Help with homebuyers report please! URGENT!

[Unluckylucky]

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

Run.....

Pretty much what mine was like

Needed a lot of work but even the gutters are minor

It could be worse

So much of it is ‘could be this’ ‘sign of previous that’

I normally don't worry about this stuff. My chimney has dodgy pointing and there are loose tiles on the roof. They were there when we moved here and they're still there 10 years later. Every single survey I've had has had alarming things about roofs and brickwork and potential for damp.

Defective drains and timber rot is less good. Overall, this looks like a building which has had zero maintenance done in many years. So the potential to be a money pit is high. If it's a renovation project, then great. If they're at the top of their budget, I'd find something else.

Because it's Sod's law that something else will go wrong within weeks of moving in which aren't even mentioned in this (boiler? Electrics? Rads?)

Structural movement and damp alone would have me run a mile..would a morgage company even release funds based on this report?

To get to grips with some of the problems (eg historic movement) you need a specialist report - so more money. If you can do the work that’s fine but if it scares you, don’t proceed. This is a project house.

Id not get hysterical and am surprised at some of these responses.

Firstly was the property priced to reflect its condition?
Secondly have you contacted tradespeople to look at the cost of the repairs?

Does the cost equate to what the property would be worth in good condition? Or can you negotiate a discount with your quotes?

Ropey pointing is the norm. Damp is easy and not very expensive to fix, depending on type and it's quick, Moss on the roof is common.

Rotting timbers is something else, as is the movement, and the flat roof needs to be investigated, so you need someone in to have a look.

It depends on your budget, and the amount of work you are prepared to do. A lot of the comments state 'risk of' which basically means they have no idea if there's a problem. Some things could be an esy fix and realtively inexpensive, others could be more costly.

How much of this stuff did you notice on viewings? Have you had a reliable builder take a look? Surveys are notoriously depressing to read but don't always reflect the real situation.

Our whole house was 'dilapidated' according to the survey. 2 years on, it's a beautiful home with new roof down to new drains and everything in between. We had wet rot and dry rot. Thing is, this house was priced based on the work that needed doing. Apart from the trades, we've done it all (labouring and decorating. The vendors will need to take into account the state of the house and the figure they want to achieve--everyone's survey will tell a similar story.

Some of these things are minor and easily remedied, there is also a lot of arse covering language, for example, assuming an 'unseen flat roof' is also in poor condition. The only things that would worry me are what sounds like a compromised damp proof course and signs of movement. However, the house has obviously been unmaintained for years externally. I find it hard to believe that it is up to scratch internally, unless it has just been tarted up a bit inside. For the right price, if you wanted a 'doer upper', it may be feasible, but as ftb's I expect you just want to move in and wield a paintbrush at most, so probably best to pass on this one.
You need to be a bit of a detective looking at houses. The clues were there - the misted double glazing, the cracks, the crumbling chimney, the rotting windows, the asbestos outbuilding etc etc (as a pp says, always take binoculars). Make a list of things to check before you view a house, be objective and don't fall in love with it until you have the keys in your hand on completion, otherwise you will have your heart broken.

The damp was sorted by digging a narrow trench around the outside of the house and filling with gravel (the unmaintained garden made levels too high) and the rusty guttering was only holding the slates on. The rain from the rusty guttering had washed out all the pointing. We had some extra air bricks put in when we were repointed which has help dry the damp out. Roots had grown through the drains so they needed replacing, as did all the rotten windows, leaking pipes, dodgy boiler and old wiring. Lost of replastering was needed and we even had pigeons in the loft. Me and my 12 yo son were up the scaffolding repainting the outside render and there's not 1" of this house I don't know. It's given us the chance to buy a house we'd never be able to afford and we've been able to put our mark on it from top to bottom. However, the price has to be right.

And the top of our chimney fellnoff as it was being repointed. We love our home. Yes, these are all issues that need fixing BUT they are fixable and sometimes surveyors are just 'covering their backs'.

So on first reading I thought “run”. But actually when you really consider what they’re saying I don’t think it’s that bad. There’s lots of “risk of” and flat out “replace” when actually, it’s probable that this is a worst case scenario and that actually it doesn’t all need sorting right this second.

For example: We have misted panes in quite a few of our windows. They are still watertight and function perfectly adequately. They will need replacing at some point but not necessarily the whole window and not right this second.
Moss on a roof is not the end of the world. They’re also saying the flat roof is “likely” in poor repair but haven’t actually looked at it from what I can tell? There’s lots of them saying “risk of” which doesn’t actually mean “definitely has”.

Dependent on price, willingness etc etc is probably get a few people round to have a proper look to see if any of their “at risk of” or “likely” points are actually things which will happen or need sorting right this second before the world ends.

We bought an old Edwardian terrace house as Ftb a year ago and I was terrified of some of the things they mentioned, but like pps have said the surveyors are covering their backs. The movement says historical, I think lots of old houses have some kind of hostorical movement. I think you can ring up the surveyor and ask their general opinion on whether you should proceed. Also look at the valuation, ours was exactly our offer so we went with it and didn’t ask for any money off, but if it’s lower you can use that to renegotiate your offer, or decide that it’s too risky. We have not done anything other than cosmetic yet, and absolutely love our home and the location. However, the previous owners had already done a lot of work on it as when they bought it it had not been maintained very well as one old lady owned it for 70 years or something!! If you really love it, you could get a structural report which will be a lot less guesswork, but also getting trade quotes is probably a better idea. If you don’t really love it then other better houses will come along! Good luck!!

The thing is there's no asbestos apparently. Just out at the garage. We also spoke to the surveyor he says a lot of things are those that he feels may be a problem like timber rot. He said that unless we open up the floors we can never know the extent of the problem. Also there's dampness in the main walls and that's because the current owners have raised the garden and the front of the house way above the damp requirements. Anyway long story short it seems like a lot more work than we had hoped for. We were thinking of putting in an additional £20k for refurbishment but if there's structural issues then it's way above our budget and too much stress really. We did ask the surveyor about the valuation figure and they feel the purchase price is what he values the property at and I don't really understand how that would be possible with the amount of risks he advised

DS bought an 1880 terrace with lots of things needing significant attention such as roof and windows and chimney but it was nowhere near as bad as this even in its unloved and neglected state.

He has already spent 20k on renovations and it will probably take another £7.

Don’t do it.

Walk away. Be glad you only got this far.
If a homebuyers survey was that bad then I dread to think how grim a full structural would be.