Old Victorian terrace houses - the reality, are they a 'money pit' ?

[Redpolkadotpot]

I love this style of housing and after 'wasting' a chunk of money on one (bad survey) we swore to stick to newer houses but I'm just not feeling it!

A lot of friends are advising us against old houses deeming them 'money pits' that they will always have 1 thing or another to fix and that bills would be atrocious, but none of them have lived in one so I don't know how much to believe them.
oooh and bad parking, which is obviously an issue as they were not designed with cars in mind, but surely can't be that bad as there are people living in them now and dealing with it....

Anyone with experience and opinions?

Yes, should have said I love my Victorian terrace! Any house that's not brand new might have things to put right and brand new homes depreciate immediately in value.

I loved reading this having just moved out ofa victorian money pit into a lovely 90 years young strong as an ox house. I shall never look back. For reasons please refer to madam biscuit!

mine is a money pit.

we had a full survey done, but there's so much they can't pick up - they can't really access the water, electrics, under floor, on the roof. in some rooms the wallpaper was the only thing holding the plaster on the walls, and there was absolutely no sign of this at the time.

we have a 120yr old lead water supply in the back garden which has started leaking. bathroom plumbing was amateur and shite. It's quite likely in an old house that your plumbing, gas and leccy will be a bit "unique", as it was all added to the house as an afterthought.

agree that odd-shaped rooms means more expense when decorating and furnishing as you need bespoke blinds, shelves etc, and wonky door frames make furniture look odd. window and door frames need repainting regularly to keep the wood in good nick, and due to the height involved that's a job for the professionals.

parking doesn't bother me - sometimes I need to park round the corner, but I lived without a car for years, so a one minute walk to the house seems better than a 10 minute trek from the tram.

heating bliss are ok though - loft is properly insulated, and the walls are very solid, so retain heat well.

I do love my house, but it's like a bad boyfriend - looks great, but requires all my attention and steals my money every month.

As londongirl rightly says, any property over 30 years old will have common things to look out for, bathrooms and kitchens are something that are frequently adapted and extended, so checking they haven't taken out a load bearing wall and not put in the correct steels is a good one.

The best advice I can give is to view the property at least twice, and ask someone like a work colleague to view as well for a dispassionate opinion and a second pair of eyes.

Also, viewing without an estate agent can help - they will be drawing your eye to features and away from massive damp patches (I fell for this hook line and sinker - luckily DH was looking!).

Also research, ask neighbours, google street names, look at the police.UK website to look at burglary rates, school performance (even if you don't need one, when you sell on your buyers might).

Other than that the survey is your bargaining chip, if anything gets flagged get an estimate of the cost and take it off the asking price.

To be frank you can very easily tell if a house needs work. An electrician can test the system but looking at the consumer unit and sockets is a good indication. We had a full electrical survey done on our house, paid a roofer 50 quid to get up on a ladder a check the roof and guttering and paid for a damp and timber survey. To check the plumbing, look at the boiler, test the taps by turning them on and look for the water pressure, strange sounds etc. You can see if you have a lead pipe by looking at the mains pipe which is easily done during a 2nd viewing. Open the cupboards and look at the internal pipes and if you are really concerned a drainage survey can be done for circa 100 quid (camera is run through the entire drainage system in the house to see if there are any broken pipes etc). If the house isn't obviously recently refurbished, it worth spending a few hundred quid extra before buying to know what you are getting into.

The real issue I think is people don't realise you have to maintain houses (Victorian or otherwise). Wood elements need to be painted, gutters need to be cleared, keep your airbricks clear and get you boiler serviced. Years of neglect will ruin any house.

I've literally just bought one! Its huge inside compared with new builds, and has high ceilings in all the rooms. It was built 170 years ago, so its a bit of an old lady - the builder calls it Deirdre, but I'm upgrading it to a daphne:)

It is solidly built, loads of storage, big rooms, hasn't been touched ( or cleaned (!) for many years and is having a facelift of new kitchen and repainting, carpet, ( the original floorboards and tiles under the frankly gross carpets downstairs have revealed original flooring, its got all its original doors now stripped of years of over painting) and general maintenance, no structural work needed - but it has a lovely feel- I love the ironwork on the outside and brickwork, it has a long garden and parking as its on a dead end now but a 170 years ago it was on the Main Street:)

It does have a little damp, but its been sorted. I was lucky enough to buy it after the roof had been replaced and the huge attic converted many years ago but very well. So all the big work is done and now its just a case of cosmetic overhaul.

