Over-the-top surveyor destroyed our house sale

youth_leader

It's so difficult when you own and love an old house with so much character. I was very emotionally involved with my property and following advice on here did try to view it as a business transaction,  but felt enraged the surveyor was insisting I had live beetles, and my EA kept on repeating it too, I knew they were all dead.  Confirmed as dead by the inappropriate damp/timber survey.

TripleH

Op, have you seen  and read the full report?

It sounds like the surveyor is either bum covering or he 7s just very thorough.

The problem could be 99 /100 of his clients go, 'OK, fine that's the possible issues for me to look at' but you goy the 1 who panics and over reads not being able you distinguish between a thorough report and a condem the house for demolition report.

Thrugelmir

ClockworkTV said:

We're selling our property (some parts 300 years old) 

Your prospective buyers were governed by their hearts and the chocolate box images in their heads. The survey brought them back down to earth and the reality of owning such a property. 

Why the angst.  Been struggling to sell the property and find a buyer? 

Chris_English

I was waiting in my car opposite a house recently that I reckon is about the same age, and wondering what the story was with it. It was a few minutes walk from a DLR station, had an interesting if quite unusual design, and looked to have been abandoned quite some time ago, which is is not all that common in Zone 2.

I was wondering what it would take to get it liveable, and from the outside was thinking that as a minimum it'd need to be taken back to the brick and the dirt floor, given a new roof, and quite likely it'd need some work underpinning it and rebuilding some of the exterior.

It may well have survived quite well for 300 years, but I'd say that there's a good chance that a survey would say that it's unfit for human habitation, or that it needs so much work doing that it'd be cheaper to flatten it and start again.

It was quite sad, as it's likely seem nany generations of families grow up in it as the neighbourhood changed beyond all recognition, but having survived 300 years is no guarantee that it's going to last many more.

On the OP's case, I do wonder if you're looking at your house with rose-tinted glasses. As mentioned above, if one recently refurbished window has a problem with the putty and you haven't had it dealt with, what else have you let slip, and what's being hidden under the fresh paint of all of the other windows?

HotPantsCruiser

Thrugelmir said:

ClockworkTV said:

We're selling our property (some parts 300 years old) 

Your prospective buyers were governed by their hearts and the chocolate box images in their heads. The survey brought them back down to earth and the reality of owning such a property. 

Why the angst.  Been struggling to sell the property and find a buyer? 

Yes, this sounds likely I think, another buyer will no doubt come along at some point though.

HotPantsCruiser

Chris_English said:

I was waiting in my car opposite a house recently that I reckon is about the same age, and wondering what the story was with it. It was a few minutes walk from a DLR station, had an interesting if quite unusual design, and looked to have been abandoned quite some time ago, which is is not all that common in Zone 2.

I was wondering what it would take to get it liveable, and from the outside was thinking that as a minimum it'd need to be taken back to the brick and the dirt floor, given a new roof, and quite likely it'd need some work underpinning it and rebuilding some of the exterior.

It may well have survived quite well for 300 years, but I'd say that there's a good chance that a survey would say that it's unfit for human habitation, or that it needs so much work doing that it'd be cheaper to flatten it and start again.

It was quite sad, as it's likely seem nany generations of families grow up in it as the neighbourhood changed beyond all recognition, but having survived 300 years is no guarantee that it's going to last many more.

On the OP's case, I do wonder if you're looking at your house with rose-tinted glasses. As mentioned above, if one recently refurbished window has a problem with the putty and you haven't had it dealt with, what else have you let slip, and what's being hidden under the fresh paint of all of the other windows?

Yes, maybe the buyer has had their suspicions triggered?

JuanBallOfWimbledon

The thing is, no one here has seen the house or seen the report. Saying you’ve done work to the property also means very little, as we all know, work can be done well or it can be done badly. When we moved into one rental, the landlord gave it the big ‘uns about how much work he’d done to the house (he lived here, then a year after finishing the renovation met his now wife and moved into her bigger, nicer house). Within weeks of us moving in it became very apparent that all work was DIY, slapdash and more about aesthetics, than doing sound jobs. One such aspect was the windows, he’d replaced them all. Well, he himself had replaced some glass (single glazed on a very old house), a little rotten wood and given them a coat of paint, they were in a terrible state before long. Same with the kitchen he fitted himself, the hob would only work with 1 ring on at half power or less. Turned out he’d split the power cable and had the cooker and the plug sockets for the washer and dishwasher running from the same one (I’m no spark, so probably explained this terribly, but the electrician we got in was horrified). I could go on for days listing the things he ballsed up, but you get the picture.

As others have said, put it back on the market and if there’s truly nothing serious showing on the report, hopefully the next buyers will be less skittish. 

Polarkitto

There's a lot to unpack there but I'll keep my post simple.

Just because you got something fixed, or refurbished, it doesn't mean that the person who did the job, did it properly. I have plenty of experience in living in a "refurbed" property where things that "look" fixed, simply weren't. 

Get your own report done and then accept that maybe you either weren't that great at DIY, or if you hired someone they took the mick in some places, and tidy up those issues. 

HotPantsCruiser

TripleH said:

Op, have you seen  and read the full report?

It sounds like the surveyor is either bum covering or he 7s just very thorough.

The problem could be 99 /100 of his clients go, 'OK, fine that's the possible issues for me to look at' but you goy the 1 who panics and over reads not being able you distinguish between a thorough report and a condem the house for demolition report.

Shouldn`t they be doing both of those things?

Semple

The surveyor doesn't gain anything by "putting a buyer off". He gets paid regardless of the buyers choice.