Building Survey is back - opinions please?

boldaslove

greatcrested said:

Follow Adrian's advice above.

1) either accept you have a damp cellar rather than a decent 'habitable'space, or spend a lot of money (eg 'tanking'). Get quote and knock off purchase price

2) insignificant. Spend a weekend + spade digging a trench round the outside walls (1 foot deep? by 1 foot wide?) and put in some pea shingle

3) Get roofer quote. Unless scaffolding needed (expensive) it's probably not a lot to fix the joints (lead flashing?)

4) sounds like the 'conversion' was a cowboy job. I bet no Building Regs certificate? Attic are not constructed to support the weight of furniture, people etc hence BR require attic floors to be strengthened when converted to a habitable space. Either don't use the attic other than for storage, or pay a fortune to strngthen the joists....

5) as above. Conversions require BRs fr safety AND for environmental standards. Heat loss through the roof wil be huge.

Yes the phrase "cowboy builder" was used for both the attic and cellar although the surveyor did say they'd done a very nice job on the stairs! Maybe they'd ran out of steam by the time they got to the room.....

Those are interesting points regarding the ground/roof... I didn't consider digging it up myself. Very useful info for future reference!

boldaslove

NQManchester said:

My limited experience with damp is that it’s sometimes hard to determine the actual cause without ripping things apart so you might waste money ruling out issues. A patch of damp fine but I think that house sounds like more hassle than it’s worth if you’re not buying it as a doer upper. 

This is the biggest worry for us. Nobody knows if it has the potential to keep going, also the surveyor wasn't sure if next door was affected too so we could have a continual issue on our hands. Damp that goes through every floor of the house isn't something I've heard of before although I also have very limited experience

gwynlas

I would say that you need to negociate hard on price. You are effectively loosing two rooms the cellar and attic. If you can get the price down it would be worth doing the work. However the seller will probably not agree to a large reduction so you should walk away and swallow your survey costs having learned your lesson you will be far more aware going forward

diego_94

Run a mile and thanks the surveyor for pointing out these defects. It seems that the previous owners have done things on the cheap, god knows what else you will uncover after moving in. There is plenty the surveyor cant get to, like plumbing etc.

boldaslove

Thanks everyone - your thoughts have been hugely helpful on this. After careful consideration (and a few sweary conversations with friends/family!) we've decided to withdraw from the sale and chalk up the fees lost to lessons learned. We'll definitely be much more observant going forward. And yes the surveyor has been worth every penny! We received the report yesterday and it was very thorough and while still being easy to understand. We'll definitely be using them again. 

steve866

boldaslove said:

Thanks everyone - your thoughts have
been hugely helpful on this. After careful consideration (and a few sweary conversations with friends/family!) we've decided to withdraw from the sale and chalk up the fees lost to lessons learned. We'll definitely be much more observant going forward. And yes the surveyor has been worth every penny! We received the report yesterday and it was very thorough and while still being easy to understand. We'll definitely be using them again. 

You made the right decision based on what you have posted. A lot of surveyors just need to cover themselves in their reports, but the words he used verbally to me sound like a lot of red flags.

AdrianC

greatcrested said:

4) sounds like the 'conversion' was a cowboy job. I bet no Building Regs certificate?

We don't know when it was converted, so we don't know whether BR sign-off was ever needed, or to what standard.

NameUnavailable

boldaslove said:

Thanks everyone - your thoughts have been hugely helpful on this. After careful consideration (and a few sweary conversations with friends/family!) we've decided to withdraw from the sale and chalk up the fees lost to lessons learned. We'll definitely be much more observant going forward. And yes the surveyor has been worth every penny! We received the report yesterday and it was very thorough and while still being easy to understand. We'll definitely be using them again. 

I withdrew from a purchase recently also partly due to damp in the property. There was damp in the external AND internal walls and the potential to find further issues when you can lift the floorboards (and ruin the existing flooring in the process).

Damp is fixable for sure. What you have to consider is the cost and disruption to do so. Also I know from my last home (a flat so I wasn't in control of the work) that it isn't always easy to diagnose and may need several attempts at doing things to solve it.

Most older properties will have some damp but when it's in more than just one or two localised areas it becomes more a cause for concern IMHO.