Freaking out over house survey making it seem like our house is collapsing- talk me down?!

[HeartyBiscuit]

So we are selling our property. Ex council house, built in the 60s, mid terrace.

We bought it 5 years ago but our family has expanded more than we planned since so need somewhere bigger.

We sold straight away to first time buyers (had multiple offers).

They recently pulled out (2 weeks before exchange because they waited 2 months to get a survey) due to their surveyors findings.

I have spent the last week since feeling like my house is about to collapse but the more I'm looking into these things the more I'm just annoyed and feeling like actually, it's really not as dramatic as it first sounded...? We have actually already sold again when we put the house straight back on the market the same day the buyers pulled out but I'm terrified of the same thing happening again.

Our original buyers reasonings for pulling out were

• truss has been removed from loft seriously compromising the structrual integrity of the roof. Absolutely fair enough that would make you nervous. We had no idea about it but we got a roofer our straight away who says yes it has been but there is absolutely no evidence that it has caused any issues, no sagging, no rolling, nothing at all to suggest it's caused a problem. He is coming back next week to simply replace it and has said its not a massive job. We told buyers this and that we were getting it fixed. Roofer also said he'd arrange a structrual engineer to sign it off too.

• lintel above window needs fixing. Again, we have arranged this to be done and it's being done next week. We told buyers this and that it would be fixed at our expense.

• apparently survey suggested the house was likely to need a full rewire. Whether it actually said this or not I don't know as this came from the buyer and I suspect it was more like "couldn't inspect the electrics so it COULD". Anyway, had an electrician out next day, absolutely no need for a rewire, just swapped the fuse box because it was a bit dated for £400 and issued a safety cert.

• rat droppings found in loft suggesting rodent infestation. This really shocked me and I felt disgusted by it. We store things up there like clothes and paperwork and NOTHING has been chewed, we have never heard a single thing. We got a pest controller out straight away who said actually it is a very, very small number of droppings (less than you could count on one hand) and they are ancient. Absolutely no signs of an ongoing issue and likely from way before we bought the house. Have a report from him saying this.

• the front door is a bit loose... honestly don't even know what to say about this one. I don't even know what he means, the front door is fine and we have never had an issue with it!

• small section of flat roof is old and likely in need of replacement soon. Well it's an old house and the flat roof section (tiny) is fully visible upon viewing from the bedroom. Same roofer as above said he would have told them to jog on as its still doing its job fine, no leaks, no water coming in. Yes it's old but it's still doing what it's meant to. However, again we agreed to get it replaced.

Basically I am upset and annoyed. We offered to do everything on their list, I have spent a week fretting that my house was a crumbling mess and completely unsellable however when I'm getting professionals round, it seems that none of these are the huge issues they were made out to be initially. We are doing the work anyway so that no one else can pull up on these.

But yeah.. what a stress, I feel so sick & panicked at the thought of it happening again.

Surely you don't expect to buy a 70 year old house in absolutely perfect condition anyway. I mean a loose door?! AND we were offering to do all the work anyway. They had it in their head it was all going to cost 15k to put right. In reality it's costing us closer to about 3.

I'm so nervous though as our house is definitely a first time buyer house. Do they all immediately bolt at the first sign of any issues?

I had something similar when selling my last house a lot of “could be issues” even ones where we offered proof that it wasn’t the case. It really felt like the surveyor had a personal vendetta against the house.

luckily we had experienced buyers who could see past some of the wording and it turned into a really quick sale it took us 6 weeks from putting the house on the market to being in our new home.

Well, I’d have been concerned about the roof thing.

But it sounds like they’re maybe easily spooked buyers. Unless they get an electrical survey, surveys often are very cautious about the electrics (and everything else they don’t explicitly cover). We got a level 2 survey for our last house and it said something like “although there is no sign of woodworm, I could not lift up the carpets and therefore this is a risk”. No reason to suspect it or anything - we bought the house and had no woodworm issues, unsurprisingly. One of the “red flag - immediate attention required” issues on the survey was that the garden wall (front garden, wall was maybe 40cm high) looked a little old and unstable. Tbf, it was. But it’s hardly a red flag issue. It wasn’t holding the house up!

Surveys can be very dramatic.

Every house over 10 years (or hasn’t got a certificate under 10 years) has rewire suggested

If they're expecting to buy a perfect house, they're going to be disappointed! I'd get the work done and relist it.

I think surveyors are overly cautious to cover their asses in case anything crops up at a later date

Surveyors always worry people with their reports. They are so risk averse and just cover themselves rather than making sensible, measured comments. And then even if they do miss something you have no recourse to go back to them anyway!

Sounds like they panicked as it sounded like a lot of things needed fixing. Though nothing was too expensive as it turned out, they didn't know that at the time.

I think you've done the right thing being proactive and getting lots of things sorted out before the next buyer and the next survey.

All surveys throw up some negative scary sounding stuff. But your next survey shouldn't be too bad - Good Luck!

We had similar when buying. The Home Report (we're in Scotland) needed refreshed as it was out of date by a couple of months. Same surveyor, same inspection level, yet at the refresh they "spotted" some plaster cracks in an outside wall (internally) that could be "subsiding in the foundations".

It was utter nonsense and we proceeded with the purchase but a less experienced buyer might have hit the roof.

Our buyers got a surveyor who said on his website "I often find problems on the roof by using a drone, this can show the chimney is damaged and you can use this to renegotiate price" and then on his report said "chimney is damaged" and buyers rubbed their hands with glee at the big discount we had to give them that was going to actually pay for their survey. 70 pages of things like "the walls may be cavity, cavity walls can have {insert list of problems} so a separate survey is required". We didn't have cavity walls. Just two small examples from 70 pages of "I can't tell if house has this but if it does you need extra insurance or major works etc". I actually got out our survey from 1993 and it was 2 closely typed pages of professional and factual comments from a surveyor back then. No wonder so many sales fall through nowadays.

Get the work done and relist it. They got spooked and buying a house is a learning process and sounds like they new at it so scared as it's alot of money. Onwards and upwards.... hopefully next buyers are spooked and the sale goes through quickly

our buyer paid for a surveyor who said there was damp and rot in the front room. Our Estate agent got a builder to go out to check who said £5k plus materials. My mate who is a carpenter went yesterday and it turns out the tenant has laid laminate over carpet and that’s why the floor bounces so much. If I was our buyer I’d be asking for my survey money back 🤦🏼‍♀️

Jeremy Clarkson, episode 5 of the latest series of Clarksons Farm. “All surveys are bollocks, they tell you it’s all about to fall down so you can’t sue them later”
It’s true.
Do the work and relist it unless they are prepared to exchange immediately. They don’t know they’re born !

You've done all the work to address the problems raised, so just go back on the market.

Most surveys are not worth very much, and contain so many caveats and get outs as to be nearly pointless.

Some buyers are easily frightened off, or panicky and inexperienced.

I would not like the issue of the beam being removed, and would want to know why and further details, and might want the work you had done to remedy it independently checked.

You will sell, try not to take this one step as such a tragedy.