What to do after a bad building survey

sarahftb

Hi everyone, we're in the process of buying a house, everything's in place (mortgage, all searches back) but we've just received the building survey and it didn't make for good reading. There are quite a few issues with the house (some expected as it's Victorian) but the main issue is the roof. The survey says we need a new roof covering and purlins. I've sent the photos from the report to a roofer who has also said the roof needs replacing. What should we do now? Get a quote for the work and try and renegotiate with the vendors? Our offer was above asking price after best and final bids and we now feel that with the extra work needed it's not worth our original offer. It was a competitive best and final and the market is still hot so not sure if we are in a good position. 
Any advice appreciated, thanks in advance! 

Slithery

Please post the actual wording of the report, it may be nowhere near as bad as it sounds.

sarahftb

"Throughout the roof we noted that there is quite a lot of daylight from within the roof void. Externally we could see that the rear bonnet tiles to the hips were loose and have been re-bedded in areas and patch repaired. We could see that there are areas of tiles that are failing. Generally the tiles are at the end of their serviceable life. We strongly suggest that you budget to replace the left and rear elevations of the main roof structure, including the ridge tiles, bonnet tiles, valley tiles etc.

The majority of the roof does not have a secondary line of defence and therefore any slipped or missing tiles need to be repaired immediately to ensure minimal damage to the structure internally. Again, we strongly suggest that the covering be replaced as soon as possible."

" We noted that to the front purlin joist hangers have been used on top of the purlin and they are effectively pushing the purlins down and causing further distortion. To the rear elevation we noted that joist hangers have been used on the underside of the purlin and therefore the new joist supports are effectively dragging the rear purlin down. Therefore, overall, the further supports are causing more issues than they are rectifying, and further support is now needed in these locations. We would suggest that the current purlin supports be removed and that correct purlin supports be installed with struts taken down to suitable load bearing internal wall positions, not using joist hangers."

We've had an ex-surveyor read through the report and they've suggested all in all would take approx £50k to rectify all problems in the report including the roof. 

caz_cardiff87

the crux of it is, are you prepared and able to repair it? if not then I’d say it’s time to find another property.