Surveyors declined Level 3 – Unfinished flip red flags (St Helens)

needadviceasapplease

Hi everyone,
We are looking to buy a 1930s property in the St Helens area, but we are extremely suspicious of the seller's situation and need advice on how to proceed after being rejected by two surveyors.
The Context & Red Flags:

• Unfinished Flip: The seller bought this house just 1.5 years ago and started a renovation, but has now put it back on the market with the works left halfway done. We strongly suspect they hit a major issue they couldn't afford or resolve.
• Roof / Covered Leaks: 1.5 years ago (when the current seller bought it), the property had severe water stains on the first-floor ceilings. The ceilings have now been freshly plasterboarded and painted over. We strongly suspect they simply installed new plasterboard to mask the water damage without actually repairing the roof structure or tile defects.
• Uncertified Structural Work (RSJs): The seller replaced/installed steel beams (RSJs) over the windows. There is no Building Regulations completion certificate for this structural work. When questioned, the seller claimed they "didn't need a certificate" and just installed them "for their own peace of mind" — which sounds like a classic excuse for uncertified structural alterations.
• Central Heating System: The seller removed all the radiators throughout the house and never reinstalled them. The boiler (Potterton) is physically on the wall, but the pressure gauge is sitting at 0 bar (completely drained/depressurised). Without radiators or a sealed loop, the heating system cannot be tested at all.

Our Problem:
We approached two local RICS surveyors for a Level 3 Building Survey, but both declined the job. They explicitly stated that a standard Level 3 inspection cannot give us definitive answers regarding the uncertified window RSJs, the disconnected heating, or whether historical roof leaks were properly fixed behind the new plasterboard.
We really want to avoid buying a massive money pit.
Could you please advise:

1. Has anyone dealt with a seller using new plasterboard to cover up roof leaks or claiming window RSJs didn't need Building Regs "for peace of mind"? How do we properly verify these hidden elements?
2. Should we bypass a standard RICS surveyor for now and hire a Structural Engineer (for the window beams) and a Roofing Specialist directly?
3. Should we even keep looking for a RICS Level 3 surveyor, or will every surveyor decline this type of property?
4. If a Level 3 survey is still worth doing alongside specialist checks, does anyone have recommendations for a thorough, reliable local surveyor or firm in/around St Helens?
5. For the missing radiators/zero-pressure boiler, should we just assume the entire plumbing system is ruined and deduct the full cost of a new central heating installation from our offer?

Any advice or guidelines on how to navigate this would be much appreciated! 🙏🏼☺️

Thanks in advance for any insights!

MattMattMattUK

Walk away!

Or more sensibly, run!

Herzlos

The surveyors are doing you a favour, it's going to be a massive money pit.

You need to assume that all of the work has been done badly and you'll need to strip it back to brick. You probably won't get a mortgage on it.

I'd bet money the leak hasn't been fixed either.

daveyjp

If a surveyor refuses to provide a certifed inspection its a good pointer it is one to avoid.

Streetview is a good resource for looking back over the years to identify if any roof works have been undertaken.

Albermarle

It is the type of property that is more suitable for an experienced developer/builder. If you are not one of those, then I would move on and look elsewhere.

Tabieth

I wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole!

sherlock228

the reason surveyors refused is because they cannot see what work was done and therefore cannot pass judgement on it

a structural engineer will be in the same situation, without being able to make "invasive" inspections they cannot certify if the rsj is correctly specified and /or installed.

i would be amazed if the vendor grants permission for someone to dig holes in the walls to see what is what before buying it. So you will be back at square one, your questions cannot be answered without a physical inspection of the now covered over "work".

as others have said, walk away unless you wish to take a huge gamble

Bigphil1474

I'd say it would be unusual for a developer to reboard a ceiling that was damaged by a leak without dealing with the leak, that would just be madness. Installing RSJ's would be my bigger concern. No BC sign off or a written scheme would put me right off altogether. Plenty of houses out there. As above, this one sounds like something for another developer to buy.

Herzlos

You're assuming it's a qualified developer and not just some guy who watched too many episodes of Homes Under The Hammer.

sherlock228

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82122738#Comment_82122738

agreed, exactly why I walked away when looking for my first house, the one I was interested in (initially!) was a mortgage repossession of a property that was obviously a DIY project that had run out of money.

Although in that case there was a survey and it did flag up the fact that the RSJ needed to be "invasively" checked in the absence of BC sign off. (Among other things - removal of chimney breast at ground and first floor floor levels leaving the rooftop stack on a gallows bracket in the attic of unknown provenance)

A lesson well learned that a survey can be money wisely spent when you do not know about construction yourself.

stuart45

It's quite common for flippers not to bother with the roof if they can get away with it. As with second hand car dealers, they know the key to maximum profit is to make the property look nice. When people see the ad for a car or house that is just what they are looking for they've already bought it in their minds before they've seen it. As long as it looks really good there's a good chance they will buy it. Even for a house only about 20% of people get a proper survey, and then they'll publish a poor survey on the net to be told it's all fine and just a typical survey report covering himself in case he gets taken to court, which is what they wanted to hear.

At least in this case people are advising the OP not to go ahead with this purchase, although without knowing the price and exact problems you can only really guess at the best advice.