Buying a house with significant black moulds on walls

[peacefulworld]

We’ve been looking to buy a bigger home for sometime. We are a family of four living in a small 3-bed end of terrace house. The total sq footage of the current house is 65m2.

Here it’s the house we have our eyes on and we are viewing it this weekend. First thing I noticed was the extensive moulds on the walls. Particularly the wall with blue paints upstairs and the green wall in the downstairs living room.

Similar properties on the same estate are selling for £500000-£540000. Does anyone have experience purchasing a house with significant damp issue and how much would it cost to rectify the issue roughly? We intend to make a very low offer. The property has been empty for a few years I think.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/154367360

Ok so if the back of the house and CONSERVATORY faces NORTH EAST you will not enjoy sitting in it as it will be chilly apart from early morning cups of coffee

Why would someone put a huge conservatory facing North East with a glass or plastic roof?

UNLESS it has some light from the south or south west or south East

Direct SOUTH is too hot for a conservatory

so and EAST WEST HOUSE with the garden on the west side is my favourite

Our old house was North south with garden south - which was great but the north facing rooms were so cold and dark

If you have damp in those rooms then need lots of investigation

Although I bet a developer would just paint over those walls so you don't know what is under the paint so at least you know what is there

We are selling and buying at the same time. We will rent for a few months when renovating. Wouldn’t risk living in a mouldy house with very young children.

It could be the guttering has been leaking for a long time if it's all external walls. But I wouldn't buy, simply because I have lived in a house with damp and mold and not doing it again.

Wouldn’t touch it without a damp survey from someone reputable.

It’s not limited to the corner where the downspout is but seems spread across the gable end wall, I’ve be concerned about issues with that wall. If it is that then your £50k could be swallowed up very quickly!

Personally I think that could be sorted. But I’d definitely get a specialist survey and give myself a chunky budget to do it, including asking for a reduction in price.

Has the house been stood for ages with no one in/ no heating on? It looks to me as if it was something relatively simple but which has been left for too long to get worse and worse. But definitely get a view from an expert.

If it were me, I'd walk away and keep looking.
The house that my mum moved into when I was 2 years old had black mould - she spent years trying all sorts to treat it, then last year (44 years later), she got yet more experts in and they also discovered damp and black mould in other areas of her house, where she hadn't seen any (it was under the wallpaper right behind where she sits and she has COPD) - they knocked off all of the plaster and put a new damp course in but she said that recently she's seen it creeping back.

My mum might just be unlucky with her house, but her walls looked a lot better than the ones in that house. It's the mould spores that would worry me even more than the mould you can see.

Like PPs have said though, if the amount you're saving, is an amount that you can afford to pay out to have it remedied, after a full and thorough survey, then maybe consider it, but for now, keep looking at other properties too.

I wouldn’t in a million years. We did the same, spent £50k trying to fix it, didn’t, couldn’t afford any more, had to sell it at a loss, ended up £90k poorer. And ours was nowhere near that bad. A developer bought our house in the end and had to strip all the walls back to brick, pull up the floors and damp proof the cavities, replace the floors, rerender the entire house and redo all the insulation.

I would suspect it is largely due to the house being unheated and poorly ventilated for a long period of time especially if it is everywhere - not likely to be linked to a roof issue or blocked drain. Just make sure you get a decent survey to check.

We've just three months ago moved out of a place with less mould than that and the consequences were awful. We worked hard to keep on top of it but it was a landlord issue and he wouldn't sort the root cause.

The mould spores have got into all our furniture and possessions and we've lost 4 skips worth of stuff that was much-wanted and had the expense of replacing it. I'm currently sanding down an antique piece of furniture that had mould all over it from being in that place. I'm going to paint it with bathroom paint (with mould killer) as a last resort to try and save it. We had to throw out DS's bed. We had to bin treasured books, possessions, postcards from around the world. There's only so much you can clean off. We're still getting mould blooms now, 3 months away from the place.

On a human front, (non-asthmatic) DS had to have an ambulance out 3 times this year due to unexplained breathing issues that suddenly made sense when we discovered a new mould bloom had exploded on the wall below his bed and gotten into that side of the bed/mattress.

We got out of there as soon as we could.

These are the sorts of problems you will have even after you get rid of the damp and long after you get rid of the mould from the actual building. It's in the air. It takes bloody ages to get it fully gone and once it's bedded in, it will keep coming back with the slightest moisture in the air.

I'm sorry OP but I would not consider this house.

This!

Please don't buy it.

The back of our house faces north west, we get mould and it's a fucking pain. The back of the house never gets light, well the windows don't I should say and that's where we get the mould, it's a constant pain for us, even slugs find their way in to eat the mould. I wouldn't do it.

The whole eastate was built either 52 or 58 years ago as one of my friends lives on the same estate. She said she experiences damp issue in her house but not significant. This house ticks many boxes and it’s in the nicer part of the town, very close to my workplace etc. Thanks for all the replies. You all have been so helpful!!!

I'd it's been empty for a few years then I actually think it's in surprisingly good nick.
Easy enough to redo the walls/ ceilings, rip out carpets. Fog the place to remove mould spores etc. I'd only do it if you have somewhere else to live whilst sorting it out though.
I'd be surprised if there was a big issue such as the roof as it would be in much worse condition.

I agree. From those photos it looks like all the upstairs room have mould.

You may struggle to get a mortagage on it.

I’m paying £500 to get a small patch of damp sorted in my porch. I would hate to think how much that would cost to sort out.

