Be honest... How put off would you be by a house with rising damp?

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I'm trying to sell my flat later this year once my tenants move out (been an accidental landlord for two years, desperate to offload the place as soon as contract runs out)

I think from a couple of sales which fell through 18 months ago that the flat has rising damp. It was treated for it 20 years ago. Should be under a 30 year warranty but we never got the correct paperwork to do this when we bought it

Anyway damp came up on previous surveys, and was one of the reasons the buyers yes multiple buyers pulled out hence accidental landlord gave for pulling out.

I'm happy to drop the price by whatever the damp treatment price is. I guess this might be in the range of 2k, no problem!

Flat is in SE London and likely to be in the 450k region.

Would this put you off? Or would you ask seller for a discount, and happily proceed if they were happy to knock the treatment cost off the price?

I'd probably want more knocked off than just the cost the work. It's the aggro of sorting it, living with it for a while - I think you can't redecorate for months.

But I'd consider if if loved the place. In fact, I did put an knocked-down offer in on a house with rising damp in the kitchen.

And if I were you, I'd be very upfront from the start with buyers, so they don't take flight when they get the survey. The estate agents broached it first with me rather than me finding out down the line and thinking they were hiding it from me.

It would put me off, yes.

Can you not get it sorted again? Or at least pay for a full damp survey and quote for remedial repairs?
That way you won't have to knock off quite so much as the repair doesn't look as daunting as it's been investigated properly.

OK good to know.
Would you ask for more and outline why? What sort of sum?

To be honest given the sums involved and the fact I want it gone ASAP means I'm very happy to knock more off. Obviously I don't want to tell prospective buyers that, but I'm certainly not going to pull out of a sale for the sake of a couple of K

True rising damp is rare. It's more likely to be the result of a leak, of ground level being higher outside than inside, lack of ventilation/airbricks, or use of non-porous materials. Have you had it checked by someone who really understands buildings? Damp "specialists" are often shysters in my experience.

They knocked 10k off the house I was looking at.

Ooh more answers.

Yes I guess a proper damp survey with a quote / plan might be a good idea. Hadn't thought of that. I'm visiting the tenants next week (they're good friends) so will broach the idea with them then as it'll be inconvenience for them while work is done. Anyone got any idea how much inconvenience to fix it?

And where can I find someone trustworthy who can assess and quote for me?

How much of that was treatment lizkt and how much inconvenience? And did you ask for 10k? More?

Not sure. They accepted another offer and so I'll never really know how it'd have worked out in terms of costs.

My friends have just bought a property in Blackheath and the seller did the exact same knocked 10k off as the seller knew the damp was gonna be a faff to sort and he just wanted out asap! Seller was upfront about the damp etc

OK this is good to hear. I think I can swallow knocking £10k off. I guess I need to have an offer accepted and go to survey to get into a situation where we knock it off though?! Can't knock it off if we haven't agreed on a price in the absence of it.

Might discuss with estate agent. We're going with a small local one who are half decent I think.

Will also think about getting a proper damp survey to be armed with and possibly present as part of the package. Then we won't need to knock anything off as offers will be on the basis of knowledge already known

I wouldn't touch it even with £10k knocked off - there are plenty of flats without recurring damp problems to sort out. It would need a much bigger discount to make me even consider it.

What Irene said.

I'd buy it. Not much puts me off tbf. I'd want a couple of comparable quotes to fix it up front, no hiding it until survey (not that it sounds like you are).

Be relaxed about it with buyers and ask your agents to as well. I.e. this is the situation to fix it and it's why it's priced like it is. I think more people worry about it than necessary.

*Might discuss with estate agent. We're going with a small local one who are half decent I think.

Will also think about getting a proper damp survey to be armed with and possibly present as part of the package. Then we won't need to knock anything off as offers will be on the basis of knowledge already known*

Both of these things, good plan.

A surveyor rather than a damp specialist might be a good idea, but agree it's tricky to navigate who is genuine!

We found out the house we wanted had damp, we got a damp survey done and then the seller knocked the cost of it off. Suited everyone, and we weren’t bothered by getting it done and drying out after. It didn’t take long and meant we started on other areas first and then finished with the previously damp room.

Would certainly not put me off buying.

Take the guess work out and get a damp survey done. It is really important to use an independent expert, damp proofing companies just want to flog you stuff. The solution could be as simple as putting in a few air bricks, getting a dehumidifier and not drying clothes indoor.

Fix it and then sell it. If multiple sales have fallen through because of it and no one has tried to haggle money off because of it, then it sounds like quite the issue.

It will cost you less than 10K to fix it. Just get it done before you put it on the market.

I’d be very put off in case it couldn’t be fixed. Damp really stinks and I’d notice it as soon as I walked through the door.

Get a builder in to look at it, it may have another cause

You know it's damp and you have rented it out to friends! I hope they were fully aware before they signed up. Fix it before you sell. If you need to cover the mortgage for a few months, it's just a cashflow issue until you sell.

We have rising damp in our house, it was one of the reasons we sold it (just waiting to exchange now!)
We got a quote to fix it which the builders said they would honour for the new buyers which was about £3000 and we knocked of that and an extra £2000 for the mess off the house price. We were upfront with all the buyers about damp and it didn’t seem to put people off. It’s not terrible though you can’t smell it and don’t see it if you don’t know it’s there, many of our friends were surprised when we said we had it.

Who are you marketing towards? If it's FTB they tend to be more likely to pull out full stop, as they want their first place to be lovely. Sometimes a chain can be more secure, as people would rather negotiate than mess things up. But I would either get it fixed yourself or get a survey for every viewer to see with your agent upfront that the house has been reduced by XXX amount based on the survey, and reduce it a little beyond the quoted price. Be prepared that you'll still get offers below this again, from people looking for a bargain they can sell on again later. It would be cheaper to do the work yourself overall, just more faff.