What to do about survey results?

[Swex]

Just that really. Buying a lovely old house and the survey has come back with masses of things we simply must do instantly adding up to tens of thousands.

We were expecting some of it, but some are a surprise and I would say unacceptable.

Do we knock money off our offer and do everything he has said to the letter or just suck it up... It's an old house and this is what happens, and spread it out over time?

Thanks!

I'd maybe write a list of what needs to be done and what can maybe wait. Surveys always report everything as they are liable. The get some specialise quotes for the work. Then you will be in a position to negotiate.

Thanks. That's helpful and clears matters for me. I re read the survey and there is lots of "investigate this further because there MAY be something". I'll get a quote for essentials.

What sort of things are needed?

The way surveys are written IME always make it sound as if a house is going to fall down.

I've always found it helpful to speak with the surveyor on the phone and get some clarification on exactly what they found. Some of it may actually be nothing.

definitely speak to them

ours sounded like it was on its last legs, but the surveyor confirmed it was basically sound. If you're looking at an older property, lots of the issues may be par for the course for an older house, and unproblematic while you live there.

Has he asked for specific reports etc to be carried out? There should be an essential works section where he comments on things that need your attention straight away.
What have your mortgage company said/asked for?
I'm an underwriter and as part of our underwriting we would advise what we wanted doing as part of the mortgage which would give you an indication of what is required now?

We are currently buying an older house and have just had our survey done. I think how alarmist survey reports are depends a lot on the surveyor. The one we had done for our current house was full of things that made us panic (unnecessarily). The one we have had done for the new house - which is in much worse nick - nicely balanced reassurance that all was basically OK with sound advice about what really needed doing.

We spoke to the surveyor on the phone and are taking his advice to get a drains survey done to investigate whether the drains could be the cause of some cracking. Re. money off the price, the surveyor said that you can only reasonably ask if the survey shows things that you couldn't have anticipated from a proper look round yourself and a realistic attitude to older property. So on the drains work he said that if it shows up say £1-2k of work needed we just have to suck it up, because you might reasonably think that a large, neglected Victorian house with an overgrown garden might need some drains work. But if it shows £10k worth of work, that wouldn't be what you'd expect and it would be reasonable to negotiate for money off.

We had this with our purchase. Definitely get specialist reports for some things (we had damp, roof and drains). It is worth asking for money off for things you couldn't have anticipated, and be prepared to meet them halfway. We pushed our vendors on this and I'm so glad we did - they claimed there was nothing wrong with the roof (as they'd had it fixed) but their roofer must have bodged it because there's definitely a problem and we're in the process now of replacing the roof.

Unless the place is actually falling down I found it was reassuring to go into the purchase knowing what needed to be fixed.

That's helpful. Thanks everyone. It did sound as if it was about to fall around our ears. And any good things sounded very grudgingly given. I'll call him to clarify. One example was lead in some Exeteral pipes. I reckon that's unacceptable and should be taken off price. Others were recommendations for further investigation.