Survey repairs come to £55k on a £440k home Grade 2 home.

canterburyhousesearch

Hi!

 

My fiancé and I are buying our first home together, a beautiful 3-bed Georgian terraced property in Kent. We paid £440k. Other 3-bed, similar sized, properties on that street sell for £500k+.

 

We got our Level 3 Survey back yesterday and the assumed costs of urgent repairs came to £55k, quite a bit given what we paid.

 

My questions to you lovely people are:

1)      Should we walk away, even though we love the house?

2)      If we don’t walk away, should we negotiate?

3)      In your experience, are these Level 3 reports accurately able to assume the cost of repairs?

 

If you have any other tidbits, words of wisdom or advice for two home-buying newbies, that would be highly appreciated!

Thanks

canterburyhousesearch

I'm unable to list a breakdown of costs as it claims it's a suspicious post, but I have outlined some of the major costs below:

Here are a breakdown of costs

External repairs

Chimney Type/Defects (FRONT ELEVATION ) £1,500

Roof Type/Defects (FRONT ELEVATION )

Provision for roof repairs and a structural engineers specification of repair works. £4,000

Wall Structure Type/Defects (FRONT ELEVATION )

Assuming Structural Engineer to oversee drain test followed by drain sleeving. £2,000

Wall Finishes Type/Defects (FRONT ELEVATION ) £3,500

Cost for a PCA report and a provision for some repairs. £1,500

Window Type/Defects (FRONT ELEVATION ) £12,000

Wall Finishes Type/Defects (REAR ELEVATION ) £2,000

Ventilation Type/Defects (REAR ELEVATION )

Provision for a mechanical ventilation system. £1,000

Door Type/Defects (REAR ELEVATION ) £1,000

Decorative Type/Defects (REAR ELEVATION )

Cost of removal. £1,000

Assumed cost of external repair: £34,100

Internal repairs

Wall and Partition Type/Defects (HALLWAY, WC, KITCHEN, LIVING ROOM.)

Cost for a specification or repair works from a structural engineer and some invasive works. £1,500

Electricity Type/Defects (HALLWAY, WC, KITCHEN, LIVING ROOM.)

For testing and a small provision for upgrades. £1,500

Heating Type/Defects (LANDING, BATHROOM, 3 BEDROOMS) £10,000

Assumed cost of internal repair: £15,700

Ground repairs

Ground Boundaries Type/Defects (GROUNDS) £4,000

Assumed cost of ground repair: £4,750

Total repair cost: £55,050

user1977

What exactly does it say about the condition of each of these items? Taking this one for example:

Heating Type/Defects (LANDING, BATHROOM, 3 BEDROOMS) £10,000

are they saying the heating doesn't work, and the only solution is to rip it out and install a new system? Or just it's a bit old and eventually you might want to upgrade it? Or something else? £10k seems steep in any event!

Tahlullah.H

Hello.  If you have bought it, who are you planning to negotiate with?  Do you mean you are in the process of buying?

74jax

canterburyhousesearch said:

Hi!

 

My fiancé and I are buying our first home together, a beautiful 3-bed Georgian terraced property in Kent. We paid £440k. Other 3-bed, similar sized, properties on that street sell for £500k+.

 

We got our Level 3 Survey back yesterday and the assumed costs of urgent repairs came to £55k, quite a bit given what we paid.

 

My questions to you lovely people are:

1)      Should we walk away, even though we love the house?

2)      If we don’t walk away, should we negotiate?

3)      In your experience, are these Level 3 reports accurately able to assume the cost of repairs?

 

If you have any other tidbits, words of wisdom or advice for two home-buying newbies, that would be highly appreciated!

Thanks

If others on the street sell for 500k and you paid 440k and its need 55k of work, surely it was priced correctly? 

Have you bought it, or buying it? 

What needs doing NOW. as in to make it liveable? Or is it all in the future jobs? 

TheJP

There isn't enough detail there to actually determine what needs repairing or if it actually does need repairing. Surveys are a good indicator of what may need replacing/repairing but often they are what ifs rather than needs doing. 

also surveyors often inflate the cost of repairs so use that as a guide, if you were to carry out the above work I'm sure it would be much less than what's quoted. 

