Worrying survey report for newly refurbed Victorian terrace - what to do!?

plumb1_2

Imo I’d walk away, or get a 30k reduction so you can do the properly.
House flippers are only concerned about profit, and will always cut back on the quality of materials and labour.
Be very concerned about what can’t be seen . I’ve been in the building game for 50 yrs and seen it all 
A old saying spring to mind, fur coat and no nickers.
I get where your coming from as ftb you’re in love with the house, but use your head.
One question what’s holding up the chimney stack, now they’ve removed the chimney breasts 

koalakoala

I wouldn’t even consider that, sounds a real cheap renovation

mlz1413

If the Flippers haven't any building control paperwork I would retract your offer and walk away.

I say this because removing walls and chimney breasts needs correct support work or the roof will in the future sag or cave in, because the house has had supporting walls removed. 

If they do have building control documents for all structural work then I would still be worried as they have missed basic works like the sealant around kitchen and bathroom units. 

Also partially covering an electrical consumer unit is stupid.   How will you reset the electrics if a fuse goes?

So may absolutely no-no's in that list!!  Clearly cutting corners and doing everything on the cheap.

Any work that needs doing is going to mess up what has been done. IE remove plaster, add insulation and re-plaster.  That's dusty and dirty work, you need to empty the room and protect all the flooring to enable this.

I would be getting a builder around to view with you and quote for the work. You can't guess that figure!

lfc321

For me, if they have building control sign-off on the chimney and wall removal, the other things don’t sound too bad or too expensive to fix. 
But if they don’t have approval for those structural changes, I’d walk away. 

Chief_of_Staffy

On the upside, if you buy the place you won't have any surprises. You know it's going to be a disaster.

Bigphil1474

I can honestly say in my entire life I have never owned a house with fire doors fitted. It's just not a thing that would worry me in a privately owned domestic property. I think your chat with the surveyor is the most telling. They have to tell you every little thing that is or could be an issue in the report. When we bought our house, there was 2 pages of 'issues' with the roof according to the surveyor. Our roofer mate of a mate had a look and said the roof was bob on, and over a year after moving in we've not needed to do any work on the roof. 

The key consideration for me would be that they have obtained any planning permissions where necessary, but more importantly they have had building control sign off on the works they've done like removing the wall and the chimneys. The wall will probably have had a steel support put in and BC usually look at the plans, and see the steel before it is all boxed in. Chimney works as well. If they've got all the paperwork in order, I'd get a builder round to have a look at it with you and tell you what if any work really needs doing. Honestly, the house we bought had something like a 76 page report full of 'issues' - there were a couple of jobs that the vendors did before we exchanged, and a few jobs I DIY'd, and we've subsequently had a gas engineer to do a bit of work on the boiler, and some minor electrical work, but we've spent maybe £1k in total. Sometimes the survey reports rightly tell you that there are serious issues to consider and sometimes they find a lot of mole hills.

Section62

Bigphil1474 said:

I can honestly say in my entire life I have never owned a house with fire doors fitted. It's just not a thing that would worry me in a privately owned domestic property. I think your chat with the surveyor is the most telling. They have to tell you every little thing that is or could be an issue in the report. When we bought our house, there was 2 pages of 'issues' with the roof according to the surveyor. Our roofer mate of a mate had a look and said the roof was bob on, and over a year after moving in we've not needed to do any work on the roof.

How many of those homes were 3+ storey though, and how many gained the 3rd+ storey as a result of a loft conversion with less than ideal access?

This issue is one where the surveyor should have been able to be definite on: if fire rated doors were necessary to comply with the building regulations then they should have been installed.

Bigphil1474 said:

The key consideration for me would be that they have obtained any planning permissions where necessary, but more importantly they have had building control sign off on the works they've done like removing the wall and the chimneys. The wall will probably have had a steel support put in and BC usually look at the plans, and see the steel before it is all boxed in. Chimney works as well. If they've got all the paperwork in order, I'd get a builder round to have a look at it with you and tell you what if any work really needs doing. Honestly, the house we bought had something like a 76 page report full of 'issues' - there were a couple of jobs that the vendors did before we exchanged, and a few jobs I DIY'd, and we've subsequently had a gas engineer to do a bit of work on the boiler, and some minor electrical work, but we've spent maybe £1k in total. Sometimes the survey reports rightly tell you that there are serious issues to consider and sometimes they find a lot of mole hills.

I think there's a bit of a difference between a property which has evolved over time and developed some issues, most of them minor, and a property which has been flipped.  By people who've never flipped a property before.  On a property which was guided at £79k+ and is now in excess of £300k

Those issues should have been fixed as part of the renovation.  If the work has been done in compliance with building regs then the owners should have all the paperwork, and if sensible should have a folder with pictures of the work as it progressed.  They'd have told the EA that all the work conformed with regs and was fully documented, so the EA could respond confidently to the OP's enquiry that everything was in order and full documentation can be supplied.

I could be wrong, but I fear for the OP that as they approach exchange there will be a discovery of a problem with the paperwork, or "our builder said it didn't need regs", or "that was done before we purchased".  ...have an indemnity instead.

stuart45

It sounds like they did nothing to the roof, which is normally the first, or one of the first jobs on a refurb. Having done jobs for quite a few flippers over the years, it's quite normal for them to bodge up the work. Occasionally you'll get someone like a time served chippy who gets the chance of a cheap house, and does a really good job because of his pride in the work. 

Chief_of_Staffy

stuart45 said:

... does a really good job because of his pride in the work. 

It's heartening to hear that such people still exist, even though I'm unlikely to meet one.

stuart45

Chief_of_Staffy said:

stuart45 said:

... does a really good job because of his pride in the work. 

It's heartening to hear that such people still exist, even though I'm unlikely to meet one.

There's still quite a few around, but unfortunately if you don't work in the trade you can't find them. 
A lot of the really good tradesmen prefer to work for a firm on an hourly rate, so are usually only available for a weekend job. 
Ones that aren't good enough to work for a firm will often go and find their own work. They can get away with it for years, especially in the more urban areas.
You do also get some really good tradesmen that want to work for themselves as well. The problem with self employment is that if a job has been under priced it needs a lot of self discipline to do the job to the same high standards that they would for a higher price.
Nowadays, I only work on an hourly rate for people. Some aren't interested, but I can do the work properly without any issues, and at the end of the job it still works out at a decent price. Generally, most good tradesmen tend to give a really high price to allow for a good job, so customers are often paying more than they would just paying by the hour.