We complete next week but just discovered damp in the conservatory

tuffjam

Hi all. I'm looking for some advice...

We've been doing some sorting out ahead of our house move next week and happened to move a tall chest of drawers that we've had in the conservatory for a while to discover some paint behind it has bubbled up, some of which has quite badly peeled off and is showing the plaster underneath. It doesn't look or feel wet and there's no signs of mould but it seems some moisture must have been getting through for a while to make the paint peel off like it has. The area affected is approximately 70cm x 50cm.

The house we're selling is semi-detached and both us and our neighbour have conservatories with about a 6 inch gap between them in the top glass section above the wall. It means it's impossible to get down between them to do an external inspection. I should mention our conservatory is otherwise in very good condition with no obvious leaks or issues.

We've already exchanged contracts and are due to complete at the end of next week. The buyers had a survey done including checks of gas and electrics and nothing came up. I know for surveys they don't usually move furniture so I assume they didn't move the drawers. The house is only about 12 years old and we've decorated throughout a couple of times, most recently just before covid. All seemed perfectly normal then so it must have happened since and we've just not noticed it.

We could probably patch it up by rubbing the area down and covering it with some of the same shade paint that I think we've still got leftover but it would be apparent something has been done if you look closely. Understandably, my wife is worried that this could come back to bite us and neither of us is particularly comfortable doing something which I think is a bit shady. We don't think there's a major issue but it's hard to tell. If we mention it to their solicitor now, we're concerned that it might affect the completion or they could insist on getting someone involved to do an inspection.

Any thoughts on how best to handle? Thanks

housebuyer143

There's nothing for you to do. You have exchange contracts. It was up to the buyer to find it and they haven't. So you haven't done anything wrong. Not really any point mentioning it because there's nothing the buyer can do. They've exchanged so they're legally committed to the house

JJR45

Likely caused by condensation, just touch it up out of courtesy. 

trakky14

We have a similar issue on an area of damp, we are ignoring it! It was the same when we moved in, we just periodically repaint it! Leave some matching paint for the new owners if you have some, that's what we are doing. 

GAMBITv5

Buyer beware….

lookstraightahead

trakky14 said:

We have a similar issue on an area of damp, we are ignoring it! It was the same when we moved in, we just periodically repaint it! Leave some matching paint for the new owners if you have some, that's what we are doing. 

Didn't it ever worry you while you were there? 

Op, it's probably condensation. When we moved into our house, you could see they'd touched up the walls where all the downstairs mainly kitchen furniture had been. I didn't bat an eyelid 

trakky14

lookstraightahead said:

trakky14 said:

We have a similar issue on an area of damp, we are ignoring it! It was the same when we moved in, we just periodically repaint it! Leave some matching paint for the new owners if you have some, that's what we are doing. 

Didn't it ever worry you while you were there? 

Op, it's probably condensation. When we moved into our house, you could see they'd touched up the walls where all the downstairs mainly kitchen furniture had been. I didn't bat an eyelid 

No its from an old chimney breast that needs repointing externally, we had it patched up when we first moved in but I think it needs to be fully taken down and rebuilt. Its never got bigger its stayed the same size...we've only been in the house 2yrs. It only shows up in winter its fine the rest of the year

RM_2013

It could just be damp from condensation if you’ve never noticed it before and it wasn’t picked up during survey.  Maybe keep the item of furniture away from the area and see how it is in a day or 2 but you probably don’t need to do anything as you’ve already exchanged 

tuffjam

Hello all. Thanks very much for your comments and advice. I think those suggesting it's down to condensation are most likely correct. We've rubbed the wall down and re-painted over the area and it looks great again. There are no signs of any dampness even with all the rain we've had this week.

aoleks

if there's a gap between the conservatories, however small, you might want to scrape it clean every now and then with a long pole. a lot of rubbish can gather between two brick walls: spider webs, leaves, dirt, dust etc.