Survey - Cavity wall tie failure

[julee999]

We've just got our Home Builders Survey report back and we are worried. Can anyone advise how much it will cost to repair - this is a bit of the survey:

The walls are of cavity construction with a brick outer leaf. The inner leaf is believed to be brick. There are a small number of air vents to ventilate the air space beneath the ground floor. Internally, the external walls have been plastered. The walls contain a bituminous felt damp-proof course.
A number of defects were noted:-
There is some significant horizontal cracking on the side of the property which we believe is the result of cavity wall tie failure.
Several arches on the side elevation have dropped. The masonry above has also cracked.
There appear to be no lintels over the first floor bedroom windows to support the external skin of brickwork. The brickwork is supported on the plastic window frames.
The damp-proof course is within 10mm of external ground leve

Our wall ties cost £600 9 years ago

Cavity wall ties don't last forever - you can probably ring round and get an idea of cost for replacing them in that wall.

The missing lintels are more worrying - on older properties the original wooden window frames were often structural, so the upper part of the frame was the lintel. The replacement windows were either fitted by a someone who didn't appreciate that or done on the cheap or both. Get quotes for putting this right.

The damp proof course - if the soil goes above the damp proof course it will be breached and you'll likely end up with problems. It could be as simple as digging away a few inches of soil.

Is this your own survey or the mortgage lender's? Depending on the valuation and the costs of putting these things right then you might want to renegotiate the sale price.

Hi wowfudge

This was a Home Buyer's survey carried out by HSBC for our mortgage