Buying a house with possible unknown subfloor damage

7seas

Hi All.

First time posting here and hope someone can help.

My husband I are in the process of buying a Victorian mid-terrace 3 bed house, built circa 1900’s. We really like the house (location, floor plan, price, etc) and we have not seen anything similar in the market. It needs a lot of modernisation etc so we’re prepared to do full renovation work.

Our full building survey flagged up some damp, which itself doesn’t make me worried much as the solution seems to be fairly straightforward (at least it looks so for now), but one thing that worries me is that they suggested possible damage / rot to the subfloor timber due to the damp on the ground floor living room floor. They recommended specialist damp & timber survey (which we will arrange) ideally invasive one, but I know it’s very unlikely the seller would allow such invasive inspection. Effectively we will most likely to find out the damage after we can move in.

user1977

7seas said:

They recommended specialist damp & timber survey (which we will arrange) ideally invasive one, but I know it’s very unlikely the seller would allow such invasive inspection.

How do you know this? If it's obviously in need of modernisation then the vendors ought to expect this sort of poking around.

7seas

Sorry I tap post too early.

We didn’t notice any sign of damp when we viewed two times but admittedly they were both very sunny hot days.

To some extent, it does look like the surveyor is back covering, as of course he can’t guarantee the subfloor is damage free.

My current questions are:

- what is the next best option than invasive test? Is it possible for a surveyor to stick a borescope in from vent brick?

- can we try to put in the contract some sort of retention e.g. solicitor to retain xxx amount of purchase price and repair costs to the subfloor has to come out of the retention once we complete and move in and can do proper survey? Has anyone done this before?

- would any repairers do borescope survey to see if there is any damage subfloor?

- or is this just a walk away situation? (Hope not!)

Your advice is much appreciated!

thank you in advance.

Ramouth

We had a house where this had occurred due to blocked air vents and joists resting on the soil in some locations.  It was fairly disruptive to sort out as the floors needed to come up but not hideously expensive and if you don’t have to live there at the same time it won’t be nearly so bad.

In hindsight, we should have known there was an issue with the structure of the floor as it was noticeably bouncy to walk on.  Did you notice this when viewing the property?  In our case it was significant enough for plates to rattle.

Ramouth

I would suggest speaking to a couple of specialist firms to see what they can do in terms of scopes etc.  

It is good that you didn’t notice damp - the other thing we should have paid more attention to was the smell of damp in the under stairs cupboard and alcoves.  Did you notice any damp smell at all?  If may indeed be that your surveyor is just covering themselves and you just have normal levels of damp associated with older properties and not an actual problem.

7seas

user1977 said:

7seas said:

They recommended specialist damp & timber survey (which we will arrange) ideally invasive one, but I know it’s very unlikely the seller would allow such invasive inspection.

How do you know this? If it's obviously in need of modernisation then the vendors ought to expect this sort of poking around.

Good point. I am planning to ask for their permission for invasive test through the solicitors anyway, so this gives me some assurance at least we should try. But our surveyor and another damp surveyor I spoke to both said it is highly unlikely to be authorised by the vendor, so I suppose it is unlikely…

youth_leader

When my buyer had a damp/timber survey on my victorian property, I hadn't been told to lift the floorboards.  I didn't have fitted carpets, just rugs.  I now know that it only involves getting a joiner to take up a few boards so the joists can be inspected.  Hopefully  your vendor will oblige and you will be reassured.  

I've just spent the last of my savings having all the floors in this bungalow replaced because the sub void wasn't able to be inspected.  I had wet/dry rot and woodworm, plus mushy plasterboard.  I wish I'd had an independent damp/timber survey.

TheJP

7seas said:

user1977 said:

7seas said:

They recommended specialist damp & timber survey (which we will arrange) ideally invasive one, but I know it’s very unlikely the seller would allow such invasive inspection.

How do you know this? If it's obviously in need of modernisation then the vendors ought to expect this sort of poking around.

Good point. I am planning to ask for their permission for invasive test through the solicitors anyway, so this gives me some assurance at least we should try. But our surveyor and another damp surveyor I spoke to both said it is highly unlikely to be authorised by the vendor, so I suppose it is unlikely…

Better to go through the EA for permission, will be much quicker and doesn't take up your solicitors expensive time.

7seas

Ramouth said:

We had a house where this had occurred due to blocked air vents and joists resting on the soil in some locations.  It was fairly disruptive to sort out as the floors needed to come up but not hideously expensive and if you don’t have to live there at the same time it won’t be nearly so bad.

In hindsight, we should have known there was an issue with the structure of the floor as it was noticeably bouncy to walk on.  Did you notice this when viewing the property?  In our case it was significant enough for plates to rattle.

well we will have to live in the house while renovating, so that would be fun 😂🤷🏻‍♀️

I had no idea about bounciness of the house but my husband is saying it definitely didn’t bounce, which is a good sign! 

7seas

Ramouth said:

I would suggest speaking to a couple of specialist firms to see what they can do in terms of scopes etc.  

It is good that you didn’t notice damp - the other thing we should have paid more attention to was the smell of damp in the under stairs cupboard and alcoves.  Did you notice any damp smell at all?  If may indeed be that your surveyor is just covering themselves and you just have normal levels of damp associated with older properties and not an actual problem.

No we didn’t notice any damp smell or sign on the wall etc either. We’ll see what the damp surveyor says but fingers crossed it’s nothing…!

jj_43

The problem with surveys is that they suggest all sorts of “possible problems” and “recommendations”. What you need is the answer, which may only become clear via invasive checks (which might only be possible by yourself after moving in). If this worries you, then a Victorian house isn’t for you.