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

TAs this sounds like a costly thing to fix, but you really still like the house and want to buy it, you could consider renegotiating the price, using the survey as evidence that the house isn’t worth what you had originally agreed. Assume the worst case scenario, get a builder round to give you a quote for rebuilding or knocking down, and see what the sellers say about knocking the price down accordingly. They know they will have this problem with any other buyer, so you might do okay. Don’t gloss over this problem though, even if you can afford to , because you will want to sell this place one day yourselves and it will be a problem for you. Best of luck!

Op, I’ve just been through this and it has cost me £60,000 to rebuild the extension, fit a new kitchen and ( this was the surprise bit) have the whole house rewired because the previous owner was a diy enthusiast who knew nothing about electrics but thought he did.
I was not a FTB and I’d managed to push the price paid down, but have used all of that to put things right.

If the kitchen extension is “dodgy” maybe ask for an electrician to check the kitchen wiring. Mine had the cooker, some sockets and a shower on the same circuit.

Please be very careful

I'd also be concerned about the damp and the use of a "specialist" usually they cover it up for long enough to get paid. It doesn't sound like a house for first time buyers , the fact you are asking on here would suggest it's not one for you.

Bear in mind that knocking £30-40K off the asking price doesn't actually give you the money in hand for rectification works - it simply means you've got the house a bit cheaper and you'll have a lower mortgage.

Unless you are paying cash for the house, then negotiating down has no impact on the cost of you doing the work; you still need to find the money to do it!

In your shoes I would walk away. If the work is that poor quality then why haven't the current owners sorted it? If they've paid for a load bearing wall to be removed and building regs sign off for that, then why leave a crappily done extension untouched? It doesn't make sense - unless they have had it looked at and realised that it's going to cost a fortune to sort out...