Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Other subjects
Original poster

Had house survey done - eeek!!!

63 replies

Hulababy · 06/12/2004 09:06

As you may know we hae recently found and offer accepted on a house. House is good price, great location, near good school for DD, and a great size, especially for area.

But BIL (a building surveyor) did a full survey on it yesterday and found lots of problems. All typical of a house of this age (1930s) where the owners haven't looked after the property properly.

Main problem is damp. Most downstairs walls have damp which needs doing asap.

Also:

  • extension hasn't had proper flashing (???) added to it where it joins, so needs that replacing
  • bay window is bowing - needs sorting out which can be a pain of a job
  • chimney stack needs redoing
  • electrics may need some sorting out - lots of connectors in the loft which wouldn't meet current standards

Think that's it!!! BIL is writing it all up and getting full costings for everything this week.

We do like the house and will still go ahead so long as:

(a) costings aren't way too high (BIL gave a rough estimate which seemed fine)

(b) current owners will negiotiate price - not sure how we go about this though. They must know about some of this as they only bought it 4 years ago, and the damp at least they should be aware of

(c) main work (ie. damp and window) can be sorted out before we move in. We have the option of renting our own apartmanet from our buyer for a month or two to allow this. Just need to get the workers.

Only option is to find another house :( which is not ideal. Not much around right now. And the house we saw where everyhting had already been done was a lot more expensive, and not as big either.

BIL suggests it is worth doing, so long as we can deal with the delay in moving and so long as we can at least split the costs with the current owners. If we do it asll we get a good house in a good state. There are no structural problems (only the damp).

Anyone else been through all this? How did it go? What would you do?

Never bought an older house before - other two buys were new. So have no idea about the next steps, etc.

Help!!!

OP posts:
GeorginaAdventCalendar · 06/12/2004 09:14

Our last house was like this (60s construction) but as dh's dad said, as long as there's nothing majorly structurally wrong then you just treat the survey as a "to do" list as and when you get the money to fix it.

Check with the surveyor where the damp is exactly. On ours, it was just in the "utility room" (which was more of an outhouse stuck on to the main house anyway - no cavity wall and a drain in the floor!) Wasn't great, but it was certainly liveable with (at least, we never got around to doing anything about it).

Don't really know much about the rest of it to be honest. My FIL was an electrician/boiler engineer, and I remember our electrics were old fashioned - he didn't seem to think it was much of a problem, but did spend a day sorting them all out for us at one point just so we knew they were done. Didn't seem to be that big a job (but then the whole thing didn't need rewiring in the end - just a new fusebox and something in the kitchen - forget what).

Nothing in there which I would be surprised about with a 30s property, tbh.

noddyholder · 06/12/2004 09:15

I have been in this situation a few times and you're right most older houses throw up problems but if you don't mind doing the work you can gat a great house Get your solicitor to approach the estate agent with a revised offer although if you've already knocked the price down a bit they may say no!Good luck

Original poster
Hulababy · 06/12/2004 09:20

Cheers for that.

We paid asking price, so haven't had a reduction yet!

Electrics doesn't seem to be major. BIL (our surveypr) says it's just some connectors int he loft. Fuse box is fine, and other electrics seemed fine.

Damp is in almost every downstairs wall . BIl says it'd work out much cheaper to have it all done at once, before we move in if possible. If they do it whilst we are in they'll have to do it room by room, which would take longer and cost more. If we can get someone booked straight away after completiion that is't a problem for us.

Our solictor is DH's firm - so DH is speaking the the partner in charge of conveyancing today.

OP posts:
Original poster
Hulababy · 06/12/2004 09:21

DH is also going to phone round some of his contacts - plasters, electricians, roofer, etc. this week once we have the list of stuff to be done.

OP posts:
katzguk · 06/12/2004 09:23

hi

do you the names of good builders ect? or does BIL know soem for you?

The bay window problem is very common we looked at several houses with this. We would have still bought house with this problem.

we had a new roof put on our old house and the chimney sorted which wasn't too bad.

oh yeah, they are building some new builds in broomhill/crookes, 4 bedroomed town houses with intergral garages look very nice (saxton mee) £235-240K.

noddyholder · 06/12/2004 09:23

If you paid the full price they should drop the price

katzguk · 06/12/2004 09:26

just check new builds feed one of the top schools

Original poster
Hulababy · 06/12/2004 09:28

Not sure Katzguk. DH is looking into today. BIL is in London sadly, so most of his contacts are too far away. Do you know any good, reputable ones?

This is the thing you see. The new builds still work out dearer than this house, even after the work's been done.

Have tos ort the price thing out once we have the survey through.

OP posts:
Original poster
Hulababy · 06/12/2004 09:30

Can't find the new builds on Saxton Meee's website!

OP posts:
Demented · 06/12/2004 09:34

If it's the house of your dreams and the costs/hassle isn't too much then I would not hesitate to go for it, of course if you can negotiate a bit off the price to help pay for the work then that's great. There's always going to be something with an older house but IMO they are the best to live in. Smile

katzguk · 06/12/2004 09:37

its not on the actual website but if you phone the number from the new homes then they will send you the details,

SantaFio2 · 06/12/2004 09:38

these kinds of things are pretty common on old houses hula. you are not going to get an old house with NO problems whatsoever, it doesnt happen.

