FTB - what's a 'normal' amount of issues for an old house

NiennaIngenue

Hi all,

Me and my partner are in the process of buying our first house. It's a late victorian/edwardian mid terrace. We just had the survey back and the only two things the surveyor was really happy with were the internal walls and the guttering.

Some of the issues (like the kitchen needing redoing and the boiler being old) we had noticed at our viewing, but there's a whole lot more wrong, including the chimneys needing repairing completely, a rotten rafter in the roof and apparently a lack of reinforcement where a rafter was taken out when the loft hatch was installed. There's issues with damp in the ceiling over the kitchen where the bathroom wasn't refitted properly (we didn't notice this) and potential asbestos in the ceilings, as well as the electrics needing replacing.

There's a whole lot more in there,  and the surveyor has advised us to go away and get further opinions on it, but at what point would you say this is worse than average for an older property? 

daveyjp

Most 100+ year old properties will require significant work at some point.  Some owners do work overtime, some aren't in properties long enough so expensive work never gets done,

Three large Edwardian terraced properties close to me have all been sold recently.  Each one has had a full rip it out and start again refurb, plus new roof on two of them (one had it done a few years ago).

The property you are viewing appears to be at the point of needing more than a new kitchen.  Its down to you whether you want a project.

newsgroupmonkey_

NiennaIngenue said:

Hi all,

Me and my partner are in the process of buying our first house. It's a late victorian/edwardian mid terrace. We just had the survey back and the only two things the surveyor was really happy with were the internal walls and the guttering.

Some of the issues (like the kitchen needing redoing and the boiler being old) we had noticed at our viewing, but there's a whole lot more wrong, including the chimneys needing repairing completely, a rotten rafter in the roof and apparently a lack of reinforcement where a rafter was taken out when the loft hatch was installed. There's issues with damp in the ceiling over the kitchen where the bathroom wasn't refitted properly (we didn't notice this) and potential asbestos in the ceilings, as well as the electrics needing replacing.

There's a whole lot more in there,  and the surveyor has advised us to go away and get further opinions on it, but at what point would you say this is worse than average for an older property? 

Right, let me take you back.

Firstly, surveyors aren't experts on buildings. In that they're not engineers. Their job is to tell you what potentially looks like it may go wrong at SOME POINT in the future. They're certainly not electricians or plumbers.

They won't say "Oh the roof's perfect", because you'll sue them if the roof caves in.

So if a surveyor came round to mine, it's a 1950s property. With 1950s wiring that works perfectly well. But they'd call it out, because it doesn't meet current regulations. Does that mean it's dangerous? Of course it doesn't. It's just old and might need doing.

My roof is probably original, or certainly hasn't been done in a few years. We get starlings in it, so they're probably damaging it in some way. Does that mean we need a new roof? Of course not. But it might do if we stay here 25 years.

And so on.

The big question here, are there any C1s on the survey? And what C2s are there?

That's what you need to read.

user1977

NiennaIngenue said:

potential asbestos in the ceilings, as well as the electrics needing replacing.

Any property more than about 30 years old potentially has asbestos in it - and if all the surveyor means is "there's Artex, and some old Artex has asbestos in it", that's really not a significant issue.

As for the electrics, do they really need replaced?

donutandbeer

I think this is more about how much work you are willing to do and not about how much worse this place is compared to average.

Is the house priced accordingly to other similar period houses in the area? It might be difficult to tell, especially if you’ve never lived in a period house before and not sure what to look. Also it might be difficult to tell whether other sold houses that you didn’t get to view have roof/electric/damp .etc whatever issues. 

Are you willing to do the amount of work that’s obviously required? Probably not all the work your survey suggested is needed, but there might also be other work that needs doing that the survey didn’t pick up - you kind of have to expect that with a period property.

Personally I don’t consider buying a period property, I do like the look of them but the potential required work/maintenance is just not something I want to take on, among various other things. So even if a period property has a condition that’s “better than average” with a reasonable or even cheap price, I would not go for it. 

123imp

What's a normal amount of issues for an old car?

My friend bought an especially old property last year, it was suffering from subsidence but they went ahead as they felt the property and price were right for them. I would do some calculations, work out how much it's going to cost you to get the property up to the standard you want, and decide if it's worth your time/money/effort.

RelievedSheff

Bear in mind that a surveyor has to cover their back. They will make thing sound much worse than they actually are. That is their job.

Roof replacement is a common item highlighted in surveys. It does sound like the roof needs some repairs but it may not require a full new roof.

If you are buying an older property the whatever property you have surveyed there will be a long list of flagged items. It is the nature of the properties. Just bear in mind how long these houses have stood for, they do stand the test of time.

stuart45

Building work is really expensive at the moment, even if you are in the trade and do everything yourself. Make sure you get accurate estimates of the cost. I've replaced a few slates on my daughter's Victorian terrace, a similar job cost her neighbour 2 grand.

canaldumidi

As daveyjp says above: do you want a project?

• When considering this and other properties, were you expecting aproject (or just some superfical decor or maye a new kitchen)?
• How is the property priced? Close toother similar localproperties? Which are modernised/renovated or not?
• Have you had a Valuation eg from mortgage lender or your surveyor? Was the valuation same as/close to your purchase price?
• Certainly some of these issues seem either standard expected improvements, or uncertainties where the surveyor can't be sure. Some may be resolved eg has the bathroom leak been fixed just leaving a stained ceiling beneath? But some may be more significant eg the chimney and roof.

So depending on your answers above you might want to get roofing or/other quotes and try negotiating the price. The seller might or might not agree.