What did the surveyor value the house at, did he say that the house is priced accordingly with the issues taken into consideration?

canterburyhousesearch

user1977 said:

What exactly does it say about the condition of each of these items? Taking this one for example:

Heating Type/Defects (LANDING, BATHROOM, 3 BEDROOMS) £10,000

are they saying the heating doesn't work, and the only solution is to rip it out and install a new system? Or just it's a bit old and eventually you might want to upgrade it? Or something else? £10k seems steep in any event!

That's a good question. It says that the heating may need to be replaced to meet 2050 guidelines on energy efficiency. 

"As the boiler and heating system is very old we have allowed for replacement with an air source heat pump."

canterburyhousesearch

Tahlullah.H said:

Hello.  If you have bought it, who are you planning to negotiate with?  Do you mean you are in the process of buying?

My apologies - I wasn't clear in my initial post. We have had an offer accepted (£440k), but contracts have not been exchanged, so we are in the process of buying.

canterburyhousesearch

TheJP said:

There isn't enough detail there to actually determine what needs repairing or if it actually does need repairing. Surveys are a good indicator of what may need replacing/repairing but often they are what ifs rather than needs doing. 

also surveyors often inflate the cost of repairs so use that as a guide, if you were to carry out the above work I'm sure it would be much less than what's quoted. 

What did the surveyor value the house at, did he say that the house is priced accordingly with the issues taken into consideration?

Thanks, that's very helpful insight on the inflated costs aspect. 

I didn't actually pay for a valuation, which I see now I perhaps should have done. I am going to try and get a hold of the surveyor today to ask his views on the value of the house.

canterburyhousesearch

74jax said:

canterburyhousesearch said:

Hi!

 

My fiancé and I are buying our first home together, a beautiful 3-bed Georgian terraced property in Kent. We paid £440k. Other 3-bed, similar sized, properties on that street sell for £500k+.

 

We got our Level 3 Survey back yesterday and the assumed costs of urgent repairs came to £55k, quite a bit given what we paid.

 

My questions to you lovely people are:

1)      Should we walk away, even though we love the house?

2)      If we don’t walk away, should we negotiate?

3)      In your experience, are these Level 3 reports accurately able to assume the cost of repairs?

 

If you have any other tidbits, words of wisdom or advice for two home-buying newbies, that would be highly appreciated!

Thanks

If others on the street sell for 500k and you paid 440k and its need 55k of work, surely it was priced correctly? 

Have you bought it, or buying it? 

What needs doing NOW. as in to make it liveable? Or is it all in the future jobs? 

Those are good points and I agree, £440k I think is a good amount. To clarify, we are in the process of buying (offer accepted). 

In terms of urgent repairs, the roof, chimney and all other pieces that have caused/may cause damp. We calculated, based on the surveyor's estimates, a figure of around about £15k for this. 

A lot of the repair work we were expecting, e.g. the garden, and had readied ourselves to completely renovate the house anyway in order to modernise it, so easily £30k of that repair we had mentally accounted for. 

The unexpected extras are around dampness and roof issues.

user1977

canterburyhousesearch said:

user1977 said:

What exactly does it say about the condition of each of these items? Taking this one for example:

Heating Type/Defects (LANDING, BATHROOM, 3 BEDROOMS) £10,000

are they saying the heating doesn't work, and the only solution is to rip it out and install a new system? Or just it's a bit old and eventually you might want to upgrade it? Or something else? £10k seems steep in any event!

That's a good question. It says that the heating may need to be replaced to meet 2050 guidelines on energy efficiency. 

"As the boiler and heating system is very old we have allowed for replacement with an air source heat pump."

In which case it's a rather pointless comment by the surveyor - any system in any property might need to be replaced at some point in the future to comply with possible future energy efficiency requirements. If it works currently (does it?), what's the problem? If the other points are of a similar tenor then you can take the "urgency" with a large pinch of salt.