If you pulled out due to a survey, why?

[ManyMaybes]

We just had the survey back for the house we’re buying and I think it was generally fine. The house itself seemed structurally sound but there were various imperfections such as a slight bit of rising damp in the lower ground floor, old wiring, general upkeep required, windows need servicing etc etc.

None of this is really an issue to me as we are buying knowing it’s in adequate condition but hasn’t had work done to it in decades probably. And we will be renovating and extending the lower ground floor so any issues in there will be fixed in time anyway.

I know lots of people pull out because of survey issues, but what sorts of things have you pulled out for? Subsidence, roof needing replacing etc?

Asbestos in the house with new boiler and entire central heating system required asap which would mean the asbestos needed removing, plus house had been rented for 10+ years so maintenance had been minimal. Needed new kitchen, bathrooms, carpets, rewiring, plastering/decoration, new patio and fences and the prefab garage was also falling down - and the owners wouldn't budge on price at all. It was empty for ages, rented for a couple of years and then on the market again for ages but it did sell eventually.

We bought somewhere that needed a new roof and had subsidence but it was priced accordingly and the (same) surveyor was far more positive about it being a solid house that needed tlc rather than a moneypit which is what he called the first house!

House looked fine just needed decorating we thought.

Survey said asbestos board in cupboards, needed rewiring totally, had damp, all the plaster had blown and would need replastering. They wouldn't reduce price at all and estate agent got quite arsey when we asked for a small reduction in view of this. We walked away and bought one which did just need decorating not a full refurbishment.

Really its if you can afford the remedial works the survey picked up. Our survey picked up things that we then went to the vendor for a reduction in price, they met us half way. In the end some of the work was more expensive than expected but there were no deal breakers.

subsidence, couldn't get mortgage due to it

Subsidence once

And once when we were FTB there was just so many things we hadn’t realised would need doing, each a few grand but non of the jobs so big that on their own we would pull out for. It was just the sheer volume of them, we just couldn’t afford it when we were already stretching ourselves

I looked at the house some years later and it hadn’t gone up in value at all on what we would’ve paid, but we would’ve have pooled a ton of money in fixing the odd leak here, a rotten step there, replacing the roof and fixing the chimney stack etc. so it was the right decision looking back even though the estate agents were VERY annoyed at us

Mine shaft discovered from historical documents.

The mortgage company withdrew their offer and the house (and half the street) was declared unmortgageable.

I would only ever pull out if it had subsidence and needed underpinning. Most other general maintenance are
reflected in the price, eg roof repairs, wiring, plumbing. I wouldn't ever worry about decorative stuff etc.

Tried to buy a house that was listed on Rightmove as, and I quote, "in need of some updating."

We knew it would need everything doing inside - new kitchen, bathroom, etc - and the price did reflect that, and we thought we knew what needed to be done outside and had budgeted for it.

Survey said the roof needed to be re-covered, all external render needed stripping off to help cure the damp problem, with risk to stone walls underneath, all internal plaster needed replacing with something breathable, and the concrete floors needed to come up. The upstairs toilet was leaking into the floor, and all the timber floors upstairs needed investigating. All the gutters and downpipes needed replacing. The gutters hadn't been cleaned in five years (place had been rented) and rain was running inside a hard render between that and the stone wall. We wouldn't know what the damage was until we'd stripped off the cement render. All the windows needed to come out and be refitted or replaced with suitable windows with air vents. The surveyor said it was the wettest house he'd ever seen in 35 years of surveying. The whole property was surrounded by an 8ft-10ft stone wall - lovely - but it needed urgent repointing as was crumbling.

So it turned out to be a far bigger project than anticipated, and a lot more expensive - it wouldn't have been habitable while work was being done, either - we had no choice but to pull out. The owner would have reduced the price but not by enough.

It went up for auction after we pulled out.

People pulling out because of asbestos? Soooooooo many houses have asbestos in the walls or ceilings etc (you wouldn't even know half the time, as lots are plastered over). It's fine unless disturbed! We've been looking at houses recently, and apart from the two new builds we saw, every house but one had artex somewhere on thr walls or ceilings (and I expect the one that didn't had it plastered over!).

