Survey woes

[Bobbleka]

This is all new to me so I am stressing and not looking forward to negotiating.

A lot of issues wereflagged as urgent attention needed on a L2 survey on a 30s semi that I have had an offer accepted on.

Would really appreciate any advice. I am going to talk it through with the surveyor as well. What would you do, ask them to fix before sale, accept as is, ask for reduction? Dreading going back to square one again house hunting.

Surveyor also gave a valuation of 10k below purchase price of £215K.

The issues were:

A few cracked roof tiles and eroded mortar

Conservatory roof has leaked and poor repairs carried out. Roof needs replacing or repairing

Rising damp in entrance hall and reception at front of house (however one of the other issues is that guttering needs cleaning urgently)

The electrical system is below current standards

Heating system old and not checked or serviced in last 12 months

Garage roof missing tiles (pitched roof), leaking, and there is rot to external and internal timbers.

Rear garden fence panels x 2missing to right side (neighbour's responsibility)

Thanks.

They are not serious issues.

Few (if any) 90 year old houses would pass a survey cleanly.

Electrical standards change every two or three years. Missing roof tiles & fence panels are easily remedied.

Get an estimate for repairing all of these faults and reduce your offer accordingly.

That wouldn’t stop me from buying the house. The only one that would make me have another look is the raising damp.

Also. People tend to pick on things and they mean nothing. As an example. On a house we were selling 8 years ago. The survey came back that we had wood work. I panicked. How has we not spotted this while living here for the last 8 years.
Turns out it was on a piece of wood that was screwed to the wall in an outside cupboard. We unscrewed it and the woodworm was gone. So I would maybe go and have another look.

Rising damp is the only one to worry about.

@Lou573

Rising damp is the only one to worry about.

Yup.

Everything else is very normal on a survey for a house a fraction the age of ‘yours’

Rising damp is often misdiagnosed. It could well be that fixing the guttering will stop the damp. I'm slightly concerned that your valuation was 10k under though. Any house you buy is going to have issues. You need to decide if you are ok with taking it on. If I loved the house I would be going ahead . I'd probably ask for the 10k off though due to the valuation, unless houses are all going loads over where you are.

Surveyors are not gas or electric engineers therefore they HAVE to basically say that the electricity and heating could be no good. They aren’t qualified to say otherwise

Personally I'd get a full level 3 building survey done if the homebuyers report has flagged up issues. I'd want to know as much detail as possible and then would make my decision from there.

Thanks for the replies. I will try and negotiate a reduction but everything I have either offered on or considered where I am (Birmingham) has been going for well over asking.

Will have a talk with the surveyor first.