Home buyers surveys has come up with some red flags

[lboogy]

Hi all, I'm buying a dated 1930s property. It's a probate sale. The survey has come back with needing a new roof. I expected to have to rewire , replace boilers etc. In essence the property needs a fair bit more work than I can afford at the moment. I was hoping to spend £30k on internal cosmetic updates but the survey is suggesting much more extensive work.

I'm debating to renegotiate or Walk away. Has anyone sent round a contractor to have a look and give an estimate of costs with something like this?

@QueenStromba ah that's a shame. We had the full building survey done as a lot of work has been done to the place and wanted to confirm it's been carried out to a good standard. But like you, we know they'd have known about the roof so it is a bit disappointing, especially as we asked about it. Given everything else is in good shape we are hoping to still proceed but this depends on how much a new roof is. I see someone up thread talking of 32k and a price like that would be out of the question!

Roof work can get very expensive. We were told £10k if it just needed new tiles but there's the potential that they'd discover that the entire structure needs replacing once the tiles are off and if it's been leaking a lot then there might be water damage to the ceiling of the top floor too.

It all worked out for the best in the end, the house we're buying is nicer and I don't think we'd have got it for the price we did a month earlier.

It's better not to wait for a roof to actually leak

By the time they are leaking it's 10-15 years of damage and serious £££££££

I'ld see what the roofer says though would have been more inclined to get a roofer of your choosing as EA is acting for the vendor.

My house is Victorian and recently had a survey on it and the roof wasn't mentioned at least in the urgent points as I was given those so its not every survey of old houses. Some surveyors, however, can put new roof needed in very lightly to cover their backs but a roofer should be able to say what is needed and when. I would always negiotiate if it said a new roof was needed and would walk away if I couldn't reach agreement if necessary. Paying half each if a builder confirms its needed would be reasonable to me but I'ld start by asking for full amount.