now. here is some of the details:
1st line of his overall opinion: 'the property is considered to be a reasonable purchase at the agreed price of £130k provided that you are prepared to accept the cost and inconvenience of dealing with the various repair/improvement works reported.'

now thats a bit - what what what! because i am puttin my life savings into this house and will just be able to afford it as it is so i cant afford to pay anythin more out!

now i will shoot to the summary bit at the back:-
'there are no urgent matters'
further investigation:
'Timber defects:investigate all sub-floor areas by building contractor'
dampness: investigate the understairs cupboard and rear reception room cupboard floors and all walls for dampness by BWPDA registerd damp treatment specialist.
Services:inspect electrical installantion and gas installation by NICEIC and CORGI people
and inspect the central heating by a qualified engineer.


so thats that! then the maintenance considerations are :

- improve ventilation to the roof space
-fit an electrical extractor fan in the kitchen
-replace timber lintel above the middle bedroom window
- repair/rebuild brick arch above rear bedroom window
- repair/replace soft and rotten external timbers
- overhaul rain water goods
-replace front bay/porch lead flashing
-cap and ventilate redundant chimney flues
-increase sub-floor ventilation
-close the gaps to the party wall in the roof space creating a complete fireproof barrier
-check adequacy of support to the rear bedroom chimney breast soon after you take up occupation.

then the valuation:-
market value: in our opinion the market value on the 13th november, 2007 of the freehold interest in this property, as inspected, with vacant possession was £130000.

insurance cover(reinstatement cost) :- the current cost of reinstating the property in its present form is estimated for insurance purposes to be approx. £115000.

now i dont get that bit!?




right, now i think the most important bits are the timber rotting and the dampness so i will now give u the info he has gave me just so you guys can have a better understanding:

Timber defects:- There is wet rot affecting the roof edge timbers and repairs, or possible replacements are required.

as mentioned elsewhere in this report, dampness was found and sub-floor ventilation is inadequate and therefor, signinficant timber decay may be present. a more detailed inspection of the floor structure should be carried out.
there are signs of wood-boring insect attack in the main roof timbers. however, it is possible that timbers have already been trreated and a guarantee may be available.

just thoght should have put this at top really lol my bad
here is the dampness report :-
the walls contain an engineering brick damp-proof course. the rear elevation walls also contain a chemical injected damp proof course.

the thin walls to the front porch will be prone to damp penetration and large heat losses. ideally, the walls should be upgraded to modern standards but this would be costly. nevertheless, untill this is carried out you may find areas of damp and condensation internally, requireing periodic treatment.
the solid ground floors to the understairs cupboard and cupdboard within the rear reception room is damp. properties of this age and type would have been constructed without the provision of a damp proof membrane. these floors may need to be re-laid incoporating a damp proof membrane.this could be costly.

we recorded localised high damp meter readings throughout the ground floor which have been caused by the failure of the damp proof course and a more detailed investigation is necessary.
dampness may also have affected adjacent timbers and further repairs may well be required. we would also refer you to our comments in section C2 about hidden decay.

a damp treatment has been carried out and your legal adviseers should check for any guarantees for this work. see our comments in section E3.



so thanks for listening! right well i dont no what to do, am i right to be scared!? now i didnt expect everything to be fine, but this is just concerning and alarming me. should i pull out? or what i just dont no lol
i can give you anything else you want from the report if you need to be? im happy to help if you are! cheers
dave:money:

merlinthehappypig

now i will shoot to the summary bit at the back:-
'there are no urgent matters'
further investigation:
'Timber defects:investigate all sub-floor areas by building contractor'
dampness: investigate the understairs cupboard and rear reception room cupboard floors and all walls for dampness by BWPDA registerd damp treatment specialist.
Services:inspect electrical installantion and gas installation by NICEIC and CORGI people
and inspect the central heating by a qualified engineer.

These are all simply recommendations that any survey on any house would throw up - he hasn't inspected or tested this as it wouldn't be part of his remit on anything other than a full structural survey and is advising you that you might want to check these (and covering his back, of course)


so thats that! then the maintenance considerations are :

- improve ventilation to the roof space
-fit an electrical extractor fan in the kitchen

Again these are recommendations and good sense, but nothing to worry about

-replace timber lintel above the middle bedroom window
- repair/rebuild brick arch above rear bedroom window
- repair/replace soft and rotten external timbers
- overhaul rain water goods
-replace front bay/porch lead flashing
-cap and ventilate redundant chimney flues
-increase sub-floor ventilation
-close the gaps to the party wall in the roof space creating a complete fireproof barrier
-check adequacy of support to the rear bedroom chimney breast soon after you take up occupation.

These, on the other hand, are more of a concern. If I had a report with some of these on I would be looking for further advice before proceeding with the purchase. Do you know a good builder who might be able to have a look with you and a) tell you how serious these are and b) give you a price for making good? Worth paying him £100 or so for peace of mind and, in my experience, better than any full structural survey you might have.

valuation - market value: in our opinion the market value on the 13th november, 2007 of the freehold interest in this property, as inspected, with vacant possession was £130000.

insurance cover(reinstatement cost) :- the current cost of reinstating the property in its present form is estimated for insurance purposes to be approx. £115000.

