Survey Report - Foundations and Building movement

happyturtle196

Hi all, hope you are well!

Was hoping for some initial thoughts/ guidance on a finding within our level 3 home survey report for a house we are buying. We are FTB's so trying to be as prudent as reasonably possible as well as being open minded but this issue has worried us a fair bit.

Essentially the sellers have built a side-extension lean to between their house and the neighbours house and the survey has noted that the wall has detached and a full reconstruction is required. I have copied their full comments below:

Between the subject property and the left neighbouring property, the lean-to wall is found to have shifted, with the wall detached. We would recommend complete reconstruction where the roof and wall have been compromised. This requires opening up to reconstruct. We would recommend that a structural engineer further examine.

You should note that we were not able to excavate or expose the existing foundations of the building and therefore, we cannot comment upon their condition or configuration.

happyturtle196

Added photo for reference 

Section62

happyturtle196 said:

Hi all, hope you are well!

Was hoping for some initial thoughts/ guidance on a finding within our level 3 home survey report for a house we are buying. We are FTB's so trying to be as prudent as reasonably possible as well as being open minded but this issue has worried us a fair bit.

Essentially the sellers have built a side-extension lean to between their house and the neighbours house and the survey has noted that the wall has detached and a full reconstruction is required. I have copied their full comments below:

Between the subject property and the left neighbouring property, the lean-to wall is found to have shifted, with the wall detached. We would recommend complete reconstruction where the roof and wall have been compromised. This requires opening up to reconstruct. We would recommend that a structural engineer further examine.

You should note that we were not able to excavate or expose the existing foundations of the building and therefore, we cannot comment upon their condition or configuration.

It isn't clear what we are looking at in the picture, but if you are buying with a mortgage you probably need to cut your losses now and walk away.  If the surveyor is using words like "complete reconstruction" then I doubt paying for a SE to report on the property will be any more likely to encourage a mortgage provider to lend on the property, prior to it being put back into good order.

Whatever it is we can see in the picture it doesn't look like good workmanship... the question is whether that represents 'movement', or how it was built to begin with.  Either way, this is probably unlikely to be the olny issue with the property, and thre may be other things the surveyor was not able to see.

Some more pictures might help to refine that advice.

Albermarle

The two main walls in the picture ( one is brick and the other concrete type blocks) .
Is the brick one the neighbours wall and the other one the wall of the extension.

happyturtle196

A mortgage has already been agreed but your comments make sense. We are trying to get more information on that picture as we cant tell exactly where it is either

Its supposedly between the left of the property and the neighbours house

bjorn_toby_wilde

It looks like the picture is taken with the camera pointing at more or less 45 degrees to the ground looking up the gap towards the back of the building and the gutters.

My guess would be that the next door extension was built first (all in brick). The second extension on your potential purchase, was built in brick to the front elevation, where it would be seen, and block at the side where it wouldn’t.

The blocks are tied into (or not it appears) brickwork at the back and that’s where it’s failing. Can you confirm the side extension is in two parts (floor plan maybe?)

Section62

happyturtle196 said:

A mortgage has already been agreed but your comments make sense....

Your solicitor is likely to want to disclose the survey findings to the mortgage co, even if the mortgage company were happy with nothing more than a driveby valuation.  Although the mortgage is agreed, release of funds is usually subject to nothing nasty coming up.

What is the extension used for, do you have the floorplans?  The width doesn't look like the space would be any use... unless the original side wall has been largely knocked through.  I'm wondering whether the wall is a cavity one, and whether there was any building control involvement.

stuart45

It's possible that the blockwork is a separate extension that was done later. The brickwork could have been damaged by them cutting out for a tie. 
As the brickwork has been jointed up, it looks likely to me that this was done when there was room to get to it, and it was seen.

happyturtle196

Hi everyone,

Thank you all for your comments so far, they have been really helpful.

So, just to try and answer each of the points and to have another look, I have cycled through the photos and my memory of the house when we went to last visit. I have also attached the floorplan which may help visualise things!

The house has had a number of extensions. To the rear of the main structure (non converted) of the house, there is a rear extension which was a kitchen extension.

To the left of the porch in the above picture there is a two part extension. where the small window is (left of the porch) there is a small shower room which i understand was extended first. 

Beyond that a second extension was done which goes the length of the building (to the end of the kitchen extension) effectively covering what would have been an alleyway (labelled the lean to). This is just used as storage. From my memory,  this storage space had exposed blockwork on the interior.

So as far as my understanding is correct, there are effectively two parts of the side extension.

To answer Section62, it looks like the original wall of the house still remains and has been extended alongside the kitchen wall.

So what i think they have done is bricked up the front of the house and maybe up to where the shower room goes to. From the rear of the building they have also bricked the wall but I am guessing from the side of the house they only went so far with the external bricks or as Stuart mentioned, they have cut out some of the brickwork.

I guess my question if my assumption and understanding is correct, is any of this legal? is it legal to have a part brick/ part blockwork extension (or at least covering the blockwork with brick only to a certain extent?). When we did our second viewing, the owner said that he had all necessary building regs for all the extensions (although we have not yet had sight of this) but could they be misleading us?

Thanks everyone, and appreciate the time taken with the long read but tried to give as much info as possible!

Ectophile

If the lean to is only for storage, and not a habitable room, they may not have bothered with building control.

If so, they may not have bothered with decent foundations either.

(Looking at the floor plan, is there a door into the shower room, or do you have to climb in through the window?)