Structural survey done - problems - what next?

[GoinSouth]

Morning all..

Anxiously awaited the surveyor's report from the full structural survey of an old terraced house. We knew it had damp so were expecting that.

So he said:

Roof needs re-covering - approx £8k
Damp - £500 per linear metre
Repointing outside £2k

I have NO idea about these sort of things - I've just had home buyers reports in the past and never had any issues. But we did see the damp in this property.

What do we do next? Do we now wait for the full report (1-2 weeks) , or do we now contact the estate agent and tell them what the surveyor said and liaise with vendor to get companies in to quote for the work? I just don't know what to do now/next.

In terms of renegotiating the sale price, how does this work?

Any help or advice would be really welcomed.

We haven't seen any houses we've liked except this and the market is just dreadful and not sure I can mentally go back to square one again..

Thanks everyone!

@AwkwardPaws27

The damp could be caused by the pointing and / or the roof (& guttering).

This is a good point. We had some damp in our kitchen show up on our report. It turns out it was because the down pipe for the guttering was a few centimetres higher than the guttering itself so it was overflowing straight onto the wall during heavy rain. Cost £70 to get fixed about 5 years ago. Our walls are rendered so there was no pointing to replace and the wall dried out by itself. We had quite a few things show up in the report as needing to be fixed but only a few really have. The flashing on our porch was one (also causing damp, cost £1,200 to completely rebuild) and the fence was the other (loose at the time but finally came down last year and was replaced for £3,500 because we decided to do concrete posts on all three sides). Apparently the chimney and roof needed to be replaced but 5 years later and we haven't had any problems at all.

Yes, report said some areas needed repointing.. I fear though this is rising damp as we did notice damp above the skirting board.. you might think.. why on earth even put an offer on a property with damp clearly evident.. probably hoping it's not going to be too big an issue to solve, stupidly!

So the surveyor is a generalist. Unless it's patently obvious (and I'd call them to understand because it may be), they may not be able to pinpoint the source of the damp. Damp is however a massive money spinner and there are loads of cowboys. Which is why you should ask your surveyor (who I'm hoping is RICS registered) for an off the record recommendation of someone to ask for a quote. They probably won't actually recommend someone as I don't think they're allowed to but they can give you the names of local reputable firms.

@Clymene

So the surveyor is a generalist. Unless it's patently obvious (and I'd call them to understand because it may be), they may not be able to pinpoint the source of the damp. Damp is however a massive money spinner and there are loads of cowboys. Which is why you should ask your surveyor (who I'm hoping is RICS registered) for an off the record recommendation of someone to ask for a quote. They probably won't actually recommend someone as I don't think they're allowed to but they can give you the names of local reputable firms.

Thanks Clymene.. yes, he is RICS reg'd.

Surveyors always cover their backs so they will point out all possible problems, even though they're actually not so bad. I wept when we got our survey back. Wanted to walk away, but I'm glad we didn't. We sent the survey to the vendor and asked for 30k off the price, he met us in the middle and we got 15k off. We were lucky though as I think he really wanted to sell and didn't have many buyers - just us and another couple who were not proceedable. So maybe get a sense from the EA to see how many offers they've had? Then play hard ball? I was so angry so I really sounded like I wanted to walk away (because I actually did LOL).

Anyway they were stupid because they didn't even try to cover the damp / water ingress issues for the viewings. One was actually an old leak that I fixed with damp paint, another one is a patch in the living room that is caused by a leaking gutter (not urgent), another one in the bedroom is caused by a tile that fell off (difficult access as it's the side of a dormer... but again not crazily urgent), and finally one more serious, in the kitchen extension, leaking skylight window. I'm going to try to fix this with a weatherproof sealant... if not window needs replacing. Once all of this is fixed, the house will be lovely. And it already is worth about £60K more because we've put in a new kitchen and engineered floors.

If you have a mate who knows a thing or two about houses, maybe get them to have a look? It doesn't have to be all doom and gloom.

The survey might sound very very negative though, be prepared ;)

I had an RCIS Level 3 survey here and the surveyor clearly explained he couldn't inspect the sub void because of the fitted carpets. An acquaintance had also wanted this bungalow and said to make sure the surveyor paid attention to the 'damp' as she could smell it. Survey said damp levels were normal.