Can you go past when it's raining preferably heavily and see if the gutters or downpipes are leaking/overflowing? But the damp looks widespread so it could just be bad practise when it was built so a fundamental problem. It looks worse upstairs than down so probably not rising damp. And if it's been like that for a while there could be dry rot and wet rot in some, a lot or all of the wood, floors, joists roof beams.

You definitely need a good damp survey from a proper company with good insurance if they get it wrong. None of this, we didn't look under the carpets or in the roof, etc. With suggested costed remedial action. It could be something simple but the downside is huge.

It's hard to tell from the photos, are these upstairs rooms with mould?

Get someone out to have a look at it and if its fixable put in a cheeky offer if it has been empty a while.

You would also need to change the room of the conservatory as it will be cold

My house has minor black mould problems, mostly sorted. But it is essentially a cold house and even after many years of remedies I have to air clothes from the wardrobe before wearing them. Thankfully moving soon

Nearly £4000 per square metre seems quite high for a property in this condition in this area. However, I think the house could be made into a very comfortable family home for under £100k. Make a lower offer, but be prepared for the owners/agents to say that allowance has already been made for the condition of the property. There is no harm in trying. The EPC is nearly a C, so not that bad. I assume a lot of the issues have come from lack of ventilation and humidity/cold. These can be resolved pretty easily. I would not be put off by it if I knew I would be getting a good house at the end of it.

I would look at the down pipes. The bottom of the side gate is rotting in the lead picture - check the pipe.

Personally no, I wouldn’t touch it. The area looks wet (yes a wet day but also, just doesn’t look sunny and clement). The mould is ridiculous and it can take up to 2 years to fully dry out a wet wall: I don’t think this is mould from lack of adequate heating and ventilation.

You will end up spending the same amount on it as others are currently going for without the added worries of mould returning. Also, it could be a nightmare to sell on if prospective buyers don the pics online and you’ve not declared the historic issue (still not appealing if declared).

I would save yourself heartache and health issues

could be as easy as replacing down pipe and cleaning gutter & heating and airing.

could mean major building works necessary.

get a survey.

would not be hard no from me (our house has a leaking chimney that caused mould but was easy to rectify)

If you love the house and can accept you may lose the money spent on a thorough survey, it's worth making an offer and getting the survey done. You will be able to reduce the offer further if necessary.
The house may need a new roof as well as work done on ventilation. All very expensive, but the vendor is likely getting desperate because the building will just keep deteriorating the longer it's empty, and at some point may be glad to accept almost any offer.
Also it's worth talking to other people on that estate if you can, and seeing what problems if any they have had with damp, and how they dealt with them.
Good luck.

Mould is a fucking nightmare! We moved into a 4 bed 1930s bungalow last year and in winter it became apparent there was a bad mould problem in the 2 back bedrooms (ours and my youngest). Also in the larder. One of our walls always gets wet when it rains but our landlord "can't find a problem " and they just paint on this treatment every now and then. We have had to resort to buying 2 dehumidifiers (one small one for the larder and individual bedrooms on a rota) and a big one that sits in the hallway. If I'd have know about the mould I wouldn't have moved here

Having read the whole thread more carefully I'm changing my vote. Don't even think about buying it! I've only had to deal with small amounts of mould and they were manageable, but clearly the problem gets exponentially worse as it increases. That family who actually took the mould with them when they moved- urgh.

Remedying damp really isn't that difficult. I wouldn't have any issue tackling it, but I have lived in period properties all my life.

Firstly, the house looks like it's been sitting empty – mould will more likely form because it has been sitting cold, unheated and unventilated. Easily remedied.

The areas you highlight all look to be external walls. These are cold spots – again, problematic when the house has been sitting empty. The previous owners may have also had furniture sitting too close to the walls in those areas. Cold walls + lack of ventilation due to furniture placements means condensation settles in these areas and forms mould. Again, easily remedied.

If not the above, the damp/mould is almost always caused by drains, gutters, roof or external floor levels. None of which are costly to fix.

You will not need a new roof on a property of this age. A roof repair is sufficient if it has any missing tiles. And you absolutely will not need any kind of damp proof injections.

Get the work costed by a good surveyor and knock it off your offer. Good luck!

I wouldn't touch this house.
The conservatory is poorly constructed and looks like there is a damp issue where is joins the main house. The water from the downpipe runs onto the path.
There's damp/something wrong on the gable wall by the side gate.
There is rainwater splashing up from the paving slabs around the base of the house causing algae and possibly penetrating damp. Next door also seems to have the same problem.
Has a radiator been removed in one of the ground floor rooms? Did it cause a flood? This could have led to excess moisture inside the house which has exacerbated the mould growth when the house had been shut up with no ventilation.
The gutters could be blocked and may be inadequate to cope with runoff for that size of roof. Have a drive-by when it's raining and see if they are running over.
I am curious as to why there is so much damp in the interior walls and wondering if the cavity walls have failed, ties have gone, or cavity wall insulation has been applied badly. Worrying in. property that's not very old.
Lots of things to contemplate and this is a worse case senario. Plus we can't tell much from the photos, so you need an experienced surveyor and a friendly builder who you can trust to do a survey.
The kitchen needs totally replacing. Not sure if your budget is enough if a lot of remedial work is required.
You may have problems with insuring the property.

Living with damp is miserable! It can seriously affect your health as a PP has pointed out. It destroys everything - books, clothes, paperwork, furniture, decoration. It can cause chronic asthma and severe illnesses.

So it's a no from me.