Problems shown up on survey - what now?

[DontPutMeDownForCardio]

We have got the survey back for the house we are looking to buy and its shown up some issues which we will need to investigate further - a few of the more important issues highlighted are that a chimney breast downstairs has been removed without any supports and potentially doesn't meet planning regs, parapet walls outside need fixing and re-rendering, no gas and electric test certificates and a damp survey is needed. This is not an exhaustive list. We offered asking price as its the only house we saw which fit all our criteria that we liked, so we don't really want to let it go, but we are short on funds to just accept these potential problems. The damp survey will have to be done as its a condition of the mortgage.

What do we do now? DP and I are novices at this. Do we speak to our conveyancers? Estate agents who are selling? It seems like all of this could work out very expensive to fix.

The unsupported chimney could be a huge problem. Ask your waste agents and the solicitors what they advise - remember you're paying them for this service.

The first step is to decide whether you want to have the hassles of renegotiation and/or fixing stuff.

Your solicitor needs to ask about the chimney breast

If you want to find out what the cost is likely to be then get some quotes from relevant specialists. You may want to pay for those to avoid salesmen.

Then figure out the financial implications!

I guess the first thing is to get onto our solicitors then.

First decide if investigating (& subsequently fixing things) is worth the hassle for you. Many on here walk away at survey findings I view as very minor.

If you want to pursue it then get yourself a timber and damp survey done (shouldn't be much more than £100) although bear in mind that it will come back with caveats on what they could examine given loft access/insulation/flooring covers etc. Don't get a free T&D survey as all their money comes from selling you products so they will lean towards finding problems that require their solutions.

The parapet wall doesn't sound urgent from your desciption?

You need to investigate the chimney further. Has the breast been removed from the ground and first floors just leaving the stack in the loft and out onto the roof? If so you would be looking at adding a suitable support in the loft or removing the remaining chimney and making the roof good. The latter would be £2-£3k (scaffold hire, labour, material, skip). If the chimney breast has only been removed from the ground floor then you need to look at whether additional support is required for the first floor - a friendly structural engineer would be helpful. If you need to get one out to look then ~another £100-£150. Or consider removing the remaining chimney entirely but more £ of course. Also if listed or in a conservation area you may be limited.

Get the vendors (via your solicitor to their estate agent) to get a periodic inspection report done for the electrics and a gas safety certificate. Push for these if they seem reluctant. Gas as a minimum. Electric less critical if they don't look DIY bodged or terribly old. I'd pay myself for one personally but as another thread showed, most wouldn't.

Gather all the facts and then decide whether you can afford the house/can agree any price reduction.

Bear in mind that not everything will be critical. You will be able to plan some of the remedial work over the course of years rather than immediately. (& I know the survey will say all those things are urgent!)

Thanks for your responses especially R Cheshire thanks for such a detailed post. We don't want to walk away from this place ideally. I spoke to the agent selling our house today and said we had some issues on the survey and she accurately guessed most of them. She said that most surveys they see or hear of these days bring up these issues as urgent - damp surveys etc.

The parapet wall apparently has deteriorated and shows spalling to the render which requires repair. Apparently the gutters need repair and replacement all around so I guess that can all be done at the same time as it says scaffolding will be required. We know most of the stuff on the survey will be general maintenance so really its the chimney thats concerning us most - rightly or wrongly! The chimney breast has been removed from the ground floor and first floor leaving the remaining structure in the roof unsupported. Ive read about inserting an RSJ to the ground floor - Im assuming as the chimney breast in 1st floor has also been removed, the RSJ wouldn't work?

How much could we be looking at for the additional support in the loft?

Is the ground floor RSJ for something else? Doesn't seem to add up with your description of the chimney stack situation.

If you allowed £1.5k-£3k (or 2-3.5 if you wanted a bit of contingency) for the chimney you should be covered. If you look at supporting what's there it's likely to be cheaper and will involve a structure engineer taking a look, speccing a support and then you getting something in to implement that. The downside of this approach is that the chimney is still there so over time you may be spending money on it (e.g. pointing, flashing repairs).

The more expensive end of the budget would be to remove the remaining chimney entirely, but then at least it's gone and (assuming the roof is fixed up well) you don't have to think about it again.

Scaffolding is fairly pricey so it's good to get everything that will take advantage of it done in one go. Guttering isn't terribly expensive assuming plastic (if conservation area and replacing cast iron like for like then it would add a bit).

Damp is a bit of an unknown. What you want to find out from your timber and damp survey is where the damp is, what is causing each area of damp (penetrating, rising, leaking bath above, salts), level of deterioration caused and how urgent to fix. It may not be something that needs doing on day 1, but as and when you redecorate the relevant rooms.

No sorry the rsj was something I looked into before I realised that the chimney had been removed from the first floor as well. We've looked into it and there is no planning certificate - according to the council or would have to be inspected and a certificate given at a cost of £250 even if the vendor says the support was put in.

We have also been given a rough ballpark figure of £5k to fix the parapets as scaffolding will be required which is more than we expected. We have yet to speak to any builders though. Is this around the right figure do you think?