Horrific Homebuyer's Report - HELP.

BrOz

Sounds like the repairs needed and the estimated sale value when complete will mean you will be loosing money going ahead. 

I think the seller should actually be paying you for buying it!

Not even sure how it was valued at the current price, with the amount of work needing doing.  If it really is that bad and 'urgent' on some aspects why was it valued at the sale price with very little increase when fixed? That park doesn't make sense. 

Thrugelmir

Elizabeth12345 said:

We visited the property twice before buying it and knew the roof and gutters needed work. I'm mostly concerned about the roof/loft (timber rot?), ventilation issues in the kitchen floor, burst pipe in the bedroom wall causing damp, rotten windows, and a full rewire. We understood that the property required a lot of work and were prepared for this to be a very long project. However, all of the category threes are making us worry that there are several costly issues which need resolving urgently - we don't have the funds to cover even half of these category three issues immediately. I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with similar issues and how serious they are or if the surveyor has been over-zealous in his wording.  

Why didn't you employ a surveyor or take a builder with you. Walking into an auction room you need an understanding of what it's worth bidding up to. Let alone whether your budget is sufficient to undertake all the work that's required. 

Cakeguts

I would get a structural engineer's report first before deciding to withdraw.  All the rest is cosmetic. 

AlexMac

You wanted a 100+ year old house with original features, not modern plastic windows, and you'd already accepted you'd need roof repairs and new gutters as part of a £15 makeover (?), so let's get this in perspective before you panic and write off £6k.  I've restored two similar Victorian wrecks as bad as this, three if you count a holiday flat in a conversion, although both were in London, where the added value of my repairs  (£25k for the last one) was more than reflected in an uplift in value, especialy in a climbing market as was then the case. The values you cite mean that you're way outside the Capital, so the first Q, already posed above, is - are you'd be doing this for yourselves or for profit- and as it's obviously the former, maybe you can take the risk?  And you don't do everything at once; see below.

The second Q is, are you up for some heavy duty DIY?  I was in a very non-technical job and had absolutely no skills when I started on the 1st heap, but by the end, I could do basic carpentry, fit kitchen units and tops (with professionals doing the wiring and plumbing), take down and re-board a lath and plaster ceiling (actually it fell down) for a professional plasterer to skim, lift and re-lay original floorboards (with lots of replacement lengths from a salvage yard) prior to sanding (stripped floors were trendy last century!) as well as lots of painting and decor.  If so, that will save you hundreds or more... and make you virtuous, or a DIY bore!

As regards the report, HB's are always glass half empty (or even 80% empty) so look at the essentials. The roof and rainwater goods are essential, as are the electrics.  Get a roofer to say if you can get away with repairs, or (if may well be the case if the slates are 120-year old originals) it's a replacement job- which will give you peace of mind and make the sale easier when you eventually move on.  And a full rewire would be reassuring, but again, take advice- some work does appear to have been done and if it was that bad, the RCD woud be tripping; but probably best re-do the lot at the cost of a few grand.  With luck that will give you a lot of change from the anticipated £15k you had expected (you did expect that, didn't you?) 

The descriptions of the walls, windows and ceilings are to be expected in a house of this age; many didn't have DPCs,  often no cavity walls and windows are amazingly resilient; you could probably learn how to restore them, or even replace partial bits yourself.  Artex was extensively used in the 20th C and even if some might have asbestos content, it's safe if left, or if sound, decorated, skimmed or boarded over.  Comments about the lack of glazing's BS fire rating  (in Victorian England!?) and H&SE inspections are totally 4r5e covering OTT.  No-one does that. At least you do have a boiler, which if too prominent, you can hide in a ventilated kitchen cupboard and it's either working or it ain't. If it is, and once the few leaky pipes are replaced, try it on to get a maintenance contract for at least the 1st year.  While BG aren't the cheapest for new kit, I once invested in British Gas's "£100 fix plus £20-odd a month" deal for the first year so I had peace of mind for 12 months for £350-400. 

The chimney breast removal and the reinforcement of the remaining upper stack probably ain't got building regs, but, even your hyper cautious HB surveyor didn't see cracking or movement or elsewhere in the walls, including where one was removed.  Unless it was done recently,  or carcks have been obviously papered over, settlement would have shown itself by now .
And once you fix the water penetration (roof, flashing, pointing, gutters and leaks; your priority 1), heat and ventilate the place during what will hopefully be a glorious Spring and summer after all these storms, you'll be amazed at how the place will dry out.  Don't buy too much furniture or carpets.  Keep the heating on.  Get those windows open with care and a hammer, scraper and TLC. Dig away any soil piled up against the outside walls.  Maybe even have a few air bricks put in to ventilate the sub-floor; a cheap job.  Don't invite a timber and damp "specialist" (aka "salesman") in till it's dried; they come with "wood-boring beetle" (aka woodworm) in their briefcases in case you don't already have them and will automatically suggest an injected DPD, re-rendering and re-plastering all walls to at least 1m high in a way that will give SPAD nightmares (google SPAD's advice about damp in older buildings!)

Than wait and see, and plan the rest of your lives; doing all the rest as budget permits.
I don't regret doing it that way, although now, in my dotage, I admit to easing back a bit the DIY and I rather like our flat walls, level floors and the 1980's  timber double glazed windows of our latest gaff.  Although they don't have "BS Safety rating" any more than the very first of my several Victorian wrecks, which I bought for ten grand (yes really) in Brixton in 1975. 