Original poster
Hulababy · 06/12/2004 09:40

Oh, I know Fio - wasn't expecting nothing. I guess we are pretty niave at buying older properties though as we have no experience. And it could have been much worse!

We now just have to wait and find out costs and how much sellers will drop price by.

OP posts:
katzguk · 06/12/2004 09:43

have got the name of a good builder and know a good plumber plus have more so let us know, our friends have just had some work done so they might recommend someone. plus my nextdoor neighbour was a builder and hes got some good contacts

SantaFio2 · 06/12/2004 09:44

they may not drop the price though hula.....:( thing is you go into old houses and they are valued usually taking into account the amount of work and maintenance that will need doing. Was the valuation price the same as what you have offered? because if it is they usually wont drop it. I know i didnt drop any more than what the house was valued at in the survey

Original poster
Hulababy · 06/12/2004 09:47

Fio - we will be temped not to buy (considering current climate) if they won't drop at all. We know that they are in a hurry to move and that they only had 2 other offers - both below asking price - at same time as ours. House has been on market a while. Climate for house selling round here is not great so we are in a stronger position than them IYSWIM. We will try to knock them down as much as possible as a result. Mean maybe, but have to do it for our own financial beneit, obviously. Let's face it - we don't have to buy this house. We can still live here, renting for our buyer. Onle have to move beofre next winter - to ensure we are in catchment for schools for DD at that time.

Thanks Katzguk. Expect us to be in touch llots once this is all sorted.

OP posts:
katzguk · 06/12/2004 09:48

no problems, one of the builders we've used is slow but good!! fixed price jobs though so doesn't matter how long it takes really! hes thorough rather than slow

Original poster
Hulababy · 06/12/2004 09:49

So long as not too slow!!! We do want to move in eventually, and would prefer not to have to pay mortgage and rent for too long.

OP posts:
katzguk · 06/12/2004 09:50

not silly slow just slower than average

Original poster
Hulababy · 06/12/2004 10:19

Katzguk - going to see if we can get details of those new builds at lunch with DH (just out of curiousity) - any more details of where they are, or who is building them???

OP posts:
cranberryjampot · 06/12/2004 10:31

Hula - my house was built in 1938 and did we have trouble with it. The survey showed up nothing other than the electrics needed updating in part. However, when we got the keys it was a completely different ball game, the lounge is extended and there was no RSJs in the load bearing wall just a broken lintel and a piece of timber, the mains cable was charred as it exited the fuseboard cos it was so overloaded with spurs off for virtually everything, the wood was riddled with woodworm, and there was damp in the kitchen. In addition, the front door had been moved out to where the original storm porch was and there was a course of bricks above what was originally the front door just kept in place by luck. One good slam and they would have come down. It took us 14 months to move in as we decided to completely gut the house and replaced everything from under the floorboards (full of rubble from extension thereby no free flow of air underfloor) to the roof space.

However, it sounds like your BIL is pretty thorough so shouldn't expect any surprises

aloha · 06/12/2004 10:35

Why is there damp? As for as I know, damp is almost invariably caused by external factors - eg leaky drainpipe, or build up of earth against external walls.
I'd just get costings done for the work and use that figure to go back to the vendors and negotiate a reduction. It doesn't sound very serious to me.

katzguk · 06/12/2004 10:36

new builds are on Crookes Rd inbetween broomhill and Crookes. I'm not sure who's building them but they look nice on paper. There are going to be 8 houses and 44 apartments all with there own parking plus they are leaving a large amount of the development as field (think this was a previso of building regs). The site is an old service resivior and was a football pitch or something. There just a little out of our price range otherwise we would be very interested! one big plus is there is a bus stop right near them with great links into town

katzguk · 06/12/2004 10:38

from sheffield.gov.uk catchment areas

CROOKES ROAD - UP TO 127 LYDGATE NURSERY INFANT SCHOOL
LYDGATE JUNIOR SCHOOL KING EDWARD SCHOOL
TAPTON SCHOOL

CROOKES ROAD - UP TO 130 LYDGATE NURSERY INFANT SCHOOL
LYDGATE JUNIOR SCHOOL KING EDWARD SCHOOL
TAPTON SCHOOL

Original poster
Hulababy · 06/12/2004 10:40

aloha - BIL is getting costings for us this week. Damp is mainly coming from ground from what I can gather. But whole house is affected by it. All rooms downstairs will need doing anyway.

We are lucky I guess as BIL was able to do a really thorough full survey for us and it costs us nothing - took him ages too, well over an hour and more.

We are going to keep minds open and see what else is around too, just in case.

DGH has already decided that if current owners won't budge on price then it's unlikely we will buy this house, which I agree with.

Luckily we are also not the type of people who fall in love with just one house. So, no "dream" house scenaios here. Yes, oit's a good size and location, but there'll be others.

And at least we have sold ours, and this sale falling through will have no bearing ont hat sale!

OP posts: