Maintenance and running costs for a larger, older house

Bigphil1474

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82115008#Comment_82115008

That sounds like standard surveyor wording for roofs to me. I wouldn't expect an EA to go to the trouble of rewording it to sound better tbh, but you never know. The survey on our old house said similar and I've been past it a few times and seems the same. We had a page and a half of roof 'issues' with our newer house and the roofer came and checked it over and we've had zero repairs done in 2 years.

If the EA has the report from the previous buyer, ask them to send you it, not just extracts.

Bramble194

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82116422#Comment_82116422

We've tried asking that of the EA but sadly no luck - they say the previous buyer is not comfortable with the report being shared on to us.

I'm taking some comfort though from the fact there's nothing more significant mentioned in the summary report from the EA, as it sounds like they are obliged to make us aware of material problems.

Bigphil1474

You could offer to pay them some money. The first buyer of our house pulled out after their survey and we asked if we could buy their report and they sent it for free as it wasn't worth anything to them. Happy days. Maybe worth a £hundred just to see the full thing?

ka7e

Having previously lived in a Victorian house with stupidly high ceilings (8-tread stepladder needed to change a lightbulb), you need to appreciate how much dead space you are heating before a room feels comfortably warm. The only time I took my fleece off indoors was when I was up the aforementioned ladder - it was positively tropical up there, but sitting down you needed thermals and woolly socks!

stuart45

High ceilings keep the rooms much cooler in the really hot weather though, so might become more popular in the future if the summers keep getting hotter.

jimi_man

I think the amount of cold weather that we have (many months) which requires heating, vastly outweighs the few weeks of hot weather that we have.

Rosa_Damascena

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82116422#Comment_82116422

What is the EA up to? You are perfectly capable of reading a survey without any embellishment from an EA.

The first peoperty I put an offer on came up with a multitude of problems on survey - but the vendor wouldn't budge on price so I had to walk away. I offered an outline to the EA but was very clear that having spent ?£500 on this survey (this was back in 2000) I wasn't about to disclose its contents without some kind of compensation. If the vendor had been smart they would have offered me half the cost and I would have handed it over, it was no good to me after all but might have helped the vendor sell faster and at a more realistic price!

Alex_thompson

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6680888/maintenance-and-running-costs-for-a-larger-older-house

With a property of that age and size, I think the maintenance side is probably the bigger thing to look into rather than trying to work out one average annual figure. The external timber, roof eaves and render are things I'd pay particular attention to, as those can become expensive if they're left for too long.

I'd also ask the current owners for a few years of energy bills and details of any major maintenance they've had done. That should give you a much better idea of what you're taking on than relying on an estimated figure based on the EPC alone.