House with a recent water leak under the kitchen. Run away from it?

scruti

Hello.
I'm a first time buyer considering making an offer over a circa 1900s victorian middle terrace house.

During the viewing we noticed a couple things:
- there was very low hot water pressure (and when checked the boiler saw that was just on 0.5bars).
- the kitchen had a board covering a small part (1x1 m or less) of the floor attached to the original floor with duck tape. Over this board, the side unit was not fitted properly with the sink and countertops as they were raised around 15cm over the unit with some blocks.

Obviously this raised concerns and we enquired the seller about it, as the letting agent had no idea what that was about.

The response was that they recently had a leak and the floor was dug up to access the pipe. The pipe has been fixed under the emergency home insurance and now they're working with the building insurance company to fix the side unit and floor over the next few weeks.

This would explain the boiler low pressure and they instructed the current tenants to top the boiler pressure up and to monitor it. They mention that they have emergency insurance cover for both boiler and house so they would instruct to fix it if it goes down again.

We will visit the house with a friend in a couple days for a second viewing with an external point of view. In general we like the house and, given this gets fixed, we seriously would consider to make an offer.

As current renters and first time buyers we are concerned about being obviating some possible risks with the plumbing here. Any obvious things I may be missing on this subject? Could I just assume this will be OK once fixed or having a pipe leak under the kitchen floor could be a signal of serious plumbing issue that can replicate around due to the age of the house?

Obviously the surveyor (we will get a building/structural survey) will check better than us, but would like to identify the red flags as soon as possible (even if they mean "run away!") before incurring in loosing time and money.

Thanks.

csgohan4

you will probably need a plumbing survey as well as the building survey may not cover everything.


I think before you spend anymore money on this, you have to ask yourself, what else are they hiding. Shame the EA/LL didn't mention these things BEFORE you viewed and only through your own due diligence did you notice it.


My vendor hid a leaking bathroom and I had to get it fix at my expense and replaced the Kitchen ceiling it leaked through and bathroom. Not cheap.


If your heart is on this house, I would reduce the price according, because leak damage can be devastating. You don't know what else is damaged behind there. How long the kitchen units will last?

AdrianC

The water pressure in the boiler won't affect the water pressure at the hot tap. The pressure gauge is monitoring the sealed circuit, which heats the tap water via a heat exchanger. A boiler that doesn't lose a bit of pressure over time is rarer than one that does...

You have no way of knowing what caused the pipe to leak. It may have been fine for decades, and just decided to let go. It may have been accidental damage. It's just one of those things. If the repair has been done properly, it'll be as good as if the work had never been needed.

One thing's for sure... The plumbing that leaked will be a lot more recent than 1900...!

Davesnave

The age of most pipework will not correspond with the age of the house, so there's no reason to suppose anything unusual about it. You could ask a surveyor to indicate if a more in-depth plumbing report would be worthwhile, but equally you could do that with drains too, as they're often the oldest functional part of a Victorian house.


The bottom line is that leaks happen in all ages of property. It's unrealistic to think anything Victorian won't have some issues and maintenance matters to address; they just come with the territory.

Norman_Castle

scruti wrote: »

- there was very low hot water pressure (and when checked the boiler saw that was just on 0.5bars).

The gauge on the boiler shows the pressure of the heating system, not the pressure of the water, hot or cold.

need_an_answer

Personally I would be looking at homes that would prove a little less challenging to you.

Why is this particular property of great interest to you?
Is it because its a little cheaper than something in a better standard and you can see it as being a good proposition once its done to your specification.

Maybe youre biting off a little more than you can chew at the moment with this one.

Homeownership can be daunting the first time round and you'll gain experience in all things practical over time but unless you have a sufficient pot of money to sort existing issues with the property out then I would be tempted to suggest you look at something a little more manageable for your first purchase.

Its a Victorian property,there will be elements of it that are old,some may call that quirky and embrace it, and with gentle care and good renovation going forward it could prove to be a lovely home for you,but you will need the budget behind you to maintain it going forward

sal_III

csgohan4 wrote: »

I think before you spend anymore money on this, you have to ask yourself, what else are they hiding. Shame the EA/LL didn't mention these things BEFORE you viewed and only through your own due diligence did you notice it.

