Structural survey has destroyed my sale and my lovely house

[Rosser]

I live in a lovely mid terrace ex council house in a sought after area. I sold in jan to a FTB, I turned down higher bids as I thought a FTB would be quickest and we didn’t want to lose the house we were hoping to purchase. The FTB apparently lives on this road in rented and loves it and wants to stay here. It’s a long road 320 houses so I don’t know who it is. We were also FTB when we brought 12 years ago so it felt right.

We are only moving because my Mum is coming to live with us. It’s a lovely house but it has no room to extend.

FTB has had a full structural survey which brought back loads of issues but all are totally normal for one of these houses.

They boiler is 10 years old but has been serviced every year and is in good working order. But the engineer has suggested they might want to change it for longevity. Same with electrics, which we had partially rewired (to regs) and are totally fine.

Gaps in the loft party wall apparently make my roof liable to collapse. All of these terraces have the same gaps and it’s no job to brick them up if you wish.

We removed a wall to make a kitchen diner (with a structural engineer, a steel, building regs) and apparently that could potentially cause movement upstairs in the long term. Again, nearly every house on the road will have done it as we’ve got tiny galley kitchens otherwise.

They’ve pointed out every single hairline crack that have been here as long as we have. Again, every house has them or has been freshly plastered or is covered in textured wallpaper. We ran out of money when decorating so didn’t manage to plaster every room. They’ve said our one squeaky floorboard could possibly mean an issue with the joists. Again, it’s been squeaky as long as we’ve been here.

Long story short FTB are now running a mile, we’ve lost our onwards purchase and we have to declare issues with the previous survey although there is nothing actually wrong with the house. The FTB is making a big mistake and I do feel bad for them as I’d probably do the same but the whole situation is ridiculous.

Anyone empathise or offer any words of advice. I’m so worried we won’t be able to sell without a massive price reduction now and our onwards purchase is dependent on the sale price. The valuation was ok. Just the survey.

I'm sorry you've lost your buyers, but agree with the poster that you need to detach and move on - do the jobs you can and then hopefully you'll get a buyer who isn't bothered by these things.

Selling and buying houses is an odd thing - it's an emotive purchase (you're usually buying a home) but also a massive financial transaction. We pulled out of of first flat purchase as FTBs as we were put off by the sort of damp we now realise comes up in loads of surveys of Victorian ground floor properties and the sellers refused to cover the works (£1k) - it made us really think whether we wanted the flat or not. I'm slightly dreading the survey when we sell our current place - just hoping we get relaxed buyers.

Op - your hardly the most objective person
I’m afraid the survey results sound a little more than what is normally expected (and everyone expects something!)

No: don’t screw the loose floorboard down without checking for pipes/cables below.

NB, not no (I’m not quite that bossy )

I had a job once typing up surveyors reports. There was one that went on and on, I was appalled, who on earth in their right mind was trying to get a mortgage on the dilapidated wreck I was typing about? Then the photos arrived to go with it, it was a gorgeous Victorian house, looked perfect to me.

I dread to think what a structural survey would say zbout my house!

I sorted tiny cracks in paint work (had used the paint to thick being a bit lazy decorating) because I was concerned about the impression it gave. So many people expect an immaculate house these days.

Just sand it down a bit, poly filler or caulk and then paint over.

Prioritise the cracks and decorating then put back in the market. Don't say any more than absolutely necessary. The FTB changed their mind. Then you can sort the bricking up in the loft and gas certificate etc after you have an offer but before the survey.

You sound more bothered of them not buying, then they are by walking away from the purchase. You are funding your move with equity, FTBs with a hard earn cash. And that’s why such a difference in opinion. Also don’t worry about their deposit, worry about your house.

If as you say your house sells as a hot cake, why are you even bothering, 10 days is enough.

They paid a grand for the survey

They were obviously very serious about buying your property

Hmm... we have a lemon of a house that we should have had a full survey on..

Hairline cracks, squeaky floorboard.... they had also put in a support beam, all signed off by building regs etc.

It's moving.

I would be put off by these so called minor things in future.

They all valid points
A,10 year old boiler will need replacing in fes years etc
It scared them off
Another buyer may be less put off
It hadn't destroyed your house

It just wasn't meant to be and the house you liked wasn't for you either. Doesn't seem like it but hang on in there and another house you love will show up. When me and DH were buying over an 18month period there were three houses that apparently I couldn't live without and they either fell through or we were outbid and now we live in a stunning home that I adore and would hate to live in any of the other ones I apparently loved

Just a detail, but if they’re hairline cracks in the wall, make sure you use something like Polyfilla Fine Surface filler (comes in a tube), as it’s smoother and has a better finish. Then sand it with two grades of sandpaper as emulsion painted straight onto walls with imperfections is very unforgiving.

@Rosser

It was a full structural survey that they paid over a grand for. Surveyor was here an hour! They’re going to quickly spend their deposit and I’ve no doubt the next one the commission will be similar, if not worse. They want to live in this area and the houses are all the same.

