Areas of concern from valuation report HELP!

LouLouHelen

We are trying to buy a house and have had an offer accepted at 200K on 224950 on 2 conditions 1) complete by end of month (offered accepted 5th Sept) and 2) property staying on market for 'back up' buyers to view only (estate agent has taken it off website and it making it clear that a sale is proceeding).

Our problem is this....
We have finally had the homebuyers report sent to us and it has flagged up the following and work that need doing immediately

1)No earth on the gas meter

2)Electrics are original from 1965 and are not earthed and some remedial work has been done but in need of updating - electrics shower not working and fuse out of box.

3)Boiler has recently been boxed in and in need or a Corgi plumber to check ventilation

4)Porch was built onto building afterwards but not by current vendor, it does not appear to have any lintels above the windows on either side and roof needs maintenance/repairing as mortar is crumbling away at sides

There were several other less urgent things like, ventilation holes in garages have been cemented in error and has asbestos in ceiling, chimney needs repointing, the cold water tank is asbestos and care is required if repairs are undertaken, door from kitchen to garage should be a fire door and isn't, door to porch is standard glass and should be safety glass.

I am really confused. I appreciate it is the job of a Surveyor to point this all out but how much of this should be a serious concern with THIS house and house much is simply because it was built in 1965?

I am annoyed that the vendor has spent littel money on the actual house and simply painted, recarpeted and put cheap kitchen in! :mad: We really like the house and want to by it but not if it is a dud and not if we are going to need to find £5000 as soon as we move in to make it safe (as the major concerns seem to be with electric and gas and that worries me).

Any advice on what anyone else would do in our position would be really really appreciated.

irnbru_2

LouLouHelen wrote:

1)No earth on the gas meter
3)Boiler has recently been boxed in and in need or a Corgi plumber to check ventilation

Contact a Corgi registered firm and ask them to come out and do an inspection on the safey of the Gas install - explain its an inspection to follow up survey.

LouLouHelen wrote:

2)Electrics are original from 1965 and are not earthed and some remedial work has been done but in need of updating - electrics shower not working and fuse out of box.

Not earthed? It could be the installation has metal conduit which carries the earth i.e. not Twin & earth cable.

Again arrange for an electrician to do a report.

Contact Estate agent to arrange suitable times to do an inspection.

Let the estate agent see the report.

LouLouHelen wrote:

4)Porch was built onto building afterwards but not by current vendor, it does not appear to have any lintels above the windows on either side and roof needs maintenance/repairing as mortar is crumbling away at sides

Just get a builder to quote repair/demolition. Maybe 50/50 split with vendor.

LouLouHelen wrote:

There were several other less urgent things like, ventilation holes in garages have been cemented in error and has asbestos in ceiling

The ceiling in the garage?

LouLouHelen wrote:

the cold water tank is asbestos and care is required if repairs are undertaken

Get a quote to replace and remove it.

Pennywise

The report doesn't sound too bad - fairly average for a house of that age. I presume you already knew about the cheap kitchen and porch in need of repair as these are evident from simply looking at the house - no doubt that is part of the reason you made your lower offer and they accepted it. Things like a bit of dodgy wiring and asbestos in the house are very common - it's usually enough that you're aware of it, rather than needing immediate attention.

Once you've moved in and start digging deeper, you WILL find other items of poor maintenance or dodgy DIY - that's just what to expect with a 40 year old house.

We've had no end of trouble with the wiring in our house and that was only 10 years old when we bought it - survey didn't show up anything because it all "looked" ok, but we soon discovered one of the previous owners was a bit of a "self taught electrician" who'd put in extra sockets, lights, telephone points, television points, external security lights and an alarm system himself - trouble was he'd no concept of the "industry-standard" colour coding nor of using different types of cable for different tasks (heavy duty ring main cable used as an TV aerial extension!!!!), nor of properly using the existing circuits (wired new sockets to lighting circuit etc). It all worked for him, as he knew how he'd done it so he could repair as necessary. BUT whenever we've needed an electrician (i.e. new wall lights, new socket, etc) his "handywork" has come to light, necessitating whole swathes of re-wiring and literally thousands of pounds spent on electricians, replacing damaged electrical goods, etc. It would have been cheaper and simpler to have had the whole house re-wired when we first bought it. Are we bitter? Did we complain? Did we let it ruin our lives? NO - it's just one of those things - buyer beware - you WILL find problems and fixing them is all part of owning a house.

Doozergirl

:wave:

If the last house was £211k and this house is an end of terrace and has parking, you can definately expect to pay more, regardless of condition. If you've seen similar and they cost more, then this really is what you get for the money and I can see this house selling for the price you have it at. But...

Pennywise points out the hazards of buying an old house - granted. But these people bought the house 3 months ago to blatantly make money by doing as little possible to the house. It sounds like they have no knowledge even of how to turn a house around, either that or they don't care.

Anybody buying a house to redevelop it can see when a chimney needs repointing at least. The electrics are the biggest point there. They should be redone - they're out of date and will only deteriorate with time. When that's done, replastering has to be done and the redecoration that goes with it. It will cost a considerable amount of money. Someone needs to see the boiler too if the surveyor couldn't get to it.

