Survey results....should I negotiate or walk away?

[AvaloniaFunk]

Just had the Homebuyers report back on a Victorian terrace I'm in the process of buying.
To put things into context, I am recently separated and living temporarily with a friend and have money in the bank from the recent sale of the marital home. I am struggling to afford anything in the area that I can also squeeze my 3 children into and this is the only house that has come close in months of watching the market.

There were many items with the red traffic light, some quite minor, but some quite scary. The scarier ones were....

• needs a new roof ( has the original roof from 1884, some sunlight can be seen and the timbers inside are showing some high damp readings)

• the clay drainage pipes underground but viewed through the inspection chamber are cracked.

• The outhouse has obvious asbestos and the advice from the surveyor was not to use it at all ( it has a tiny garden and this is the only ace for bikes etc.. to go)

• Lead pipework supplying water to the house

• Unable to access cold water tank for inspection....could well be surrounded by asbestos

• Possible rising damp and possible woodworm, requiring furthur report by experts

It all seems so overwhelming. The obvious thing to do is to walk away as it seems so much to take on by myself, but there is no plan B other than staying in unsuitable temporary accommadation and hope something comes up. If I do this I will miss the stamp duty offer and miss out of my very good mortgage offer that I am porting from my old house.

Will someone with more house- buying experience tell me what to do next please.... ?

Your mortgage company will probably refuse to lend on it unless you can demonstrate that you have the funds to carry out the required works.

So either you negotiate a substantial reduction (I'd estimate between £75-100k) or you walk.

I wonder what you mean by being able to squeeze your children in though. Would they have a room each ot be sharing?

Don’t buy this!!! Light can be seen through the roof! Clay drainage pipes broken! Have you got any idea what the repair costs are likely to be?

Most mortgage offers are good right now if you have capital. Won’t the mortgage company still need to evaluate the risk on a new property? They might not be happy about lending on a wreck. Can you honestly do the work this will inevitably need. A new roof is £ thousands. Often £15-20000.

Can the DC bunk up? Can you go a bit further afield to open up more choice? I really wouldn’t buy this.

My mortgage company have just provided a valuation and are happy to proceed. The homebuyers report was arranged privately.

Children need a room each due to genders/ ages ( 15 year age gap). I can just about do it in this house if I partition a room. No other houses I have seen have given me this option at a price that is affordable to me.

If the asbestos on the shed is corrugated roofing its fine, the shed can still be used. If you change the roofing it can be disposed of at your council tip for free although it has to be wrapped in polythene. Its no risk to health unless you start smashing it up.

A lead work supply not ideal but not major either. Britta filters remove lead and if you're in a hard water area and run the tap for 10 mins in the morning its fine.

Roof just felt and tiles not too bad. Timbers as well can really cost.

Woodworm a bit is fine, just paint with 5 star or similar. If there's piles of sawdust its bad. Generally they like cold damp houses, if the heating is on they tend to leave.

Damp all old houses have some. Again heating the house helps and if its been unheated for awhile the damp will return. Could be an easy fix such as removing higher ground outside.

Is it a shared sewer e.g it takes sewage from other houses as well? If it is its the water companies problem. Drains are easy to fix but can be expensive on labour costs if you can't get a mini digger in.

Not sure about the asbestos and water tank. Could require specialist removal if its the flakey kind

Have you got funds for some renovations?

I have searched a far as I can go distance - wise due to work/ schools. Nothing else has come up. I can obviously only just afford a home so my other option would be renting.

The cost for essential work sounds like you can't actually afford this. Even with a bunch of handy mates

Thank you Sproutsandbacon

So I guess I need a roofer to assess what exactly needs doing and quote me for that.
And look into the sewer/ drainage issue to see who is responsible.
And possibly give my surveyor a call to question him furthur about the severity of a couple of these issues.

I guess I need more information to help to decide whether to walk.....

Any furthur advice/insights really welcome

It sounds like a money pit and I would be inclinded to rent for the moment, then buying either something more suitable if it comes on the market or potentially a smaller place in a couple of years (if older DC are likely to be moving out?).

