Homebuyers report - damp/roof issues plus many other!

[NuttyMacaroon]

We have just had our homebuyers report through, we are 3 weeks post offer being accepted.

I know that the survey will always err on the side of caution, however, out of 21 categories, 13 are a '3' requiring immediate attention. Most of these are due to damp being detected throughout the house, penetrating damp and damp in the window reveals. The surveyor has said it could be the damp proof course failure and failure of the external render. In addition, there is also dishing on the garage roof, open pointed ridge tiles on the main house, an oil tank which doesn't have the legally required containment for spillage, no window suitable for fire escape upstairs and insufficient ventilation for the fireplaces and log burner.

That's potentially 5 different contractors that we will need to arrange to inspect further. I don't even know where to begin. I'm assuming they will all charge for a quote, as we don't own the property, plus the damp and timber report will probably be in the region of £250-500 from what I can gather online. I feel like we will be throwing good money after bad 😞 should we risk it, or run for the hills?

I've lived with damp and wouldn't touch a damp house with a barge pole.

Smelly, wet clothes and bedding, chest issues... The list goes on.

That's what I think my head is telling me JenBarber, but then I keep thinking that I couldn't smell it, see it etc. The surveyor said that the damp meter readings were red. Plus there is visible peeling of the plaster on a downstairs bedroom. Oh well, back to Rightmove searches I guess!

Chances are that some of these "category 3" issues only arise due to updated standards (especially fire escape upstairs, ventilation and oil tank spillage radius). Granted, these standards are there for a reason - but because the property doesn't meet them is not to say that you should run for the hills immediately.

For others (i.e. damp) I would discuss them with the Agent who can then liaise with the sellers as necessary to see what works they have carried out (such as injecting further DPC) and whether the work was guaranteed.

Seeing as you've already put (I'm assuming) a decent amount of time into this purchase, its worth spending a bit of time to pragmatically deal with the identified issues.

Have you spoken with your surveyor following receipt of the report? They are often more than happy to talk through the report with you (and sometimes, with some charm, you can get their honest opinion without the caveats of a report).

This also helps to inform you in any further price negotiation that you may or may not wish to undertake following further discussions with the Seller and/or any contractors.

We rented a damp flat once. Disaster. Wet clothes, smelly towels and bedding, damaged things... The landlord knew it and he repainted the flat before viewing so we couldn't see or smell anything. But after two months.... I wouldn't buy it.

The oil tank doesn't have to adhere to the current regs until it is replaced, otherwise those of us with oil tanks installed in the 90s would have to have ours drained and replaced/resited. The regs keep changing for woodburners, no such thing as HEATAS when ours was installed; no matter how much the chimney sweep bangs on about it, I am not removing the woodburner.

Get the soffits and guttering checked first for damp. If they are old or not in good nick, that could be the cause. Check the obvious first. In our case, the vendor's ran a dried flower business from the house and dried the flowers in the house. We moved in, whacked the heating on for six months, and dried the house out. End of issue.

Visible peeling of plaster could be salts in the plaster as well.

Reading quickly so apologies if already answered...

These home buyer reports often come back with "stock" answers. Re damp, how old is the property, what is it's construction? Get a builder you trust/one recommended to have a look & give you an honest opinion. Someone who is paid to do a valuation will always err on the side of caution so it's difficult to know what actually needs doing. We are exchanging on a house today which scored 3 for damp but with further investigation found that there was one small patch of damp which is due to guttering, other issues are due to lack of ventilation etc. And the recommendation of damp proof course is entirely inappropriate due to the construction of the house. The oil tank; no idea sorry! X

Tbh I would not proceed unless you’ve got the house for a bargain price and cash spare for investigating and fixing the damp/roof issues.

I don’t know about the oil / burner issues. As others have said it could be due to updated regs or be a more serious hazard to health

Thanks for the replies. We have calmed down a bit since getting the report back and are now looking at it a bit more sensibly.

We too have realised that the oil tank isn't an issue until we need to update it, the owners have never had a problem with it (service reports are in the solicitor's pack), so that is one crossed off the list. The windows we don't really like, so wanted to update those at some point anyway, so that is off the list.

The sellers have all the HETAS docs for the log burner etc and say ventilation has never been mentioned. Obviously we will need to see these, but ultimately, we can get the ventilation sorted quite easily I think, maybe a few bricks knocked out and an air vent put in. I think that was what was recommended when we were looking at log burners years ago.

So we have arranged for an independent damp/timber surveyor (who doesn't actually do any of the work) to do a report on the damp (we don't know any builders, unfortunately - newish to the area) which is £195 - so not as bad as we thought. At least then we will have a better idea from someone who is a specialist in that field. Am hoping it is either damp from the poor ventilation over the winter, or guttering (survey did say it was blocked in some areas). We will see!

The Estate Agent is going to arrange for a roofer to have a look at the overspanned/dishing garage roof. But to be honest - even that wouldn't be the end of the world if it was a big job, as we had plans for the loft space anyway. Just perhaps not straight away.

So we will see what comes of the roof report and damp survey. We did already knock 5% off the price of the house, so unless there is anything major, we could still go ahead. Will let you know! Thanks for the advice 🙂