LLH, you have to establish whether you are paying a premium for having someone paint the house for you or whether this is it's true value in the present condition. If you feel you are paying a premium for a house that will need no maintenance, the vendors are completely misleading you. I wish I were nearer to you - I'd sort them out!

LouLouHelen

Hi Doozer - the story continues ey!! just a few more hurdles.............

well I know we are paying a premium because the house is in a popular area. I don't mind general 40 year old property type expected maintenance. I am annoyed they have left the electrics and not even thought to bring them a little more up to date. The money they have spend on the Magnolia is going to go out of the window if we need to replaster walls - what a waste of time!

I really want the house and am not trying to be difficult. I am worried that as they have stillleft house on market they are expecting us to find something during the valuation and are ready to say they will put it back on the market if we ask for work to be done on it. They said orignally that they don't need to sell because they can always rent it out - this work would surely need doing to rent!!!

We were not aware of the porch when we offered, we were aware of the electric fuse box being an old one and the chimney possible needing doing.

Ok with boiler as basically worst case we will need to take cupboard off that has been recently built round it.

Electrican coming round it on SUnday (as no one is living at house, agent holds keys and no one is available to accompany us until then!)

Is the water tank s big problem - do we really need to replace is immediately.

Taking away the panic of the rush to exchange and the fact they they won't take it off the market therefore making us feel permanently grateful that they are letting us buy the property at all :mad: What of these issues are expected/acceptable in a house of this age and which ones do you think we have a right to go back to the vendor about??

Slider

Got to agree with Doozergirl, it all boils down to true value of the property.

If 200k is right for your area for a house in need of this level of work, then assuming your will have some cash to perform the more immediate tasks, go ahead.

Regarding the comments about must complete by end of month, its normally just huff and puff, think about it, come end of september, if you propose to complete mid -October are they really going to walk away; No.

Top tip for re-wires. Ask the sparky, to show you where he wants the walls chasing out, boxes fixing, boards lifting etc. Do all this yourself, then he can come back, lay cables, terminate, and test. You then patch walls etc.

LouLouHelen

TO be honest we will have £5000 approx coming in over next few months but not in one go, might need to get a loan upfront and repay it over a short period. Not the best of ideas but we have used all of our equity for fees and deposit.

Like the idea re the re-wiring I wil remember that.

What about original planning permission and building regs will they have applied to the porch? How do we know whether we will HAVE to knock it down or not?

rozeepozee

My attitude with making an offer on the house is that my offer is the price I think it's worth if there are no major problems. If the survey brings something up, I'll get quotes provide them to the seller and reduce my offer accordingly. I hear what you are saying about really wanting the house, but that sounds like you are buying with your heart and not your head. There are always other properties.

Regarding the planning permission etc, this should be something your solicitor could advise you on. That's what you are paying him/her for.

Lemoncurd

Sounds like some of the issues we had with our new house (built in 1971), definitely a good idea to get the electrics and gas etc checked. The previous owner had only had it 2 years and we think she had planned to do it up and make some money too but had missed some major stuff!

We had to have ours rewired which meant we couldn't move in for 6 weeks because of the rewire and work following this - the chases needing replastering and then the whole place redecorating. Don't mean to scare you too much, maybe your electrician will say that such extensive work isn't necessary but we got four quotes for the rewire and went with one of the cheapest ones and that came to nearly £7000 (in Berkshire too), the replastering was over £500, redecorating £1200 (would have done it ourselves but there just wasn't time). There were also some other associated costs, chases were needed in the kitchen and bathrooms which meant retiling (luckily we were doing the bathrooms anyway) but the kitchen had only recently been fitted so that was a bit of a waste. Also the carpets will probably have to come up temporarily. We also had to spend another £2000+ (6 weeks) on rent and duplicated bills etc while the work was being done.
Although we had the gas checked before purchase, on moving in we found that the boiler leaked liquid when turned off (only 2 years old) and 2 rings on the 2 year old gas hob were also not working. So new problems may still crop up like others have said.

Good luck!

Doozergirl

LouLouHelen wrote:

Is the water tank a big problem - do we really need to replace it immediately.

Don't think so. from what I understand, asbestos becomes dangerous when it's moved or broken.

LouLouHelen wrote:

What of these issues are expected/acceptable in a house of this age and which ones do you think we have a right to go back to the vendor about??

Put the ball in their court - why don't you photocopy the surveyor's report, highlight issues and let the vendors have a copy and wait for a response. Rather than suggest what they do, ask them what they want to do.

If they are inexperienced, it may well frighten them. If they're not worried by it, they're sods. Hopefully, they'll undertake to rectify some things (repointing for one) themselves before you buy. If they've had no further offers in the last couple of weeks, they'll be a little less cocky. Electrics are the major concern there but I doubt they'll do anything about them.

LouLouHelen wrote:

What about original planning permission and building regs will they have applied to the porch? How do we know whether we will HAVE to knock it down or not?

They will need to get indemnity insurance for the extention. That's all. It cost about £75. You won't have to knock it down.

LouLouHelen

We have arranged to go and see the property again on Sunday with an electrican and a plumber. I had taken some photos with my phone on my previous visit and from what he can see the plumber has agreed to come and see it himself and write a report for us.

If in his opinion the boiler should be condemned (worst case) we have instructed him but it is not our property so he cannot actually condemn it. How would you put this to the vendor/agent? because we did not anticipate this cost in our offer price!!