We just had this problem. Well similar: our buyer pulled out two days before exchange because we don’t have paperwork for two load bearing walls that had been removed 30-40 years ago and the side gate we have right of way over is on someone else’s land.

Every single terrace house I know of, and I live in the South Wales valleys.. has the middle wall removed in lounge/diner, not one I’ve asked has paperwork for it (8 now). The estate agent recommend she look for a different type of property.

If they paid for the survey you aren't allowed to reference it.

You have my sympathies!

I’m sure you will find a more pragmatic buyer! To speed up the next purchase, the searches carried out for your previous purchaser can be reused if they’re still in date. I think you’d need your old buyer to agree to this though (I’ve benefited from this in a purchase.)

When buying our first house (competitive market, 1930s house) I’m sure we made ourselves more attractive because we were really clear in our offer that we would NOT be conducting a survey. And when we sold, we looked for this in our buyer.

@FTEngineerM

Did you have the paper work?

Because any structural work done need to be signed off. Fact.

Most surveyors have a ‘for your eyes only’ clause in their ts&cs with their client (the person paying). Not only should you not need to disclose anything you ‘learnt’ from this survey, you have no right to the information contained in the report (weird but true!) so absolve you’re self of that worry. Get it under offer again & hope you get more realistic buyers next time!!

@stuntbubbles

Detach detach detach. She can’t, it’s a terrace

(Good advice though!)

v.g.

OP get your Estate Agents to chase up other offerers that you turned down in favour of the FTB. Do it now, whilst they may still be looking. Potentially that will be your quickest turnaround.

House surveys are an exercise in arse-covering, and generally don't reflect the true state of the property. Any decent surveyor should be able to tell the difference between a hairline crack (which all older properties get) and a problematic crack.

The last house we sold, the buyers paid £1500 roughly for the bells and whistles survey. The surveyor came round, stood and had a chat to me for around 20 mins on the local football team, realised he was running out of time so dashed around the house, pronounced it 'all fine, nothing major to worry about' and provided a fairly reassuring report to our buyers. The house had been freshly painted with cracks filled. The surveyor didn't move any furntiure, didn't lift any rugs, did no more than put his head through the loft and didn't actually take a good look, didn't even look at the exterior walls on either side or the back. Complete waste of the buyers money.

I would say it's unusual to have a full structural survey.
Bung it back on the market. Our buyers got a drive by survey on our 4 bed. It was a shoddily built 1970s Bovis house. I expect a full structural survey would have it reduced to a pile of rubble!

No, you don't have to declare minor cosmetic issues, they're not "defects". Yes, you can fill the cracks, it's your house, no it won't "look suspicious" there's no grownup checking to see if you copied your essay. No one will know. If they're fillable with a bit of polyfilla, they're not the sort of structural defects you need to be concerned with. And yes the steel might fail one day, all things return to dust, entropy happens, unlikely in next fifty years or so. And I say this as someone who bought a house covered in 'settlement cracks' after a similarly dramatic survey. It held up the sale for months while we tried to get answers about how fucked the house was. Seller organised her own survey showing all was fine. Sorry if this sounds brisk I'm in a hurry but wanted to reassure you that this isn't a disaster.

Surveyors are regulated by RICS. I'd consider reporting the surveyor because while they're duty bound to report all defects, this one sounds inexperienced and panic-prone. I wonder how many sales have fallen through because of them?

We were late first time buyers and had a survey which read scarily but we broke it down and discussed it carefully. Researched and ask people for opinions. Some things are added to every survey anyway. Like check electrics/boiler etc.

I can see why survey language spooks some to be honest. We went ahead anyway and all was fine. Some points were over egged and lucky we have a builder friend to tell us what needed doing and what really didn’t.

When we were buying our current house our mortgage survey came back saying it was timber frame so then the mortgage wouldn’t touch it. His knows why they wrote that, it’s clearly brick built and the bricks were visible from the road (they do a drive by survey here). Cost us £750 for that survey which was through the mortgage provider, we paid for another independent survey (another £750) which came back fine, asked them to specify if it’s brick and they did. Sent to the mortgage and they said fine and progressed the sale but they wouldn’t refund the cost of their rubbish timber frame survey.

I had this issue as a FTB last year, however I was getting financial help from a family member to buy and they insisted on a full survey each time we had an offer accepted. 3 accepted offers all had similar survey as yours OP and this family member would not let me go ahead with any until I got a complete survey with no red items. I wanted one house and cried so much when we couldn't have it because the wall could fall down. It was very stressful and caused arguments in the family. Anyway I now have moved to a newer house and this family member was happy with the survey. I feel for you OP, this family member of mine added up each bad survey to around 50k which was not true! Really hope you still sell and get the house you want x

I would agree with the comments about the survey the buyers commission it so unless they tell you, you dont know what’s in it. I would remarket the house and the next buyer may not even want a full survey.