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Original poster

Help with homebuyers report please! URGENT!

42 replies

Unluckylucky · 20/01/2020 09:35

Hello everyone

Hope all is well with you, I'd be extremely grateful if you can help me with my dilemma. Me and my partner are first time buyers and we just had our homebuyers survey returned and it does not look good. Almost everything is red (3). I included some of the points below and I'd be grateful if you can let me know what you think? It's an old property but we thought that was it but now we're not sure if we'll be going for it at all.

E1: Chimney stack - Defective loss of mortar. Spalling to brickwork. Defective flashing. Riskof timber rot. Dampness evident in loft space.E2: Roof coverings - significant moss growth.Flat unseen roof, likely to be in poor condition.E3: Rainwater pipes and gutters - Defective elements. Risk of dampness.E4: Main walls / F4: Floors - Cracks and fracturs indicating historic structural movement,Defective plaster. defective render. Raised ground levels. Dampness to parts, risk oftimber rot. Poorly executed repairs carried out. Damp repairs required. Blocked drains -risk of sub floor timber rot.E5: Windows - Defective windows. Rot to timbers. Some misted double glazed units.Replacement required.E6: Outside doors - Defective doors. Misted double glazed units. Replacement required.E7: Conservatories and porches - Poor porch roof. Dilapidated lean-to. Asbestos roof torear lean-to.E8: - Other joinery - Rot to eaves joinery.F4: - Cracked tiles and springy floor plus Defective drains, raised ground levels indicatesrisk of sub floor timber rot.H3: Grounds - Defective patio with uneven surfaces causing a trip hazard and inadequatelylaid grounds. Defective boundaries, bricks and timber fence panels, etc.

Thank you

OP posts:
Toodeloo · 20/01/2020 10:01

Holy shit.

Toodeloo · 20/01/2020 10:01

Sorry, but that’s a massive list of a lot of hugely expensive stuff.

ScarlettBlaize · 20/01/2020 10:02

Run a mile

FiveShelties · 20/01/2020 10:09

I think that is going to cost a huge amount of money to put right.

Motorbike311 · 20/01/2020 10:17

As a construction manager i would suggest running as quick as you can or knocking it down to start again.

AnchorDownDeepBreath · 20/01/2020 10:18

Run really, really far away. Unless it was priced to take all of this into account, and you can afford to get it all fixed, and you love it enough to want to get it all fixed.

NoodlesMcGee · 20/01/2020 10:20

I would definitely not be proceeding if I were you.

Speak to your estate agent - have they had offers on the property before? Have others pulled out on receiving survey results?

How long as this been on the market?

I guess you need to make a decision on whether you want to negotiate the price down massively to reflect the fundamental issues and likely 'from the ground up' restoration project this is...

NoodlesMcGee · 20/01/2020 10:21

As @AnchorDownDeepBreath said...!

whatsthecomingoverthehill · 20/01/2020 10:22

I'd be surprised if you could get a mortgage with those sort of issues. Some surveyors can be a bit hyperbolic, but in this case they look like genuine problems, rather than just what you would expect to find in an old property. What is the valuation?

strawberry2017 · 20/01/2020 10:24

I think you walk away, accept you have wasted some money on the survey but be grateful that you are not left with a house that is going to cost you thousands to make liveable!

ioioitsoff · 20/01/2020 10:26

I'd run a mile from that. You might find your mortgage offer is rescinded when they see the report.

AGreatUsername · 20/01/2020 10:26

Wow, that is a massive list. Was that a full survey or just homebuyers? I didn’t think homebuyers was that thorough! Did they give estimated repair costs and methods? Surveyors often like to cover their own backs and make everything worse but that is an awful lot of stuff. A lot. You should ring the surveyor and ask if they would walk away if it was them. If they say yes then run.

Clymene · 20/01/2020 10:28

Oh dear. I'm afraid that's a dud and it's going to cost you £££ to fix. So sorry Sad

NoodlesMcGee · 20/01/2020 10:37

How much are you paying OP? Does the value reflect the fact the current owners (and estate agents if they are involved) recognise it needs so much work?

TokyoSushi · 20/01/2020 10:39

Unless you're planning a massive renovation project definitely don't buy it!

Seeingadistance · 20/01/2020 10:44

Not with the longest barge pole I could find!

JeffreysWorkTrousers · 20/01/2020 10:44

Does it look as bad as it sounds? Did you take binoculars to look at the roof when you viewed it? I am serious about that.

Personally having renovated 2 houses, I would run from this one. Unless you have oodles of spare cash and this is some Georgian Rectory and is worth saving. If it is a some bog standard house I would start a new search.

That is a hell of a list of stuff that needs re-doing.

WYP2018 · 20/01/2020 10:46

Yea I wouldn’t be buying that. That’s not even from a full structural survey!

johnd2 · 20/01/2020 13:13

Sounds like a typical old unmaintained house, lots of small problems that haven't been fixed or fixed properly. So you'd have a big catch up and there's an element of a stitch in time not saving nine of them.

ButterscotchWhip · 20/01/2020 13:17

I feel for you as I was a first time buyer 18 months ago, found a lovely period flat and got a similar result from the homebuyer's report, although not quite as many red flags as this.
I'm not an expert but I don't think you should proceed. A bit of investment might be expected in an old property - and then you can be in a position to negotiate some money off your agreed price - but this looks like a nightmare.
You will find something else you love just as much, honestly. Anecdotally, I ended up with a new build (an idea which I was not into at ALL originally) flat and it has been brilliant. There's literally nothing wrong with it, it's easy to maintain etc.

You should also ask the surveyor to give you a realistic figure and timeframe (if poss) for sorting out all these problems. Could be half the cost of the property itself!

Best of luck.

albus55 · 20/01/2020 13:26

Agree with everyone else, leave well alone unless you were expecting to do a full top to bottom renovation and have the funds (thousands and thousands) sat waiting. Once you're in you'll only unearth more problems, too.

ExchangedCat · 20/01/2020 15:51

E4/F4 alone would be enough to make me walk away without a second thought.

Sorry OP, but unless you've got the skills, the money or both, then it's almost certainly not worth the stress.

unfortunateevents · 20/01/2020 16:22

What condition were you expecting the house to be in? If it is priced to take account of all this work which is necessary and you were expecting to have to do the work then that's one thing, if you thought you could move into a ready-to-live-in house then that is something different. Presumably your at least noticed the roof and window problems when you viewed?

Slightlysurviving · 20/01/2020 17:56

We are doing a full top to bottom renovation and got £70k off asking as a result... We still didn't have as many urgent issues as this. Unless priced to reflect condition and you have the willing to basically start from scratch I would move on. Sorry.

palacegirl77 · 20/01/2020 18:26

Id get another opinion from a builder (trusted).. A lot of those points suggest "risk of" which can be the surveyor covering themselves. Things like double glazing being replaced is not a massive job. Things like "dampness in loft" can mean one patch where a tile is missing on the roof - I think IF the property is where you want to be and the price reflects the condition, I would get a quote for the urgent work and go from there.