Buying a house with a 'dodgy' extension

[Aegon]

Hi all,

My partner and I are FTB and have finally found a house we love. Our survey has raised questions about a dodgy one storey timber frame kitchen extension (which was there before the current owners). The outside of the extension was not rendered / made properly waterproof. Instead it has been poorly clad in wooden and plastic panels, with some of the wooden frame still exposed.

Our survey said: "The workmanship is of a very poor quality. We strongly recommend that the cladding to the extension be removed so that a full inspection of the structure can be undertaken”.

I had a lengthy chat with the surveyor afterwards and he said that best case scenario, after an inspection of the timber frame, you will just need to properly insulate and render the outside. Worst case scenario all the timber is rotting and you will need to pull it all down and rebuild it. He also said that most of the work done on the rest of the house - both internal and external - seemed to be of a very poor standard - but his main worry was the extension.

Not sure if it is an unreasonable ask the sellers to remove the cladding? Would really appreciate any advice on how to proceed. We've been looking for nearly a year now. We really love the house and want to make it work - just not if it means we get a £30-40k bill for demolishing and re-building the extension.

Any advice / sharing of similar experiences would be really appreciated

I doubt the seller will remove the cladding before you have exchanged. You have the report - offer what you now think it is worth or walk away if you don't want to do the work.

A timber framed extension? What’s it being used for at the moment? A conservatory? The dodgy low quality work that’s been done on the rest of the house raises my eyebrows! You can assume everything has been bodged! Probably crud plastering and plumbing and everything else!! Sounds like a potential money pit!

I would agree with the other posters on this. If the extension is of that quality what will the rest of the house be like? This could be a money draining project. I know FTB who went through this type of thing before and they ended up completely destitute. It can be really bad for you in the long run taking a risk on something like this. Sorry to sound so negative. I just know how hard it is when you move in and the place a s*pit that was essentially covered up.

Can you live without the extension. If so how much to demolish and take away. If that is within your budget I might just take it on and live in it as is until I can afford to replace/repair it. Or demolish it if it becomes unsafe.
Only thing could be dry rot - can it be checked for that, if that can be done and I could afford to demolish I'd prob go for it.

The only person that I could conceivably see taking on a house like that would be a jobbing builder or someone with a lot of time and DIY skills. Personally, I wouldn't touch it. If the surveyors report says poor workmanship and you end up ripping it down and rebuilding that could be a nightmare.

Hi all thanks for the replies to far. To clarify re work on the rest of the house - these are mainly cosmetic issues which didnt bother us or the surveyor too much. Survey didn’t raise any other structural issues. Damp did come up but this seems straightforward and relatively inexpensive to resolve - already have a quote from a reputable damp specialist. Main concern is the extension as it’s the only make-or-break issue to contend with 🙈

I wouldn't touch the property with a barge pole OP. Is the extension now the kitchen? Do you go through the original door to it or has part of the outside wall been removed. If so has a steel beam been put in?
The last thing you want to buy is a home with problems.

If I give you a barge pole, promise not to touch this house with it.

With houses, small issues on surveys are very rarely that small.

Extension makes up most of the kitchen. The wall between has been knocked through. All work related to this wall removal and addition of a new support (and the loft extension) are certified and documents have been provided. - There are however no documents for the actual construction of the extension - which was built before current owners bought it.

I'd walk away personally. I know a couple who bought a house that had a shoddy porch built on as their first clue but figured they could just demolish it and rebuild. Unfortunately it was just the simplest issue. It turned out that the previous owners thought they were dab hands at DIY and did most of the jobs themselves in the house and the new owners had to rip everything out and completely renovate. The kitchen had to go due to hidden shoddy plumbing and bad electrics despite it looking fine cosmetically and the bathroom needed ripping out for the same reason. The icing on the cake was finding out that the previous owners had been messing around with plumbing and there had been raw sewerage leaking into the ground under the house for a long time. There was a smell on viewings but the buyers thought it was the seller's and dogs being a bit whiffy.

Not read full thread so might have missed something but I wouldn't go anywhere near this. Will your mortgage company even lend on the property? I very much doubt it unless the sellers are willing to take out indemnity insurance on the house - might be worth discussing with your solicitor if your adamant in the house?

If there is no documentation of the extension, did it require planning permission, at the least it would have needed building regs. If neither of these I've been done the council can make you tear it down

@Aegon please be wary with what you're doing. Remember the home reports aren't always 100% accurate in diagnosing things. If damp has been picked up I always think the problem is usually 20-50% worse than mentioned in the home report. I'm in Scotland and going by friends experiences with this they had maybe 2 on a home report which was actually a 3 etc and lots of cans of worms. I bought my flat that had a glowing home report (in a sht area with sht neighbours haha we can't have it all). But there were big holes in the walls and damp that was all concealed and wasn't visible until house was empty.

Walk away. The only sign our house had issues was that the fittings and furniture were really cheap and nasty. No issues with survey, building regs and planning ok. Turns out everything had been done on the cheap and it's costing £££ to put right. Building Regs aren't worth the paper they're written on, ours was signed off after the work was done so there was no way they could see what a mess the wiring, plumbing and overall structure was. If you can already see that things have been bodged you can bet the rest has too.

You need to factor in the cost of demolishing the extension and rebuilding, plus kitting it out with a brand new kitchen. So I guess something like 60K? and take this off the asking price. Unless you are prepared to live with it as is of course.

If the sellers agree to take off eg £30-40k - which would be around what it would cost to re-build the extension - would it then start to make sense financially?

Thank you for the advice @sunshineworshipper. We just want to make sure we have explored every possible angle first. We will walk away if we have to. Though really don’t want to 😔

What type of survey did you get? How likely is it that other potential issues with the house will have been identified?

Think structural? We had two options - went for the more comprehensive one. The house seems fine and am as sure as I can be in this situation that no other serious issues will arise.

So the knock though to the extension was passed off... but nothing on the extension.
Sounds very odd to me as generally thr extension is built and then the old wall taken down!
Dont walk away... run

Extension was built before current owners moved in. The current owners removed the wall and got the necessary paperwork.

I see
Everyone has advised you to do the same but you obviously still want to buy the house
So just do it

Take your rose tinted specs off. Even if the mortgage offer is made (and they might well reduce the amount they are willing to lend you) this will cost you money and time for years. Don't do it.

Please walk away from this one. I bet the sellers have got their fingers crossed that you're a pair of mugs, to buy it.

Its not just the financial cost of repairing a "right bodge job", its all the time and inconvenience too, and the sinking feeling once the excitement of owning your own home has worn off that you've been had big time.

You're first time buyers with no experience of having to do house maintenance and repairs, waiting in for builders turn up for quotes, being seen off by cowboys builders, endless weekends taking stuff to the tip and trudging round B&Q.

Buying this house could be the most expensive mistake you ever make - please don't. If a surveyor says that most of the work done of the house is of a very poor standard then it must be bad indeed!

We bought that. We knew that within 5-10 years it would need knocking down and rebuilding. So £50k, plus another year and 10k doing the fitting ourselves, and in 15 years we've spent well over 150k and the place still isn't finished (went from 0 to 3 kids which might have had a slight impact).

We knew what we were getting into, though, had worked with trades before, and it was also the only way to afford a house like this in London. If you don't have a spare 100k to chuck at it, or willingness to be doing stuff on it for a decade, walk away.