Should I pull out?

bouicca21

I’m no expert but I’ve lived in several 1930s built houses, none had felting under the tiles - they just didn’t do that back then.

pseudodox

This is heart versus head.  If you know you can afford the costs of "repairs" (whether or not they are essential is another matter) a good rule of thumb for house buying is you just know when you have found the one for you, no matter it's faults.   Plus buy the perhaps worst house in the best location.  You can do anything to a house except move it to somewhere else or change the neighbours.

Mutton_Geoff

infectedeggs said:

The electricity will need looking at of course but a new fuse board can be bought for about £50 and an electrician will fit it for about the same.

Nonsense. OP, budget £1,000 or so for a new consumer unit if it really is needed. Any house more than 10 years old won't meet current regulations.

An ELCB makes things safe again but the amount of electrics needed depends on what else might need updating. 

elsien

A lot of those comments are basically saying “we have no clue if this is okay or not, so we’ve given a level three due to lack of information.”

ragingrichard

mark_cycling00 said:

It's your first purchase so you're going to be anxious and easily worried.

People generally pull out of a purchase because the survey answers questions such as..

1. Why is this house so cheap?
2. Why did the previous people who made offers pull out?
3. Why doesn't the owner live there?
4. Why is someone selling after only a few years?

Things are never as bad as the survey sounds. 

Consider - have you been on holiday to the southwest or west Wales? Did you take your radon gas detector and open the windows every morning? Of course not, but most properties there would get scary radon gas warnings in the survey/conveyancing process.

Yes it's quite daunting and I don't have many nails left to chew! Been all over Wales on holiday. I did read about the radon gas as it came up in the house buying process. Never heard of it before, I have to admit. But seems like it's nothing to worry about? 

njkmr

It's difficult to say yes walk away or even harder to say no buy it, to you, as it's really a personal thing for the individual.
My thoughts are , if you really like the house and are happy to see it as an investment as well then go ahead and buy it.
Expect to have to spend some money putting these issues right but at the same time treat it as improving the property and increasing its value hopefully. It can be a good investment so long as you get it at the right price. There are always things need doing when you buy a house , either repairs or changes to suit the new owner so don't be daunted by it.
It will take some money but get some quotes from a few builders explaining exactly what you would want doing initially to rectify the issues and go back to the seller to see if they will adjust the price down a bit to enable you to sort them out.
Good luck with whatever you decide.

housebuyer143

ragingrichard said:

mark_cycling00 said:

It's your first purchase so you're going to be anxious and easily worried.

People generally pull out of a purchase because the survey answers questions such as..

1. Why is this house so cheap?
2. Why did the previous people who made offers pull out?
3. Why doesn't the owner live there?
4. Why is someone selling after only a few years?

Things are never as bad as the survey sounds. 

Consider - have you been on holiday to the southwest or west Wales? Did you take your radon gas detector and open the windows every morning? Of course not, but most properties there would get scary radon gas warnings in the survey/conveyancing process.

Yes it's quite daunting and I don't have many nails left to chew! Been all over Wales on holiday. I did read about the radon gas as it came up in the house buying process. Never heard of it before, I have to admit. But seems like it's nothing to worry about? 

Yes and no. Many houses in Wales have radon gas, just how it is - but it's very damaging to your health so I wouldn't say it's nothing to worry about. 
If your searches show potential high levels then you should do a radon gas test either before you buy or after you move in. The searches can't tell you if it definitely has radon gas or not.
If high levels are then recorded you should do remedial work which could involve installing a whole house fan or vents etc. 

For lower levels, opening the windows periodically would be fine, but this isn't really suitable for unsafe levels.

Noneforit999

infectedeggs said:

The electricity will need looking at of course but a new fuse board can be bought for about £50 and an electrician will fit it for about the same.

The empty consumer unit might be £50 but even if you just had 8 circuits, the equipment alone is likely £100+, probably more if the electrician wants RCBO's per circuit.

Any decent electrician is going to want to do an EICR before changing a consumer unit so depending on the age of the electrics, this may flag up a few small remedial items but on the other hand could suggest a rewire is needed depending on the results of the tests and how much remedial work is needed. Spending three days remediating issues on 50 year old cabling just isn't worth it versus the cost of a rewire.

If the EICR is fine and its just a straight consumer unit upgrade, my guess would be about a grand or so.

A rewire is no small job either, ignoring the cost (likely £6k-£8k on a 3 bed semi) you have the disruption it will cause.
Dust...everywhere
Chases in the wall that need to be filled, sanded and repainted.
Carpets which need pushing back properly.
Floorboards which may need replacing. Older houses with T&G boards likely down with cut nails and just snap on pulling them up etc.

The only time I would consider a rewire was before I moved into the property so it was completely empty and I was planning to replace all the flooring and decorate anyway. 

RelievedSheff

This is a 1930's house. It is never going to meet modern building standards.

Most of the stuff on that list is just the surveyor covering their own back. There is absolutely nothing on that list that would give me any cause for concern in a 1930's house.

Budget for the electrics being updated at some point but the rest of it is a case of living with the house and seeing what maintenance is required as you go along.

EssexHebridean

The roof thing underlines to me the reasons why survey reports can be quite scary. "There's no felt, so it increases the risk of water ingress" - but not, you notice, that there are any actual signs of water ingress. It's sort of akin to "getting in your car and driving it increases the risk of you being killed in an RTC" - but realistically, most of us don't question whether in fact we should consider not driving to reduce that risk, do we?! 

Our survey came back with some issues relating to the roof space - we went up there on our second viewing - or at least MrEH did - and had a good look, and couldn't see any sign of anything that looked alarming. 

We also bought with no boiler certificate or current gas safety test - the boiler was serviced recently and is all absolutely fine, albeit of an age where when it does go wrong we will be considering it as a replace not repair job - but we were already assuming that a new boiler would be on our list of to-do's at some stage anyway, so factored that in. 

Being a FTB is definitely a tricky process I think - and I can also now confirm that in many ways being a second-time-buyer is every bit as nervewracking, so don't be thinking this is the worst it will ever get! (sorry!)