Issues with the survey

deep_diver

Hi, we are in the process of buying a house. We are cash buyers and are buying a house which is empty so this is a very short chain. The seller accepted an offer of 10k below the asking price because of our strong buying position.
The house was surveyed on Monday and our surveyor called last night. He is in the process of writing the full report. Basically he found the house to be damp, which we hadn’t noticed. The house is in a costal position and he suggested that the cause of the damp is due to lack of maintenance of the render.
He suggests that the property needs re rendering in lime to solve the damp issue. This will be of significant cost and not something we factored in when negotiating the purchaser price and not something we had budgeted for. 

The surveyor indicated that the property needs approximately 15-20k spent on it to eliminate the damp and solve other issues such as broken window opening mechanisms and plumbing issues.

Should we renegotiate the price? 

twopenny

How much do you want the house?

You've already got the £10,000 reduction so wanting another 10k you may expect the seller to reject the offer if it changes.

Is there any backup on the report for the 15-20k to be spent ie at least basically itemised so you can legitimately claim the problems?

But is it only the rendering? Is your surveyor only claiming that and there is no problem with drains or the roof?

How old is the house? Older houses do often have high moisture content in plaster and such. If it's been empty especially during the endless wet winter we've had I would expect damp to have got in.

It sounds like it would be a desirable property being coastal. What sort of property?

I was in the situation of selling my house similarly coastal at full asking and just before the sale wanted to drop £10k for items only one out of 3 surveys noted and they wouldn't allow me to see the findings so I called it off. They decided to stick with their first full offer because they knew large house, room for development, large garden and not overlooked 10mins from the sea was worth it.

But I would not have taken a lower offer months after accepting their original one.

Grizebeck

You can try
But don't let it put you off buying the house if you want to it

FreeBear

If you strip off the render, it is well worth putting insulation on the walls - Building Regulations would require it if the render covers more than 25% of the exterior.

With the surveyor recommending lime render, I'm guessing this is an older property (Victorian ?) with solid brick/stone walls. In which case the insulation needs to be cork or woodfibre with a lime finish to allow the walls to breath. If you do buy and go for insulation, have a shat with someone like Mike Wye about materials & cost.

Tracet74

Did you ask the surveyor to add a Market Value to the report?  If so, and it has been valued at less than the agreed purchase price, you could use this to potentially negotiate.

youth_leader

I would pay for a damp/timber survey.  My buyer's mortgage surveyor valued my house at £0 whilst waiting for this.

Grizebeck

youth_leader said:

I would pay for a damp/timber survey.  My buyer's mortgage surveyor valued my house at £0 whilst waiting for this.

And normally a load of rubbish

stuart45

Finding the real cause of dampness in a house can sometimes be quite complicated, and different surveyors can often draw different conclusions.
It can in some cases take years to find out if the correct remedial action was taken. Diagnosing rising damp is probably the most controversial type to do.

fromtheshires

How much do you want the property? 

If it’s an older house it will likely be damp to some degree anyway and if you can solve the damp by re-rendering then it may be worth taking the risk. Old houses also require ongoing maintenance so the broken window openings and plumbing will be something to do over time.

Im buying an old house at the moment and the surveyor picked up damp issues due to some broken guttering and a failed bit of pointing on the chimney but we have accepted them as we have got money off and will have cash to complete the work. Once we have the house watertight the other issues will just get fixed in order of priority to us. 

It all comes down to circumstances, how handy you are and how much cash you will have to spend once the purchase goes through.

edited to add; never pay for a company who has an interest in selling damp proofing to look into the damp as they will find something. Always get an independent surveyor. Our surveyor said that a DPC had been done on the house we are buying by putting dry rods in the bricks and all it did was damage the bricks as the original slate DPC was in perfect condition.