I'd agree with the above, and add that you have to maybe take a position on a 'bad' survey with a Victorian house. Ours certainty showed up lots of quite scary seeming queries, but people more knowledgable than me (like my architect uncle) reassured me that you are more than likely going to expect a load of niggles with old property. Doesn't mean they aren't warm, dry and solid. I think they were so well designed in the first place it's at least relatively simple to solve a lot of the issues. I'd rather be in a Victorian place that's gently decayed over 130 yrs but is still pretty solid than a new build that's been thrown up in 5 minutes and will be starting to come apart in 5 yrs.

Sorry but I am going to disagree with many people here.
I lived for about 10 years in a Victorian terrace and it was dreadful.
Yes it had some nice features and the ceilings were high. But it also had sodding great cracks in the walls, damp in the kitchen, and paper thin walls. The attic had no divisions between the neighbours (how we, and the new buyer, got a mortgage I don't know).
The parking was on street and an utter nightmare.
but then I just think well everyone must manage to park somewhere right
I have sat in my car and cried at 10pm before because there was nowhere to park within 10 minute walk of my house. I had to sit and wait for someone to go.

We now live in a 1940s bay fronted semi and I wouldn't go back to a victorian terrace if you paid me. A Victorian villa I might think about though.

I think properly renovated and well maintained such a house is a dream. We live in an end of terrace built in 1910, so Edwardian really, not Victorian. The previous owners had renovated, rewired, re plumbed etc. we replaced the very old aluminium double glazing with new uPVC, and carpeted the upstairs. It's bright and airy, large rooms with high ceilings, cozy in winter, fairly cool in summer (at least downstairs). The tiny front garden was concreted over, which looks shite but we do have parking. The garden is tiny, but that's just the location in an inner London suburb. Down side is that the neighbours don't have carpet, so can be a bit noisy. It's built over several mezzanines so lots of stairs. Ceilings are very high: to change the light bulbs in the sitting room I had to balance a step ladder on the dining table. We no longer have a dining table in that room as it's a play room, so will have to get a much taller step ladder if a bulb goes.

We have just moved in to our 1911 semi cottage and it's our oldest house we've bought as always gone for newer build.
Have to say I was really worried initially about it as the survey was horrendous. We've lived in it a week now and we absolutely love it!!! So warm. The walls are really thick so we can have the tv at a decent volume without waking children! Garden huge and sunny. Big windows and high ceilings! Love love love! I love our cottagey doors too. And quirky cupboards. Totally converted!
There are things we want to do - re plaster and extend so we can have a bathroom upstairs. But neither of these things is essential it's just what we'd like to do as it's very cosy as it is!
Go for it you'll love it! I think if you enjoy making improvements to houses like we do it's going to be a lovely slow project! Lots of old reclamation places near us that I love looking at for bits for the house! Can't do that with a Barrett box!

I have only lived in one as a rental property. Loved the space but so glad it wasnt down to us to maintain. The sash windows were original, all single glazed and it was freezing in winter. The heating was modern, removed the chill but never really warmed it up iyswim. We moved in on Boxing Day, it was £500 just for gas for 2 months and we weren't extravagant with the time it was on for. We had ice on the inside of the windows during one particularly cold spell. We had issues with damp in the cellar, and parking was a pain (we had a space in the rear garden but had 2 cars and very rarely were able to park in front of the house). We could hear the neighbours (we were the end terrace) and our baby monitor picked up their baby monitor's signal. Slightly odd having to tell your neighbour you can hear them singing lullabies!

I think it depends what 'mod cons' have been added (windows / insulation) as to how much you'll have to invest but I would say energy bills will be higher than newer properties

SOOOO....we saw the house on Sat and did really like it, we made an offer (full asking price!) and found out this morning they went with another buyer.

We're chain free, had 40% LTV on this particular property and still got rejected! I'm soo bummed and sick of this process, starting to just not give a crap, just live at my parents forever maybe pitch a tent up in the garden ffs!

5th offer! Okay first 2 tbf we went under so fair enough, 3rd accepted eventually at full price but then pulled out (bad survey), 4th seller was just messing around and never wanted to move and now this one....

Ah no red polka dot. We had an awful time buying here in cambridge. Everything we tried for went way over asking price. And our sellers on this one at exchange asked us for more money!
It will happen xxx