As PP says, the deal-breaker for me would be subsidence. We almost bought a house recently. We were fine with the blown windows, the possibility of asbestos in ceilings, the low EPC, and a few other things.... we were not fine that the brickwork was shifting and it would mean basically rebuilding a wall (probably more). Major damp would maybe be the othet deal breaker, depending on how bad it was.

We pulled out after searches revealed two mineshafts within the boundaries and potentially issues with drainage. The house was already overpriced and needed to be fully modernised and we wanted to extend it too - so it wasn't worth it.

Was a two up two down had had been doubled in size and looked “done”.

Except the boiler and water tank weren’t big enough any more.

There was a suspect crack from top to roof.

The roof space which was sold as fine for a conversion… absolutely wasn’t.

The conservatory was more knackered than it looked.

Essentially there was £40-50k worth of money needing spending on the house in the first few years we hadn’t anticipated.

Japanese knotweed

I've pulled out once after the survey and subsequent legal work showed old fixed subsidence. Only one insurance company (theirs) would quote and at x4 normal prices. We pulled out.

@Gingernaut

Mine shaft discovered from historical documents.

The mortgage company withdrew their offer and the house (and half the street) was declared unmortgageable.

That's so scary!

@surreygirl1987

People pulling out because of asbestos? Soooooooo many houses have asbestos in the walls or ceilings etc (you wouldn't even know half the time, as lots are plastered over). It's fine unless disturbed! We've been looking at houses recently, and apart from the two new builds we saw, every house but one had artex somewhere on thr walls or ceilings (and I expect the one that didn't had it plastered over!).

As PP says, the deal-breaker for me would be subsidence. We almost bought a house recently. We were fine with the blown windows, the possibility of asbestos in ceilings, the low EPC, and a few other things.... we were not fine that the brickwork was shifting and it would mean basically rebuilding a wall (probably more). Major damp would maybe be the othet deal breaker, depending on how bad it was.

I would definitely pull out because of asbestos!

One where an extension hadn’t been tied into the wall properly and was coming away from it. One with subsidence at the party wall which was affecting both properties. Did buy one with half a kitchen, and gaping hole in partially renovated bathroom (easily visible and reflected in price) and one with subsidence in porch (not visible) but surveyor said as wasn’t integral part of the property could actually just be removed (didn’t, rebuilt it about 6 years later)

Wow mine shafts?? I would not have expected that!

It sounds like most people are pulling out for more that we have encountered so that gives me some comfort :)

We pulled out of one as the roof had been sprayed with some sort of insulating foam.
This included the beams and structures and the mortgage company wouldn’t touch it as it had no regulations and can rot/damage the roof and is also flammable.

Couldn’t afford to replace the roof and the vendor wouldn’t budge!

Yes we’ve recently pulled out due to the survey. Damp (which seller is trying to hide), roof issues, drain issues and rotten woodwork. All fixable but house is top of budget for us and is also top of market for what it is and where. House is basically overpriced for the condition it’s in so our reason for withdrawing the office is we don’t have the time, budget or inclination to fix the problems.

@HmmmmmmInteresting really? Wow, interesting! Out of interest then, would you either only buy a property post 2000 (as asbestos was banned from 1999 I think)? Or would you pay for a separate specific asbestos survey before buying to check (as so often artex ceilings etc are plastered over so you would never know!). Asking as I'm looking to buy at the moment and would never have thought of doing that - but interesting you would?

@paddingtonthebear was vendor willing to negotiate or did you decide it wasn't worth asking? We were considering buying a property with major work needing (roof needed replacing etc) but they wouldn't budge on price.

Sellers told us that transmission towers were no longer used and were in the process of being taken down due to not being used. Turns out that was bullshit

We didn’t ask, we had already had to switch lenders (for a worse deal) to get the mortgage valuation agreed (first lender valued at £25k under asking price). Even if the vendor agreed to drop the price it wouldn’t have made much difference to our mortgage so we decided to cut our losses. We aren’t looking for anything that needs work though, only decor. We can’t afford to. I’m sure someone will be able to haggle on the price and be willing to do the work but we don’t want to.

Yeh, fair enough. Sounds like it was the right decision!

Was lots of issues including rising damp, new windows and doors and a new roof. Possible subsidence too. Tried negotiating with seller but he was so slow at getting back to us and after a week we gave up and pulled out.