To sell my house with a known damp problem?

It really is only fair to disclose. The depth of surveys differ according to which one you choose so a buyer can't rely on a basic one. We are selling and moving and wouldn't dream of leaving a problem, also our survey picked up damp problems in new house. Do the right thing please. Xx

You'd think but its not always picked up on.

Hi op,

disclose and offer a reasonable price which includes half for the work that needs doing.
then refuse any other « negociation » for any other issue except if showing on buyers report, dump and find other buyer as soon as problem arise to avoid CF.

good luck!

As an agent ai can comfortably say that, so long as you are entirely transparent, it’s totally fine. However, offers will reflect the work required.

The survey will find it, and the price will drop accordingly.
we bought a damp hse, got loads knocked of price, did the work, and now it’s dry

Don’t know where you are but as someone who works in the industry I can tell you it’s not quiet at all. Houses are selling

Specialist damp survey. Home buyers survey suspected condensation. We then paid the damp company for a full damp survey on the whole house - they said no damp which we found out wasn’t true on the day we got the keys and saw the house with no furniture

Was it a Level 3 survey?

I’m taking them to small claims court but no guarantees. Just don’t use a National damp company who’s first name is a man’s name, second name is a type of apple…

I would say it is fine to sell provided you are happy to let the buyers know that work needs doing and let them get their own damp survey if they want. The only thing I would say is you do leave yourself open to a questionable cost deduction. Think about what deduction you are prepared to make. Ensuring that trades people don't rip you off is hard enough when you are overseeing and paying for the work - add in another level and it gets complicated. We've all been through that get 3 quotes for 1 job and you get quote a; quote b which is 1.5 times quote a; quote b which is twice quote a! Who will get the quotes? What will you do if a you get quoted A and buyer gets quoted 3A for the work? Will you say you'll knock off YOUR quote value and start again if the buyer walks away? Or will you agree to knock off THEIR quote value and possibly get fleeced?! Like I hope you get a lovely buyer, who wants to do work on the house anyway and will accept you knocking off a competitive price and be happy, but you might not.

Adjust the price, my friend's house was in need of a new roof, so she took £10,000.00 off the price, sold in no time, just be honest.

Personally I wouldn’t buy a house with damp, so if I were you I would get it fixed before selling or be prepared to drop the price lower than the work will cost as people will be cautious

Yes, it would put me off massively. I am busy and have lived through various building jobs - I still have nightmares over the kitchen which took twice the time it was meant to take and the cowboy roofer. I just wouldn't buy a property with a known issue.

The discount will be the cost of the work to be done with a margin for extra unknown costs and a further margin for the unpleasantness of living through it.

I'd get on with having it fixed and just crack on with the second baby as you haven't got time to waste. Yes, you will likely be moving with a small baby but it is the better financial decision.

Get the valuation both with a view to it's worth with the work complete and outstanding, get some quotes for the work and then you are in a good place for negotiation on price. You may also decide that getting the work done in the summer is the best route.

I have a damp problem also and you seem quite knowledgeable. Would an independent damp surveyor be the best person to come and look and tell me what should be done. I’m really afraid of being scammed by cowboys.

Personally it would be ok with me, but I'd take your quote and just knock it straight off the asking price plus a bit for inconvenience/contingency, so you might be better to fix it yourselves unless it's the time issue that is most pressing. Alternatively you could as your estate agent to market it with the damp factored in and then be super clear you won't be negotiating because it's factored into the asking price.
You will likely lose/not attract nervous first time buyers (who hear damp and RUN). You will attract those who want a project or want a bargain, but they'll be offering lower...
We sold a flat with a leaky roof, we paid a roofing company to patch the damaged bits and ensure it was no longer leaking and explained to buyers that whilst there were signs of a leak it had been fixed - showed them all the paperwork etc.it cost less than an entire new roof (the Grade A most expensive solution) but meant we knocked nothing off the price. If we'd sold it without any fix, all the buyers would've knocked 50k off to replace the entire roof (which whilst being the best option and probably recommended wasn't totally necessary). Is there a middle way for you which removes the damp medium-term but isn't as costly?

We bought with an obvious damp issue - got our own builders round to get a full survey of issue and cost to fix as house was priced to reflect the problem. Similar to yours was a roof / render issue.

Got straight onto fixing it before we'd even unpacked and it was done and completely decorated just a few months later.

As long as you disclose it honestly then I don't see a problem. Although it will likely put a lot of people off – damp is often not straightforward to fix. If you want to get the best price, I would do the work first.

Our sellers did not disclose (and covered up) a significant damp problem and it's caused a huge amount of stress, will be very expensive to fix, and it's pretty devastating tbh.

At least what it would cost, plus additional 25-50% for the inconvenience

Sympathy @JumpstartMondays , we bought a house like that and every single issue we discovered and tried to fix revealed an additional problem which had to be sorted before the original issue could be done. They weren't small jobs either, more like springy floorboards that revealed rotten joists that revealed a solid floor and damp breach resulting in digging out the whole kitchen floor to a depth of over a metre...

OP's house doesn't sound like that though so hopefully the damp is the only issue that stands out. And if it was me, I would get the damp problem fixed before putting it on the market and at 38, just get cracking with baby no. 2.

The market isn't good at the moment and of the houses I see going on, the ones taking longer to sell or not selling are the ones that need work on them. Trades seem to have long lead times, especially the good, trustworthy ones, so I'd find it off-putting knowing the property had water ingress and damp which I'd have to get fixed and maybe have to wait for that, while the problem gets worse... nope. Other houses out there that don't have that problem.

We bought a house with obvious damp issues. The survey was appalling, so appalling that I rang the surveyor and asked if we were mad to be considering it and off the record would he buy it. "Oh like a shot" he said. So we did.

The vendor had 15 full price offers on the house.

We were planning on spending a lot of money on it anyway but the damp cost an awful lot less to fix than I'd anticipated.

More issues always arise when you start doing work on a house so be prepared for that.

We worked on our loft room, which led to leak discovery in the bathroom and a leak from the washing machine lead to damp identification in the kitchen. Replaced the bathroom and the kitchen which lead to discovery our electrics needed earthing and redoing as well as our stairs are giving out so now need to replace those too.

And when we had the gutters cleaned we identified a hole in the roof and quoting for that identified a bigger roof problem so now we're waiting on a new roof.

Once you pop you just don't stop!

If it were me I'd be transparent that there is an issue, but sell and let them do the work.

And I'd get started on that baby too and not wait.

Good luck

You can - we bought a house with some obvious damp in the hall, a leaking flat roof and quite a bit of water damage to a third room from a leak. It was priced accordingly and we knew we would be renovating.

If you're not that well off though I'd guess you would save money doing it yourself unless it's an extremely desirable area.

I wouldn’t buy a house with a known damp problem, it would need to be addressed before anyone moves in and who wants to wait months for that and go through the hassle of having to ensure there’s no mould growth from it? Black mould can be deadly.

Why should a buyer have to pay for a survey to tell them something that the buyer is well aware of. Hundreds of pounds for a survey. I pulled out of an offer after finding a significant damp problem in a house I was looking to buy. The seller was well aware of it and was just hoping I’d be naive enough to not have a full structural survey. It’s incredibly immoral to hide something like this from a buyer.