Valuation is the same as the purchase price - no surprise there - if you were buying it for £100000 and two hedgehogs that's what the valuation would come out at.

The insurance cover is always (almost always) less than the purchase price or market value as it is the cost to rebuild, which doesn't include the land or any planning permission, so no worries here.

Hopefully one of the helpful surveyors or builders on here will be along with more detailed advice on the specific issues mentioned, but there is enough there that would make me want to investigate further before parting with my cash.

Is the £130000 the market value for similar houses or a good price taking into account the work that needs doing?

dave_the_fox

OK thanks for the reply! thats good to hear, as you can probably tell i havent really got a clue lol. I agree about asking a builder about it, but the problem is i dont no any lol. my dad seems to think pull out! and most people i work with, in an engineering company, pull out! but i got a mrs who dont wanna and i really like the house. got no more money for any of these repairs, and i think we are paying full whack for the house, because before the survey, we thought all that would need doing is 2 settees and a dining room table, so we didnt mind paying!

I'd love a builder or somebody on here just to give me a ball park figure, i've been told by friends(not directly in the trade) between as little as £4k to well over £10k!

macaque_2

The extent to which you should be concerned is very much linked to who you are.

If you were an aged relative of mine, I would be strongly urging you not to buy it. Most old people would not have the energy or resources to manage the problems thrown up in the report.

If you are young person who is useless at DIY, I would warn you that you will face a steady flow of bills to put the matters right.

If you are young and reasonable at DIY, I would say go with your heart. You could do some of the jobs yourself and others may need to be done by a competant builder. All properties need maintenance however and you don't need to solve all the problems on day 1.

Houses hardly ever fall down. My big concern with a survey or search would be something that puts a blight on the property (subsidence, asbestos, ground contamination, mining works, motorway expansions etc). I did not see anything of this nature in the report (although I am not an expert).

hierrodaknuckles

well, now you have had the survey done, you could go back to the seller and say that in consideration of the work that is required, you want to agree a reduced price. If they really want to sell and are needing to sell the house in order to buy another, they may not want to lose the sale and agree to drop the price to cover some of the work.

I've only bought once, so don't know how a seller would react but i am now in the process of selling my flat and buying an old victorian house too and if my buyer came back and said i want 3-5k off, i'd probably do it and see if i could get the vendor of the place i am buying to meet me half way or summink :rolleyes:

This being said, the place i am buying needs a fair bit of work and the survey, like yours, has highlighted the areas that need attention. However, i saw alot of what needed doing when i went to view and put in an offer a fair bit under the asking price, telling them that i was taking into consideration the amount of work that did need doing (mostly neglect really as property was rented). I also told them that the boiler (a back boiler) look a bit dodge and that i wanted them to get it serviced before we exchanged and it failed, so they got a whole new central heating system installed for us and paid for it too - result

I'd imagine the seller wouldn't want to lose the sale, so u may have the upper hand, but as chriseast said, i guess it also depends on what similar properties have been going for and what condition they have been in for the money to. If the work isn't urgent tho, you could do it bit by bit each month as you get paid hey?

good luck tho

Doozergirl

It's an old house and you've had a building survey. If you don't want a report that reads exactly like that, you either buy one of my houses or a second hand new build.

It's all really usual. Things wear. A single skin wall to a porch will not retain heat. What are you using it for? Not a habitable room surely? Does it have a front door beyond it? No issue.

All walls in old houses seem to read damp. I've just had a valuation report on a house which has had a DPC and the floors dug out and that's coming back with damp readings downstairs. There's no visual evidence and it doesn't smell, like most houses, like yours it is probably fine.

The guttering is wearing, sounds like the fascias and soffits aren't very well. Replace with uPVC and that's probably the most expensive job of the lot - the one I think you could renegotiate on slightly. You need any old bricks thrown up in the loft to create a firebreak so that if next door catches fire, you have more protection.

Increasing sub floor ventilation involves knocking out bricks and putting in air bricks. Even rebuilding a brick lintel is a days work for a builder.

It's all cheap stuff really that can be done over time. It's totally unexceptional in my view. Your surveyor seems to think so too as he hasn't downvalued it. A builder won't be phased by it either.

dontloose

HI Dave looks like you will need between 10,000 to 20,000 for a back up for the work to be done ,being a f t b will put a strain on your finances ,see your work people are telling you to pull out ,personaly i would leave well alone

Floxxie

Have to agree with Doozergirl. This is what you expect to come up in a survey on an older property. To put your mind at rest I would get several companies in to have a look at the areas raised in the survey and get quotes for any work required. I would also ask the vendor for any certificates/guarantees for work done. If you don't know any firms ask the EA.

The important thing to remember is that the surveyor has not downvalued the property and any works that do require work are not urgent. I don't think I have seen a survey on any property that has stated no work to be done!

If your money is that tight I would suggest you think about the ongoing costs of running an older property in terms of heating, maintenance etc.

guppy

I agree with Doozer. None of this is major...as the survey said, none of it is urgent either. Its all medium term stuff...the house won't fall down.

I'd be far more worried about diving in to a weak/falling market as FTB than any of the survey stuff, but no doubt you have weighed up that risk already.

Good luck