You could see light through the tiles in places on our old house, Victorian with rosemary tiles. It was 120 years old and never leaked ( only once through some lead flashing that needed replacing ) we were there 20 years . When you went up there you could feel the wind blowing through , the roof timbers were in near perfect condition because the airflow had kept the roof space the same temperature as outside ( that a cold roof is supposed to be ) . All six of our row still had the original roofs on them which says something about the design.
The buyers surveyor commented on how good the condition of the roof was. Seeing light through roof tiles is not uncommon on older roofs with felt/ membrane under them.

But the downside is you get more wasps in the roof space.

I would look into it further. The problems are clear to the surveyor in this house. Plenty of houses look fine, nothing shows on the survey and they have been 'done' but not properly just a disguise job.
Sometimes a structural survey from a structural engineer can be very useful and they will suggest how to solve the problem. I had one on a property 4 years ago and it cost £400.

I am not that risk averse when it comes to buying property but in your position I wouldn't buy this. It sounds like you can't afford to make it a safe place for your family to live and that is without the inevitable surprise that will pop up. It's a shame that you may lose your existing mortgage. Is there really nothing else available? Think outside the box. Go and see anything and everything that's available. You might find something surprisingly acceptable.

I love a project but you would really need to get these issue properly costed. Have you considered shared ownership with a HA? Or a flat instead of a house? We just downscaled from a house to a flat and it was only a little smaller (3 beds rather than 5) but was only half the price.

Lead water pipe is not a problem all houses before the late sixties had them , so unless they have been replaced there must still be millions of homes still with it. Plus if you’ve ever seen the inside of a lead water pipe there’s like a black coating that lines the walls of them ( limescale ?). So I don’t think the water actually touches the lead.

The asbestos is not a problem until you come to remove it , and then as previously said you can doublebag it and dispose of it at your local tip.i removed a garage like this . Asbestos sheets are only dangerous if your start cutting or grinding them and creating dust.

Sounds like your surveyor has highlighted potential problems, rather than actual problems that need immediate attention.

Can you get a structural engineer to look at the highlighted areas? Homebuyers reports make every house sound like it's on the verge of falling down. You need quotes to remedy the "reds" and a timeframe for when the work actually needs doing (which areas are deal-breakers, can you live with some for a couple of years). Then you can negotiate on price if you still want to proceed.

Victorian terraces notoriously have damp readings, especially if the survey is done in the winter so I wouldn't worry about that. My survey had this and didn't have problems in the 5 years I lived there. I also had a flag for the roof but the tiles weren't the original, I ended up getting a second opinion and they found no issue. Woodworm could have been treated, it's difficult to know. I'd probably have had a full building survey, I'm actually surprised your surveyor would do a Homebuyers, a family member is a surveyor and they won't for properties over 120 years old. Sorry if that's not much help. Without knowing the cost of the things that need doing you're in a tricky position to negotiate.

You could see daylight through the roof tiling in our Victorian terrace. I think it was lime mortar that had receded over time. I'm sure it needed redoing eventually, but it didn't leak whilst we were there.

I asked my what surveyor would be most suitable and he said structural on a property of this size wasn't necessary. Maybe I was poorly advised.

Is the asking price lower already because of some of these things? I'm surprised the valuation came back ok if not. Surveyors do like a bit of bad news, but it does sound like a fair bit.

Lead pipes supplying water to the house? Is this definite or just likely given the age of the property?
Perfectly possible to upgrade this when updating a bathroom or the central heating system.
PS Your responsibility ends at the stopcock for the house. When we had a water meter fitted, in a Victorian house the company replaced the lead pipe supplying the house from the outside mains. (You may not want to use this route with 3 kids though!)
The cold water tank on our Victorian house had no asbestos!
They are just saying that it might have that to cover themselves.

Loads of old properties have lead pipes - they are also by now lined with limescale so the water doesn't touch the lead.

Run the taps for a few minutes in the morning so the water hasn't been sitting in the pipes - no problem

I would be worried about cracked drain and woodworm, and need to plan for a new roof.