Property suffered movement and may contain asbestos

Newuser00

Hello

I am in the process of buying a property that was built 94 years ago. 

I have the mortgage offer in place from the bank and as part of it the bank recently did a Valuation of the property. The Valuation report mentions 2 points under 'Matters Affecting Value':
1. The property has suffered previous movement but I saw no evidence to suggest this is ongoing.
2. Parts of the property are thought to contain asbestos material

The estate agent mentioned that the surveyor has went inside the house.
The vendor said that he is unaware of any asbestos or movement in the property and he has lived there for 40 years.

In my case, if any of the mentioned if true I am not willing to buy the property.

My question is, shall I do a full structural survey and an asbestos survey and risk losing the money for that? Or shall I blindly trust the valuation and not purchase the property?

RelievedSheff

The property is 94 years old, it would be more surprising if there had been no movement in that time!

GDB2222

Can I ask where the property is, and what’s the sub-soil?

A property that old is likely to have asbestos in it somewhere. If that’s a clincher for you, you should buy something built after 1990. I suppose that the surveyor included that sentence in his report because he is 99% sure that he would find asbestos if he looked for it.

Newuser00

GDB2222 said:

Can I ask where the property is, and what’s the sub-soil?

A property that old is likely to have asbestos in it somewhere. If that’s a clincher for you, you should buy something built after 1990. I suppose that the surveyor included that sentence in his report because he is 99% sure that he would find asbestos if he looked for it.

It is located in Carshalton

user1977

Newuser00 said:

1. The property has suffered previous movement but I saw no evidence to suggest this is ongoing.
2. Parts of the property are thought to contain asbestos material

In my case, if any of the mentioned if true I am not willing to buy the property.

Why? Both of these things are very normal comments to make for any older property. What are you worried about?

propertyrental

Walk away from this on the basis of those 2 'issues' and you will never be able to buy a property older than 20 years.

And modern houses have different issues......

Newuser00

user1977 said:

Newuser00 said:

1. The property has suffered previous movement but I saw no evidence to suggest this is ongoing.
2. Parts of the property are thought to contain asbestos material

In my case, if any of the mentioned if true I am not willing to buy the property.

Why? Both of these things are very normal comments to make for any older property. What are you worried about?

I am worried if movement happens again and causes structural problems or cracks, and I prefer not to be concerned about doing any changes in the house due to the fact of having asbestos.

user1977

Newuser00 said:

user1977 said:

Newuser00 said:

1. The property has suffered previous movement but I saw no evidence to suggest this is ongoing.
2. Parts of the property are thought to contain asbestos material

In my case, if any of the mentioned if true I am not willing to buy the property.

Why? Both of these things are very normal comments to make for any older property. What are you worried about?

I am worried if movement happens again and causes structural problems or cracks, and I prefer not to be concerned about doing any changes in the house due to the fact of having asbestos.

You don't even know whether there is asbestos. Even if there is, it's unlikely to be a big deal.

And why do you think the property is likely to move again? Such movement is generally initial settlement which happened long ago, not something which continues happening. If anything you might be more concerned about a property which has not (yet) moved!

Albermarle

Newuser00 said:

user1977 said:

Newuser00 said:

1. The property has suffered previous movement but I saw no evidence to suggest this is ongoing.
2. Parts of the property are thought to contain asbestos material

In my case, if any of the mentioned if true I am not willing to buy the property.

Why? Both of these things are very normal comments to make for any older property. What are you worried about?

I am worried if movement happens again and causes structural problems or cracks, and I prefer not to be concerned about doing any changes in the house due to the fact of having asbestos.

If you read through this forum, there is probably a new post everyday where buyers ( usually first time buyers) are panicking due to items highlighted by surveyors that sound serious, but in practice are not.

If you walk away from this house, then almost inevitably the next one you want to purchase will have some issues as well. Maybe a lot worse ones. 

anselld

Agree with the others - normal issues.

They are listed as "matters affecting value" .. What has the surveyor advised on value and how does the value given compare with your offer?  That should tell you all you need to know about the perceived seriousness of the issues.

GixerKate

Most houses built during and before 1980 (might be 1990?) are very likely to include asbestos as it was standard building practice.  If you do your research you will likely find that its not something that is going to cause issues.  For instance I had a house not far from Carsalton that was ex-council house that had traces of asbestos in the ceilings (very very common), in the 10 years we lived there we didn't need to do anything other than keep the disturbance to a minimum and if we needed to do anything it was a case of just painting over the ceilings.