Will mortgage still be granted if damp and timber report goes well

[Solost92]

I'm selling my house. Original asking price was 100000, the market has just been so hard and I've accepted an offer of 75000. Other houses in the area have sold for 90. I don't know why, it's clean, tidy, new kitchen and bathroom, just everyone says it's small which it is.

Anyway. Buyers mortgage surveyor said she saw evidence of damp, mould and woodworm in the floor joists you can see from the cellar and advised a damp and timber report which will be done Monday.

Is there any chance he'll just say "yeah it's fine"? It's the cellar of a hundred year old house. Of course it's damp. Would it be wise to go put a dehumidifier in there and spray the joists for woodworm or would that look suspicious?

If he does say its fine are the lenders likely to accept that and move forward?

Tbh if I was the buyer I would walk away. My house is a lot older with none of those issues.

Tbh ido appreciate your response as I immediately thought don't be ridiculous it's really not a big deal

It’s quite an expensive deal though. They will want to ascertain if woodworm is live or historic. Damp - you must have known it was damp. No idea if they will get a mortgage - depends if mortgage company think it’s worth the mortgage they are being asked for. They might retain part of the mortgage pending work being done but a damp cellar making mould and damp timber isn’t cheap to fix.

Well that's what the survey is for. And no, ot doesn't look damp. It's a perfectly normal cellar. The surveyor that came seemed nonplussed about it and really It's not expensive a fix. Woodworm isn't hard to treat. Honestly I'd say the damp is just becuase the house has been vacant and unheated for nearly a year.

I honestly don't think it's a big issue. There were no other concerns at all. The roof, electrics, all the rest of the house are all sound, literally just those beams that iff I'd put a ceiling in the cellar you wouldn't even be able to see

These timber and damp companies are snake oil sales people
The worst thing is, they recommend recommendations for fixing these so-called damp issues usually injecting the property with some sort of chemicals.
One of my relatives worked for Peter Cox for years and he was literally an administrator but they sent him out to do surveys. He had no clue how to repair property.

Personally, if you think there’s any chance of woodworm I’d just get on and treat the woodworm ASAP

I had to get a damp and timber as a condition of my mortgage.

Was quoted a couple of grand for damp proofing and re plastering.

Had to negotiate the cost off the offer.

Luckily they didn't insist on doing the work before completion, because it turned out the damp was due to lack of ventilation and double layer anaglytpa.

Damp proof injections are a massive con from everything I've read, and you need to sort whatever the source of the problem is.

I've found an independent man that doesn't provide any treatments. He only does surveys. He's still registered with PCA as lender requested which I've read people criticise but there's nothing i can do about that. I'm just praying he's going to walk in say "what are they talking about, it's fine." But I'm still worried that even if he does the lender will still refuse to lend. But that would be bonkers right?! Why would they do that?! It's a perfectly inhabitable lovely home.

They may hold money back till it's fixed but unless it's riddled they won't refuse to lend.

We bought a house with a damp cellar - the walls were wet because the soil on the outside of them is wet and the joists are sitting in the wet walls so they rot. People get a bit manic about damp but it’s just water getting into your house and you just need to stop it. The roof also had holes it so the walls upstairs were soaked. We reroofed it.

Our mortgage company held back 30k on the mortgage so we had to fund the shortfall. We had to replace the rotten joists in a way that ensured they wouldn’t rot again. There are lots of ways of doing this which I won’t bother to go into here (unless you want me to). They came out again and inspected the building and make sure it was dry and rotten timbers had been replaced and the they released the retained funds.

They are a massive con. Houses don’t need damp proofing. They need roofs which don’t leak, gutters which work and they may need repointing. Cellars can be trickier depending on ground levels and drainage but there are solutions which don’t involve tanking your whole house like it’s a swimming pool.

Funny you mentioned tanking because the cellar is tanked! At least that's what the seller I bought off said. So this could be a historic thing that's already resolved?

I feel like screaming "it's a cellar what do you expect?!"

I remember in an old house deciding to redo the laminate, taking it up and finding iffy floor boards, taking them up and finding the joists had rotted to nothing. That wasn't picked up on a survey because you couldn't see them.

The problem with tanking is that you are not actually making your building dry, you’re just installing a waterproof membrane so if it fails, what’s behind it is typically mouldy and wet. The better way to do it is to dig out your cellar, put in some good drainage, put a membrane on the outside and also put a layer or gravel between. Your building na the wet soil so the water isn’t held next to the building (making the walls wet).

Do you mean dig the floor out or dig around the outside of my property so you csn seethe cellar external walls? Its a terraced house with the door opening straight onto the street and the flooring is like cobbled flooring on one half and concrete slab on the other. Theres really nowhere you could dig. One guy i spoke to said to replace the air bricks so that's definitely something within our financial means.

Yeah - dig the outside to expose the outside of the cellar walls, obviously if that’s not possible tanking might be the only option. Has the previous work failed?

The other side of our wall is the neighbours cellar. Both sides can be seen from either side next door. Honestly i don't see any water coming through the walls or anything. I think it's just an underground room with little ventilation. Like what can you expect. Honestly I feel like talking about it has really helped because logically I know there's no major problems.

We are buying an absolute dream home and I just feel like it's too good to be true and it will be snatched away from us somehow

Lack of ventilation will definitely be an issue. If it’s just a bit damping he cellar I doubt it will be an issue. If the joists are rotten they may retain some of the mortgage which may or may not be an issue for your buyer. Good luck - I hope you get it sorted 😊

@2026x thank you

we have a cellar which has electrics and is used for storage. We bought a dehumidifier designed for cellars and we have a radiator down there as well. That keeps it all dry so a dehumidifier might be a good move at least for a few weeks. We still get loads of water collected especially in the winter even with a radiator.

And remember the damp beams you cant see are in fact holding up the floor above so have you got any springy floors at all ? If not then it should be sound.

Omfg you wouldn't believe what we found today. Went over to clear some of our junk out. Mum met us there to look after the kids while we did and as mum's do started pottering around cleaning. She found a bag with some old papers I'd never seen. Thought I'd have a look see if the deeds are in there because I can't find them. It's a bloody gold mine. Multiple guarantees and warranties. Woodworm treated. The floorboards were pulled out except for some under the chimney that the surveyor had pointed out. They were just inaccessible but they're not weight bearing. Damp and mould have been treated. There's damp injections. There's tanking. Warranties covering till 2040. There was an entire rewire 5 years ago.

So even if the surveyor finds problems Monday. It's under warranty!

Honestly the RELIEF!!

Amazing so this is the house you are buying! I thought you were selling it. Fab news

Unfortunately not as amazing as thought! Surveyor found small amount wet rot and live woodworm, like the soze of my palm. Company that did works is dissolved! Warranty useless . So I've got someone doing the works. It's a very small amount of work. Will be dome by the end of the week. Honestly I'm pretty proud of how fast I've worked. Got the mortgsge surveyor back early next week, only took 2 days last time for mortgsge people to look over it and make a decision so we should be clear by end of next week. Not as bad as it could have been. Not as good either. The work having been done is still very helpful as shows everything else was treated already. Just want this to be over! Its my house I'm selling xx