Survey - Found more problems & incorrect information

haddock82

OK so this is a bit of a long one (sorry)

We bought our current house in May 2021. After a very long and protracted sale/purchase we finally moved in!

The house we bought is quite old (1800's) and we knew it had some issues (It was the only reason we could afford it!)

However we had two surveys conducted on the property. 
An initial "Full Survey" found some possible structural problems, although it did suggest they were historic, and suggested to get a structural engineer to look at the property.

At this stage due to the time scale and costs involved we informed the sellers we would like THEM to pay for the structural engineer before we comitted to continuing with the purchase.

They agreed and the survey came back.
It said there were previous historic "settlement" issues (Causing a crack in the concrete floor and front elevation). These were likely caused by the installation of a drain in the road at the front of the property and should no longer be an issue.

We were happy with this and continued with the purchase

Since moving in we have discovered more issues...!

There is a large crack in the rear elevation wall which was hidden by render (external render slapped over it on the inside of the room!)
There is clearly a problem that the house has sunk/subsided in one rear corner. 

We got a local structural surveyor to have a look as we were worried.
He came round and also looked at the survey we were supplied and confirmed it was incorrect.
The house has moved/subsided in the rear corner, nothing to do with the drain installation at the front.

(We've rectified the rear crack by having a builder install some helifix helical bars. Which should stop any further movement of the crack)

We've also learned from a neighbour the previous owners knew there were possibly some structural problems as they asked for some advice about preparing the house to sell. And there was a large visible crack in the downstairs chimney stack. However this has now been covered over by replacement wallpaper and we are yet to remove it... So we are not looking forward to what we might find...

I guess my question is, is there any re-course we could take?

The problem being the "structural" engineer was comissioned & paid for by the previous owners, not ourselves.

I am fully expecting it to be a case of suck it up and learn from your mistakes! (expensive ones!)
So please don't worry about offending us with your replies! 

It is annoying as when we viewed the property it was semi-lockdown in the UK, house viewing were allowed but we only had 20 minutes to view the property. Subsequent second viewings were denied by the sellers due to Covid restrictions and them being classed as vulnerable. 

user1977

haddock82 said:

The problem being the "structural" engineer was comissioned & paid for by the previous owners, not ourselves.

Not necessarily a problem, as long as you got the report addressed to you. Please tell us you did...

haddock82

user1977 said:

haddock82 said:

The problem being the "structural" engineer was comissioned & paid for by the previous owners, not ourselves.

Not necessarily a problem, as long as you got the report addressed to you. Please tell us you did...

Um....

Guess you know the answer... 

Being naive we didn't even question it, just looked back and it states it was instructed by previous owners. 

user1977

haddock82 said:

user1977 said:

haddock82 said:

The problem being the "structural" engineer was comissioned & paid for by the previous owners, not ourselves.

Not necessarily a problem, as long as you got the report addressed to you. Please tell us you did...

Um....

Guess you know the answer... 

Being naive we didn't even question it, just looked back and it states it was instructed by previous owners. 

Did you get any advice from your solicitor about relying on the survey?

haddock82

None other than we'd had the survey conducted and were happy to proceed on the information given


I admit it's not looking good! and we'll have to suck it up and get on with it! 

TheJP

I guess this is a lesson on attitude towards buying a property. I really don't understand why you wanted the seller to pay for your due diligence. I think you will learn from your mistake here as it looks as though its a costly one. FYI the seller has no obligation to tell you what is wrong with the house that's the whole point of diligence before you exchange. 

haddock82

TheJP said:

I guess this is a lesson on attitude towards buying a property. I really don't understand why you wanted the seller to pay for your due diligence. I think you will learn from your mistake here as it looks as though its a costly one. FYI the seller has no obligation to tell you what is wrong with the house that's the whole point of diligence before you exchange. 

Thanks TheJP
Agreed, a mistake we will learn from
I think we asked them to pay as it was a bit unexpected and the ongoing costs at the time to get what should have been a simple move (very small chain) over the line with fairly awkward sellers... But as you say, we should have done it ourselves. 

TheJP

haddock82 said:

TheJP said:

I guess this is a lesson on attitude towards buying a property. I really don't understand why you wanted the seller to pay for your due diligence. I think you will learn from your mistake here as it looks as though its a costly one. FYI the seller has no obligation to tell you what is wrong with the house that's the whole point of diligence before you exchange. 

Thanks TheJP
Agreed, a mistake we will learn from
I think we asked them to pay as it was a bit unexpected and the ongoing costs at the time to get what should have been a simple move (very small chain) over the line with fairly awkward sellers... But as you say, we should have done it ourselves. 

Hope you get it all sorted and can enjoy the house. Best of luck.

MEM62

haddock82 said:

At this stage due to the time scale and costs involved we informed the sellers we would like THEM to pay for the structural engineer before we comitted to continuing with the purchase.

As the vendor was the surveyors client, you have no recourse.  You may have saved the cost of the survey but this has done you no favors.  You should have engaged your own surveyor who would have looked after your interest.    

haddock82 said:

Subsequent second viewings were denied by the sellers due to Covid restrictions and them being classed as vulnerable. 

Nope.  Further viewings were not allowed in case you saw the true condition of the property.  

It may well be that the problems, although not insignificant, may not be a disaster.  If the building has stood since the 1800's you would hope that it is not going to fall down tomorrow.  You should therefore have time to identify, prioritise and complete the repairs over time.    

haddock82

MEM62 said:

haddock82 said:

At this stage due to the time scale and costs involved we informed the sellers we would like THEM to pay for the structural engineer before we comitted to continuing with the purchase.

As the vendor was the surveyors client, you have no recourse.  You may have saved the cost of the survey but this has done you no favors.  You should have engaged your own surveyor who would have looked after your interest.    

haddock82 said:

Subsequent second viewings were denied by the sellers due to Covid restrictions and them being classed as vulnerable. 

Nope.  Further viewings were not allowed in case you saw the true condition of the property.  

It may well be that the problems, although not insignificant, may not be a disaster.  If the building has stood since the 1800's you would hope that it is not going to fall down tomorrow.  You should therefore have time to identify, prioritise and complete the repairs over time.    

Thanks MEM62

As you say it's been here for nearly 200 years! I doub't it's going to fall down any time soon (famous last words!  )

We aren't planning on moving any time soon, we love the property and location so happy to rectify everything in our own time :-)

Mutton_Geoff

I wouldn't worry about it. As MEM62 says, houses don't just fall down if they have stood for 200 years. It's par for the course that work is needed on an old house and you won't have any comeback after you exchanged contracts. The time for your investigations was before paying, and now you know why you should rely on the vendor to provide reports, how many do you think they rang before they found the cheapest that would say everything was OK?

Modern methods to secure old houses needn't be that expensive, just disruptive to the decor, but if you're doing that anyhow. 

Just realised by using the term "modern method", this post is going to get loads of hits for the wrong reasons