Buyers survey outcome

[mynameisntlouise]

I'm in the process of buying a house and had a home buyers survey conducted; we had no concerns in particular but it's a 60 year old house and it was more for peace of mind. A few things were brought up and we're mostly happy to take responsibility of these/bear them in mind once were in the property.

The surveyor advised there was polythene sheeting attached under the roof timbers which should be removed as they can cause the timbers to sweat, but he was unable to carry out a visual assessment of the timbers and advise we have this done prior to agreeing a sale. If the timbers are rotten, it'll cost a fortune to put right.

I asked the vendor if she would arrange for the sheeting to be removed and a qualified professional to carry out an inspection of the timbers, she has declined to do this but said she will grant access if we arrange at our own cost.

Issue is, I'm not exactly sure how to go about arranging this in a property I don't actually own? I've asked a damp surveyor who will assess the timbers but won't remove the sheeting and I've asked a roofer who will remove the sheeting but can't assess the timbers Am I going to have to arrange two separate jobs to get this done?

I'm also wondering why the vendor is happy for someone she hasn't arranged herself to go into her home and start pulling things down prior to a sale.

I guess I'm just wondering if anyone has had any similar issues along the home buying process?

Walk away from it if she won't pay to have them removed
Its going to come up on another survey if you don't buy the property and she will be back in the same boat
Its her property
She should pay
Not you

To be honest that sounds like a typical "maybe" thing, some buyers would want to be sure, some wouldn't mind it not being inspected.
If you're happy to pay for the two jobs then go for it, you might get a handyman or handywoman do the removing the sheeting as it's mostly labour rather than specialist knowledge needed.

We've just had a similar issue show up on our survey on a property we're due to exchange on any day now. I read the survey as worst case scenario and ideally it should be removed because long term it could be an issue and we weren't too worried.

However, we contacted a few local roofers and they arranged access via the estate agent to provide a quote. We were advised that because of the way the foam insulation is adhered to the timbers to remove would mean the whole roof needs replacing (as it'll all break when removing the foam) so we asked for the quotation cost to be taken off the offer.

Maybe that's your best solution? To get a quote for removal and reduce your offer accordingly. I know it's difficult to judge when you won't have any idea of the repair cost without it actually coming out.

We do really like the house and have paid a fair bit in upfront costs already so it would be a real shame to walk away over something that could be nothing at this stage.

I guess if I got a handy person in to pull the polythene down and it turned out to be a bigger job than thought, as per your situation @katsucurry, then it's the sellers problem at this point, we could either walk away or amend our offer (in light of having just ruined her roof?!). This is why I proposed she arrange for this to be done...

@mynameisntlouise that makes perfect sense. It's a shame she's being so difficult!

If she's authorising the removal of the polythene, any damage to her property should be at her expense.

Hopefully you can get a quote if repairs are needed and take it from there.

If it's any help to you we asked for a reduction on the basis that the survey said the foam insulation was likely to cause mositure to become trapped and removal was recommended urgently. It was flagged as level 3. The surveyor also estimated the cost.

We eventually used a quote from a roofer that hadn't even accessed the property (we had a lot of issues getting someone to visit as we didn't own the property). He just looked at the photos and gave his professional opinion, that removal of the insulation was necessary and based on previous roofs he'd worked on this meant the whole roof needed replacing. He rovided a quote which was half of the surveyors estimate. We were thankfully able to demonstrate to the seller that it was something that would need to be done either way and the quote was used as the basis to reduce the price.

@katsucurry that is helpful, thank you!

We've had the same thing where the surveyor said it was level 3 and it COULD trap moisture. I'm genuinely hoping someone gets up there and finds no problems whatsoever so we can just proceed.

I've managed to find a roofer who's coming to come out and take a look at the polythene and also the roof in general, with the view to providing a quote for any works he would recommend.

I've also found out I've got a family friend who's a surveyor (would have been good to know before I spend that £400 but what you gonna do) and he's also said he'll take a look, as I'm hoping he'll give me a bit kore if a realistic, honest opinion of how imperative any recommended works actually are.

I guess worst case scenario is the roof needs a lot of money spending and the seller refuses to amend price, or it's in such poor condition the mortgage lender won't lend the money... we have already had our mortgage offer and a lenders survey so I'm not sure what could happen there...

I thought everything had been going suspiciously smoothly in this whole selling and buying process 😂

Oh that's good news at least. It sounds like you're getting somewhere. I hope every goes to plan and you'll have to let us know how you get on