All assuming you get the mortgage agreed that is.  And if you don't, try somewhere else. NatWest knocked me back by making the loan subject to a "100% retention" (aka no loan at all) after their vualuer got shirty about the roof of one of my wrecks (so many holes that I had to empty dozens of dead pigeons and their guano from the loft), but hey presto- Halifax came good

AdrianC

And this is just another example of why "Modern Auction" = "Somebody Else's Bargepole".

Until putative buyers explain to EAs exactly why they don't want to know, EAs will continue to sucker vendors into using it. The EA is the ONLY beneficiary.

markin

It has been unheated a long time so everything will be a little damper than normal, apart from the roof work most of it sounds like A$$ covering to me.

Doozergirl

Cakeguts said:

I would get a structural engineer's report first before deciding to withdraw.  All the rest is cosmetic. 

markin said:

It has been unheated a long time so everything will be a little damper than normal, apart from the roof work most of it sounds like A$$ covering to me.

I read nothing 'cosmetic' in that report. Single  glazed rotten windows, ancient rubber sheathed electrics, concrete floor lifting, doors out of square, plaster literally falling off the walls is not !!!!!! covering, it's simple observation. 

OP, many of us love older houses but they cost a fortune to renovate.  The key is, very much in a low house price area, to buy a house where someone else has done much of the hard work for you already so that your ongoing costs are low.  I appreciate that it is hard to know exactly what has and what hasn't been done and sometimes houses can be deceptive, but let me tell you, after 20 years of working on older houses, day in and day out, that these surveys are correct about most things. !!!!!! covering doesn't really come into it. It's what people are prepared to live with.  

Many people are prepared to live in houses that aren't perfect and that is their choice, but for every report I see on here and the 20 odd people replying with 'cosmetic' and '!!!!!! covering', I disagree with every single one of those people.  Most people don't see what the trained eye sees and years of experience getting behind (textured) wallpaper proves.  

Older houses with original lathe and plaster in place are money pits.  When you look at anyone renovating (there's a huge community on instagram photographing and videoing their every move) you don't find people mocking surveyors for their '!!!!!! covering', you find people hand wringing because they've unearthed yet another problem. 

If your walls are that old, plaster is already falling off and you are chopping into them to rewire, then the fact is that the plaster is going to keep coming off in chunks.  It's 120 years old and dried out and sandy, or indeed, wet and soft. 

There's rot already spotted.  You need the roofs off and to go over them, expecting to replace a lot.  Even I don't find all that much rot in the broken houses we restore.  The longer is goes on, the worse it gets.  If a surveyor is telling you to lift floorboards to check for rot, it would be a good idea.  

It's very easy indeed to fall tens of thousands deep into an old house.  

I'm a bit surprised that he's agreed to mortgage it in current position and valued it so high.  Interesting that he phoned your broker to discuss.  He would have been doing you a favour by refusing to lend.   

How many bedrooms does this house have and where are you?  £335k is a lot of rebuild for low value.  Is it big?  

As it is, I genuinely feel like it would be prudent to use this £6k as an expensive lesson and to search hard for a house that has had work done properly and will actually pay you back in the long term in reduced maintenance.  

lees80

I'm with Doozer on this. There is nothing 'just cosmetic' about the repairs. You'll be sinking big money into the house, easily more than the difference between current and expected value after the work is done. 

Modern method of auction is unfortunately a modern method of shafting unsuspecting / inexperienced buyers. Walking away won't be easy, but really is something you need to consider. 

FreeBear

lees80 said: I'm with Doozer on this. There is nothing 'just cosmetic' about the repairs. You'll be sinking big money into the house, easily more than the difference between current and expected value after the work is done. 

Modern method of auction is unfortunately a modern method of shafting unsuspecting / inexperienced buyers. Walking away won't be easy, but really is something you need to consider. 

Me too.

A new roof is easily £10-15K, rewiring, £4K, windows, £5K. As soon as you touch the plaster, it will probably fall off the walls and the place will require a full plaster job from bricks out - That will involve Building Control (as will the other work) who will want to see the external walls insulated. Solid brick walls need to be treated with care, great attention paid to the detailing, or you run the risk of trapping moisture in the walls which causes big problems further in the future. Replastering will add £3K to £5K.

We are up to £22K-£29K, and the floors haven't even been looked at yet. If you lift the floorboards, there is a chance you'll find the dreaded dry rot, or if you're lucky just wet rot and a bit of woodworm - Fixing the floors is not going to be cheap.

Your best bet is to flip it at auction or walk away. You will lose money on this. The choice is to lose £6K now or a small fortune in repairs that you'll never get back on selling..

An outside shot - Get a second survey done, make sure the surveyor doesn't talk to your broker or the seller, and gives you a real low ball valuation - £80K-£100K would be more realistic.

thearchitect

FreeBear said:

lees80 said: I'm with Doozer on this. There is nothing 'just cosmetic' about the repairs. You'll be sinking big money into the house, easily more than the difference between current and expected value after the work is done. 

Modern method of auction is unfortunately a modern method of shafting unsuspecting / inexperienced buyers. Walking away won't be easy, but really is something you need to consider. 

 ...as soon as you touch the plaster, it will probably fall off the walls and the place will require a full plaster job from bricks out - That will involve Building Control (as will the other work) who will want to see the external walls insulated....

Are you sure about that?