Survey - Basement - Problems - What to do!

[NervousBuyer2021]

Hello!

My OH and I are somewhat nervous second time buyers - our first was a new build flat though and the property we are looking to buy is a Victorian house so a very different kettle of fish.

We've had our survey back and it has flagged up some unexpected issues - we knew the house we are looking to buy would need modernisation, new kitchen, new bathroom, some minor works to the roof etc. However the survey has also flagged that at some point some works were carried out to the basement, internal walls were moved around to make more space down there, and this has caused warping to the floors and some movement of walls. The surveyor reckons this can all be fixed fairly straightforwardly but it is an additional cost we weren't expecting.

We're in the process of getting quotes and have let the vendor know about the issue and told them we'll need to agree a contribution from them as we haven't budgeted for these works - they've only owned the property for a year (investor) and have said they know nothing about the works as no issues were identified in their surveys when they purchased and to let them know once we have quotes. The house was described to us as needing just decorative updating and being very much ready to move into, no major refurbishments needed.

We are wondering though if this is too risky...the works are quite adhoc and won't meet building regs and have affected the structure of the house. We also don't know yet if this will affect our mortage - it's been approved and these issues weren't picked up by the bank survey but I imagine our solicitor will alert our lender?

Is this just one of those things when buying a very old house - it's been up for long enough that someone over the years will have done something foolish and we can address it with what the surveyor has suggeted plus keeping up with maintenance once we've bought the house...or too risky and we should run? Are there issues we may have overlooked that some of you wise people might be able to flag up for us to consider?

Further context, we are likely to meet the stamp duty deadline and for our budget this is about the best house we can get in the area we want to live. If we don't go for this one we'll either have to continue with the sale of our flat and try to buy chain free which feels risky and we may end up priced out of where we want to live or we keep looking but risk losing our buyer. We have by no means been inundated with interest in our flat so the move would more than likely be off in that case.

Any advice would be so welcome please and thanks.

If the surveyor thinks it's a relatively straightforward fix then go for it. It's not the case that on old house someone will have fine dimethyl 'foolish', but building regs are a relatively new thing and mist old houses wouldn't pass them, yet have stood for 100+ years. But as you are taking about basement level changes, get it investigated and see how much it would cost to be put right. I'd expect the seller to reduce by half the cost of the work.

Thanks, that's helpful. It now seems we may have difficulty getting insurance for the house and still tbc as to whether its an issue for our mortgage provider. Also concerned that it may take us a while to get a builder that's actually free to do the work these days!

Feels a bit overwhelming but yes the surveyor definitely wasn't saying to run a mile or anything like that so that's good to remember. I'm waiting to hear back from our solicitor about what they think is needed so that will potentially make the decision for us.

Thanks!

What kind of a house is it? Is it an original basement? Has there been a loft extension as well? What is the position of the walls that have been moved in relation to the supporting walls on the main floors? What walls have moved and a result of the alterations?

If it is a terraced house with original basement and no additional upper floor changes (removal of supporting walls, additional loft works) then the repairs might be relatively simple..

Worth remembering that this will come up for all future buyers if you pull out so the investor may well have to deal with this if he / she is to offload this property unless they get lucky with an undiscerning buyer.

As you describe your situation with the stamp duty deadline, your buyer, the local market and the price as well as the optimism of the survey regarding how easy it will be to rectify, that a decent quote for repairs and a contribution from the seller would be a reasonable outcome.

I would:
Check with your solicitor whether your lender want to / need to know
If not, proceed to price renegotiation.
If the lender does need to know
Are they bothered?
If so
Would they be happy to go ahead with a retention for the work
If so
Negotiate a price reduction with the vendor. I would go for more than half the cost of the work.

@ChateauMargaux

What kind of a house is it? Is it an original basement? Has there been a loft extension as well? What is the position of the walls that have been moved in relation to the supporting walls on the main floors? What walls have moved and a result of the alterations?

If it is a terraced house with original basement and no additional upper floor changes (removal of supporting walls, additional loft works) then the repairs might be relatively simple..

Worth remembering that this will come up for all future buyers if you pull out so the investor may well have to deal with this if he / she is to offload this property unless they get lucky with an undiscerning buyer.

As you describe your situation with the stamp duty deadline, your buyer, the local market and the price as well as the optimism of the survey regarding how easy it will be to rectify, that a decent quote for repairs and a contribution from the seller would be a reasonable outcome.

It's a victorian house, 1880s. Original basement but at some point the floor was lowered to create more headspace and internal walls were moved to make more space in there. No loft works. There's a stud wall between the two reception rooms on the ground floor that our surveyor suspects is now carrying a bit more load than it should because of the basement works so there would need to be some supports added if that wall was to be removed.

Thanks for your comments! I think we are a bit concerned that the house might always be slightly more expensive when it comes to carrying out any works, because of the movement that has happened. So we are minded to look for a decent contribution to these works / reduction in price as a result.

@UpTheJunktion

I would: Check with your solicitor whether your lender want to / need to know If not, proceed to price renegotiation. If the lender does need to know Are they bothered? If so Would they be happy to go ahead with a retention for the work If so Negotiate a price reduction with the vendor. I would go for more than half the cost of the work.

Thank you! That's a good plan. Yeah we were thinking 75% of the costs at least. We paid a decent price for it that we thought was fair and in line with the market if only decorative works needed but definitely on the high side given what we now know about its condition.

Our solicitor has let us know the seller didn't declare the works to the basement in the Property Information Form. Our seller hasn't owned the house for very long so I suppose they could say they weren't aware...the estate agent has told us that these issues didn't come up when the seller was buying the house.

Does that seem unusual or not really?

Hard to say - your mortgage company valuation survey didn't pick it up, and cash-buyer investors often don't bother with a proper survey because they don't have a lender demanding one.

Or they may have had suspicions and decided to try and get away with it.

What have they done with it in a year that they are selling again so fast? Have you looked at the sale history on Zoopla?

They bought it in probate, just as Covid kicked off and Brexit kicked in so got a very good price. Their intention was always to sell it - flipping it basically but they haven't done any work to the house at all, just hoping to make a profit on the improved market conditions. It was previously owned for 30+ years.

I think we had some suspicions but are now more suspicious that they perhaps bought it thinking they'd fix it up, realised that would cost quite a bit more than planned because of the issues we are now identifying, and so decided to just sell it on instead.

Thank goodness you got a proper thorough survey.

Once you get quotes, draw up a full budget of works that need doing (how is the wiring?), add up a big contingency, and be sure you can afford it.

It is miserable living in a house that you can't afford to do up or maintain properly.

But it sounds as if you could do quite well with this house as long as the costs of works needed and the price re-negotiation work out.

Thank you - had another chat with our surveyor today and we’re feeling more clear and reassured about what should be possible. Definitely very glad we got a survey and our surveyor has been so helpful too.