But they are not hiding it, the unit was raised on blocks obvious to the casual observer and supplied a perfectly reasonable explanation. If they expect for the issue to be sorted before the sale, why would they go on advertising it?

If it's properly repaired with the insurance payout, I see no reason to count this against the house. Sure the rest of the plumbing might be in poor shape, but that's no different to any other Victorian from the 1900s.

Even new builds don't offer complete peace of mind...

scruti

Great advice here, thank you all. As you can notice we barely have any idea about what we are doing so I really appreciate all your constructive and informative responses.

need_an_answer wrote: »

Personally I would be looking at homes that would prove a little less challenging to you.

Why is this particular property of great interest to you?
Is it because its a little cheaper than something in a better standard and you can see it as being a good proposition once its done to your specification.

Maybe youre biting off a little more than you can chew at the moment with this one.

Homeownership can be daunting the first time round and you'll gain experience in all things practical over time but unless you have a sufficient pot of money to sort existing issues with the property out then I would be tempted to suggest you look at something a little more manageable for your first purchase.

Its a Victorian property,there will be elements of it that are old,some may call that quirky and embrace it, and with gentle care and good renovation going forward it could prove to be a lovely home for you,but you will need the budget behind you to maintain it going forward

You hit the nail, maybe going for a place that requires a little bit of love is not the best thing to do when going for a first buy.
To be honest we are torn between two properties, and the other property has been completely refurbished and its just in "welcome, just come in" shape (at least apparently).

On this one, as much as we loved a couple things on it (specially location and relatively good state compared to properties around the area), there is the kitchen issue, the water pressure (learning here that is independent from the boiler indicator makes it worse) and a bathroom that needs to be refurbished.

Definitely a good moment to take a step back, look what is the worse that can happen and how much we would stress coming from a modern flat where everything is maintained by the building and we don't even have an individual boiler.

The explanation may be perfectly fine and no new problems surface after the fix, but I feel uneasy about the full thing, as irrational as may look.

Tomby1

scruti wrote: »

You hit the nail, maybe going for a place that requires a little bit of love is not the best thing to do when going for a first buy.

Everyone is different, but if it helps, my wife and I went through quite similar for our 1st home purchase. House 1 was a doer-upper and had a lot of potential, whereas House 2 was ready-to-go but was smaller and more expensive than House 1.

We opted for House 2 because we just wanted to buy our first home together.

We're now looking to buy our 2nd home which could quite easily be our "forever" home, and it is very shabby and needs a lot of internal work - but we feel a lot better prepared for it now we've "been there, done that".

It sounds like House 2 would be right for you in my scenario, so don't be afraid to just go with the comfortable option if it feels right for you. You should definitely look at your house as your first 'home', rather than an investment.

caprikid1

"House with a recent water leak under the kitchen. Run away from it? "


I think if the problems mentioned are all you have to worry it grab it with open arms.


Sounds like you might be more suited to a new build

Slinky

scruti wrote: »

Great advice here, thank you all. As you can notice we barely have any idea about what we are doing so I really appreciate all your constructive and informative responses.




You hit the nail, maybe going for a place that requires a little bit of love is not the best thing to do when going for a first buy.
To be honest we are torn between two properties, and the other property has been completely refurbished and its just in "welcome, just come in" shape (at least apparently).

On this one, as much as we loved a couple things on it (specially location and relatively good state compared to properties around the area), there is the kitchen issue, the water pressure (learning here that is independent from the boiler indicator makes it worse) and a bathroom that needs to be refurbished.

There's a phrase about buying the worst house on the best street as being the place to make money. Your first choice sounds more like the best house on the worst street. Although you're looking for a home rather than an investment, I can't see the attraction so much of house 1.


Beware of shiny shiny house 2 that could be covering up problems with pretty renovations and nice furniture. If it's more than a few years old, pay for a decent survey.