Bought an old house without a survey

FTBkat

Earlier this year I was in a rush to buy a house and picked one without any onward chain and rushed into without doing a survey (I was given some advice from friends saying it wasn’t always necessary). My house was built in 1910 and is an end terrace. Since living here there’s been typical teething problems ie new boiler needed. My problem is I’m SO paranoid about my house because I’ve discovered there are actually zig zag cracks in the brick work to the front and cracking in the bricks around the windows plus cracking to the rendering to the side of the house. The house does not keep heat in well at all despite having an EPC report of C. I think I’m going to now pay for a survey which will cost approx £600 so I can understand it the cracks are super material and if so how I remedy them, plus whether there are any other issues I’ve overlooked. 

I hate myself for buying such an old house with no survey, I’m miserable and feel so depressed. I don’t know anyone else that’s been in this situation and when I confide in my family they make me feel worse. 

Has anyone else bought a house with no survey, regretted it and felt so ashamed? I bought it on my own so I’m feeling so lonely about the situation. Hopefully the survey will either come back not bad at all or if there are some recommendations I can save up and sort them. I don’t how I’ll cope though  if it comes up with something catastrophic

Section62

FTBkat said:

Has anyone else bought a house with no survey, regretted it and felt so ashamed?

I don’t how I’ll cope though  if it comes up with something catastrophic

Lots of people will have, there's nothing to be ashamed about, especially if you were given bad advice by friends.

Your situation is less worse than those people who paid for (bad) surveys and then ignored the warnings, so you are ahead by at least the cost of the survey.

It is rare for there to be something catastrophically wrong with a property - when there is it is usually something like the area has unknown mine workings, or coastal erosion.

All buildings move round a bit, sometimes it is a seasonal thing and they move back to where they should be of their own accord.  Even significant problems like a large tree causing subsidence is somthing which typically happens over many years, it could be decades before the structure is at any significant risk of more than superficial harm.

If you want to post some pictures of the cracks we can give you some pointers, but if you would prefer a professional to have a look then you might be better off employing a structural engineer.  A surveyor is likely to only tell you there are cracks and you shoud get advice from a SE, so you may as well skip the middleperson and spend the money on engineering advice.

Martico

Agreed. A surveyor mostly won't give you answers, instead they'll suggest the questions you should be asking. 

youth_leader

I'm sorry to see your post, stop feeling ashamed!  You saved money by not having the survey, but will now have to spend it on a structural survey which will investigate the cracks. 

I did have an RCIS survey, and the surveyor wasn't able to pull up the fitted carpets - months later I discovered every floor here was covered in mould as well as wet/dry rot and woodworm.   I had to have them all replaced in the summer - and lost the fitted wardrobe, a huge fitted unit, the whole shower and all the underlay/carpets in the process.  Then both my elderly cat and dog died, I'm sure the mould had affected them.  All my clothes are back in suitcases nearly two years from moving in.  NOT expected!  

In the meantime,  make one room cosy for relaxing, as well as your bedroom.   Try and identify where the house is getting cold - make sure your curtains are lined, close the doors of rooms you aren't using, get draught excluders for any areas you feel a draught.  Put a curtain over the front door.  If you have open uncapped chimneys you don't use stuff a black sack with newspaper and put it in - make sure the strings of the bag are hanging down so you don't forget.  Don't dry washing indoors unless you have a dehumidifier.  Lots of little things that will help.  I had draughty sash windows at my old house, single glazed - I used to put those microwave neck warmers across the join the middle.  

Well done for finding a house, I hope you can get someone to come soon and reassure you.

FTBkat

All these comments are so so kind, you’ve made me feel enormously better and thank you for telling me to go straight to a structural engineer rather than the surveyor. 

I have been drying my clothes indoors a LOT as it happens and don’t own a humidifier but I will go out and buy one asap. Hopefully I haven’t caused much damage with the drying I’ve been doing so far. 

FTBkat

These are some pictures of the cracks. 

FreeBear

youth_leader said: In the meantime,  make one room cosy for relaxing, as well as your bedroom.   Try and identify where the house is getting cold - make sure your curtains are lined, close the doors of rooms you aren't using, get draught excluders for any areas you feel a draught.  Put a curtain over the front door.

Once the curtains are up and the worst of the draughts plugged, check that you have a decent level of insulation in the loft. 270-300mm is the current recommended level.

In the long term, you might want to have a think about wall insulation - I favour internal wall insulation as it preserves the external appearance and is easier to kill any cold spots. For a 1910 property, I'd recommend cork or woodfibre board finished with a lime plaster. If you can do some/most of the work yourself, it need not cost a fortune and will make a world of difference to your heating bills.

Also worth popping over to the Period Property Forum - There are a bunch of people over there all to willing to share advice & experience of owning and maintaining older properties.

youth_leader

Oh no FreeBear, sorry I forgot the loft OP - it's because I need to get mine done.  Only 150 mm up there when I bought it, and after some scary crashes a roofer went in and I now I find I've got 'condensation dripping off the rafters'.  I have found someone that will put a positive ventilation unit up there, and the roofer is going to put a vent at the front and back of the concrete roof. My care fund is getting smaller every month! 

FreeBear

150mm is better than nothing. Putting another 150mm on top isn't going to save a huge amount on heating, but it will improve your EPC rating a little.

Martico

FTBkat said:

All these comments are so so kind, you’ve made me feel enormously better and thank you for telling me to go straight to a structural engineer rather than the surveyor. 

I have been drying my clothes indoors a LOT as it happens and don’t own a humidifier but I will go out and buy one asap. Hopefully I haven’t caused much damage with the drying I’ve been doing so far. 

I can't comment on your structural issues, but am fairly confident in saying that a bit of indoors clothes drying won't have caused major damage to your house.

You may need some works, but please don't stress about minor issues like this (a short spell of drying clothes indoors). Houses are resilient things, pretty much all of them last longer than you or I ever will.

Indoors drying isn't an issue if you have decent ventilation

NameUnavailable

All houses need maintnenance and older houses will need more than newer houses.

Get an SE to look at those cracks but it will probably be mostly due to settlement over the years rather than anything 'new' happening. It looks like you will need to have some rendering renewed and some repointing.

If you were to get a survey expect a lot of pages of things its says you would need to do - but many of them will apply to any other house of that age.