I wish I'd had a damp/timber survey. I moved in last March, and have just finished packing so I can move out again. All the plasterboard floors are soaking wet and the underlay is black mould. The one bedroom with floorboards has wet/dry rot and woodworm. There is water under the building. I've been quoted £11K to fix it - completely unexpected.

You might be interested in this article which explains rising damp doesn't exist :)

www.heritage-house.org/damp-and-condensation/the-fraud-of-rising-damp.html

Did the estate agent factor in the work - we did when we sold, I was up front with the fact we were selling as is, 100 year old house with 100 year old problems

[quote Salome61]I had an RCIS Level 3 survey here and the surveyor clearly explained he couldn't inspect the sub void because of the fitted carpets. An acquaintance had also wanted this bungalow and said to make sure the surveyor paid attention to the 'damp' as she could smell it. Survey said damp levels were normal.

I wish I'd had a damp/timber survey. I moved in last March, and have just finished packing so I can move out again. All the plasterboard floors are soaking wet and the underlay is black mould. The one bedroom with floorboards has wet/dry rot and woodworm. There is water under the building. I've been quoted £11K to fix it - completely unexpected.

You might be interested in this article which explains rising damp doesn't exist :)

www.heritage-house.org/damp-and-condensation/the-fraud-of-rising-damp.html[/quote]
Hi Salome,

There is about a 2 inch tidemark all above the skirting board in the dining room.. which they tried to disguise by putting various objects in front of the skirting board. We knew this when we put the offer in and then sat back to wait to have the survey done. I, unfortunately, have no idea of how much it is to rectify this, and have no I can ask to advise, apart from tradesmen - my husband is, well.. no clue either. As it's an old house, we expect some issues but ones that we hope we can afford to get fixed in time and perhaps negotiate with seller - hence we didn't immediately discount the house.

So I'm not sure how a damp specialist categorises this damp above skirting boards - I always thought it was rising damp from the external floor. I'm in the process of contacting specialists now to give us a better idea of what we could be dealing with and then we'll make a decision as to what to do.

@Sandrine1982

Surveyors always cover their backs so they will point out all possible problems, even though they're actually not so bad. I wept when we got our survey back. Wanted to walk away, but I'm glad we didn't. We sent the survey to the vendor and asked for 30k off the price, he met us in the middle and we got 15k off. We were lucky though as I think he really wanted to sell and didn't have many buyers - just us and another couple who were not proceedable. So maybe get a sense from the EA to see how many offers they've had? Then play hard ball? I was so angry so I really sounded like I wanted to walk away (because I actually did LOL).

Anyway they were stupid because they didn't even try to cover the damp / water ingress issues for the viewings. One was actually an old leak that I fixed with damp paint, another one is a patch in the living room that is caused by a leaking gutter (not urgent), another one in the bedroom is caused by a tile that fell off (difficult access as it's the side of a dormer... but again not crazily urgent), and finally one more serious, in the kitchen extension, leaking skylight window. I'm going to try to fix this with a weatherproof sealant... if not window needs replacing. Once all of this is fixed, the house will be lovely. And it already is worth about £60K more because we've put in a new kitchen and engineered floors.

If you have a mate who knows a thing or two about houses, maybe get them to have a look? It doesn't have to be all doom and gloom.

The survey might sound very very negative though, be prepared ;)

@Sandrine1982

As far as we know, surprisingly.. no other offers. No-one is clearly as stupid as us (me!!). But definitely, once we get the survey we will approach EA, give them the news and then ask to negotiate the price. If seller is not prepared then we must pull out. But seller will simply have the same problem with other buyers unless they like the house well enough and have the money to spend on it without having to negotiate. Frustrating having to wait for the actual report now!

So we've had the survey report back. Just referring to the estimates for additional surveys and work to be carried out comes to about £20k, not including any work for the damp, quoted at £500 per linear metre. So I think we have no choice but to pull-out regretfully as any work required is likely to be quite invasive, such as pulling off plaster to inspect walls, floorboards, pulling out kitchen units and replacing them - all due to the damp; and then there's the roof - on inspection there is no roof covering underneath the tiles! We simply don't have the resources available to take on such a project, and even if seller reduced the price, I'm not sure we want to be burdened with all of these problems to have to fix before exchange. We were aware of the damp when we made an offer but the survey revealed it's not just a simple case of having a damp proof course.

Everyone agree?

No felt under the roof tiles is common in older houses. My house was built in 1929 and has no felt. We’ve lived here for 15 years and roof has been fine apart from the odd loose slate.