Survey results - help!

liss90

I would grateful for any results regarding our survey on our first home. We had a homebuyers survey done and got the initial results back last week. All was fine and us being green first time buyers thought that was it.
Until this morning we got the novel or the the indepth survey. It says that there is no evidence of damp coursing with evidence of damp to a back extension wall. Old signs of woodworm but no new signs of it. The chimney breast needs redoing as a matter of urgency as it is no longer inline with current practices. It has been corbelled in the past and the brickwork has cracked and moved. One of the walls has perhaps been moved and there is evidence of some weight from the bathroom on to the kitchen ceiling. The gas central heating has not been serviced for two years.
There are a few other minor problems but these we are not worried about. We got the property for £116,000 reduced from £124,995 to £119.995 and we offered £116,000.
Should we be really worried? The mortgage company has not withheld any of the mortgage.
Any advice would be gratefully recieved.
Many thanks!

Ember999

liss90 wrote:

I would grateful for any results regarding our survey on our first home. We had a homebuyers survey done and got the initial results back last week. All was fine and us being green first time buyers thought that was it.
Until this morning we got the novel or the the indepth survey. It says that there is no evidence of damp coursing with evidence of damp to a back extension wall. Old signs of woodworm but no new signs of it. The chimney breast needs redoing as a matter of urgency as it is no longer inline with current practices. It has been corbelled in the past and the brickwork has cracked and moved. One of the walls has perhaps been moved and there is evidence of some weight from the bathroom on to the kitchen ceiling. The gas central heating has not been serviced for two years.
There are a few other minor problems but these we are not worried about. We got the property for £116,000 reduced from £124,995 to £119.995 and we offered £116,000.
Should we be really worried? The mortgage company has not withheld any of the mortgage.
Any advice would be gratefully recieved.
Many thanks!

I had a similar thing with the damp and the woodworm. My cottage I am buying had this turn up on the survey. On the advice of my surveyor, I called a wood specialist in the Dumfries area and they went out to take a look, prepare a survey and give a quote for *free* yes! Free! My back porch had signs of damp and the roof timbers had signs of woodworm. Not bad that this was all that was wrong in a 100+ year old country cottage The good news was that the total cost to do both would be only £700 so it's not as expensive as you think and as I got the cottage for almost £15,000 less than it was valued at, I got a pretty good deal! So may you! I did get this survey done by the wood specialist prior to having my offer finalised (legal once accepted in Scotland!) and I advise you do this also. It won't cost you to get a quote, find out the exact situation before you part with your money to buy the house.

Just look up 'wood specialist' in your chosen area on www.yell.com, give them a ring, make an appointment and wait for the results. Then, decide if you are in pocket to get the work done compared with the cost of your home.

Good Luck,

Ember

liss90

Many thanks,
It looks like we need about three different people in - one for the chimney (a builder) one for the damp and one for the wood. Or am I wrong? As we do not live in this area how would we go about finding decent honest people and how many people should we get out to give us quotes. Should we be there when these people go round or can we just ask the vendors to show them around. Would anyone know any of trades people needed in the Dover/folkestone area?
Many thanks again!

greenwich

Nowadays, surveyors, like all professionals, are wary of being sued for negligence. I once had a survey done (on a house I didn't buy - big mistake as I'd have made a fortune!). Basically the surveyor had covered his back by finding fault with everything. He suggested that I should get specialist surveys for the electricity, gas, drains, plumbing, roof, you name it. So if any fault ever came up in the future he could say "I warned you." Don't get too scared - people do live in houses and they don't often fall down. Ideally, get a friendly builder to give you some realistic advice.

ben500

The chimney could well be your biggest problem but it depends on a lot of factors such as are you going to use it, is it affected structurally, can it be "sleeved", it may even need to be completely stripped and rebuilt (very very coslty) you should at least have someone look at it the weight from the bathroom could also be a big problem it could indicate something as simple as previous escape of water damage but it could be something more sinister again evern structural, its a big move parting with as much money do you have any contingency money to cover for the above events all in one go? its always best to do your checking before rather than chequeing after!!

Ian_W

Ember has covered the damp and wood things - neither of those is likely to be too expensive in the general scheme of things.

What would worry me, at this stage, are the comments about chimney/wall and the bathroom in relation to the kitchen ceiling. Being flippant about the latter, downstairs bathrooms make properties harder to sell, particularly if situated in a kitchen with no ceiling!! :eek:

The fact that the lender hasn't refused the loan means they think the prop is suitable security for a mortgage, ie it isn't about to fall down anytime soon.

I would speak to the surveyer and go through the issues with him/her, see how urgent/expensive they think they are. Surveyer may be able to suggest local trades people for examination. I would then see EA give them a copy of the report and try to work some way out you can get examinations done.

Once you've got costings, dependent on amount, there may well be scope to negotiate further on price. You have got some reduction but that was based on the house passing a survey - it hasn't. Vendor should be prepared to meet bulk of costs bearing in mind these things are likely to show up on another purchasers survey if they refuse you. EA's are quite used to this situation so should assist. Of course, at this stage, if problems are REALLY scary or you don't want the prospect of major building works you could pull the plug - cost you a survey, saved you a load of hassle!

Lastly, GCH boiler, insist vendor has it serviced by a CORGI reg firm be4 the sale goes through and supplies your sol with copy of the cert issued. If you want total peace of mind you could get the system checked independently at your cost.

Best of luck.

liss90

Hi again,
Just an update!
I have spoken to the surveyor and he has told me a steel lintel needs to be placed from one end of the property to the other in the roof void.
I then phoned a builders/engineer in Dover and they told me that they did some quotes on this property four years ago and then the vendor gave all the reports to another builder to carry out the work. He also told me that four years ago he told this vendor that one of her chimney stacks was unsupported. He has told me that this job may cost in the region of £1500 with scaffolding. They would need to put a hole in the roof to get the steel support in.
The surveyor has also told me that this job must be done as it is unsafe.
I spoke to the estate agent and requested access to get quotes done. He told me not to worry about the report and a lot of old houses have this problem.
I told him that we have children and we are not even prepared to move into a house which may be unsafe. I also requested that the central heating be looked at as we do not want to move into a house in winter and find faults with central heating.
As mentioned in an earlier post we did get the price down from £119,995 to £116,000 would it be unreasonable to request that the vendors meet us halfway for any costs for work on the house. A damp proofing course also needs to be put in on the back addition.
The vendors must of known there were problems and I have told the estate agent this - we have not asked for reductions in price or anything as yet until we get a quote but would it be reasonable to ask when we get quotes?
Thankyou for all your helpful responses so far!
Liss.

Ian_W

liss90 wrote: As mentioned in an earlier post we did get the price down from £119,995 to £116,000 would it be unreasonable to request that the vendors meet us halfway for any costs for work on the house. A damp proofing course also needs to be put in on the back addition.

Unless any of these problems were highlighted in the EA's property details - I think you're selling yourselves woefully short only expecting half.
This vendor knew before putting it on sale that several thousands was needed to put their prop in a safe/sound condition but hoped a mug would come along and have no survey or a basic valuation done.
No matter how much you like the property or it suits you, you should seriously consider whether to proceed - personally it would be pass the Bargepole time. But consider do you really want builders all over the house for weeks when you've just moved in, in the middle of winter, then all the cosmetic work to do afterwards. As for the EA saying lots of old buildings have problems, well that's true but if they're as serious as these seem most people, except chancers, would get them sorted before putting it up for sale.
Bottom line, if you still want to go ahead - only you can decide that, go for the whole amount and don't forget any redec you'll need after buiding work is done.
Good luck.