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.

*@Rosser * we had this with a 2 year old house! The buyer had a full structural survey done who claimed there was at least £10k of work needing doing including "poor decorative order" ie didn't like the magnolia paint and "flashing on rear bay window half a brick too far to the left" ie it wasn't perfectly central. I think we got some of the less ridiculous criticisms sorted out for £300 but nearly lost our onward purchase! You have my utmost sympathies - funnily enough when we employed the same surveyor for our onward new build purchase which at one point had over 300 'snags' that we found he couldn't find anything wrong with it! Even missed the gigantic leak and undulating floor!

I’m amazed how many people seem to expect perfection. The house is 90 years old, it’s bound to have issues and honestly I don’t think any of these are big issues. When we brought it it had a drain issues and needed a new roof. We did both of those things. We’ve also had new kitchen/bathroom, taken down the wall to make the coveted kitchen/diner. In order to get the house you want in the area you want for the price you want you’re likely going to have to compromise.

I have been told this morning that the buyers could afford the work but were planning on doing an extension to the kitchen/diner immediately so this would mean they couldn’t do this. And this is in the worst case scenario, the 6 year old roof needs replacing, all upstairs joists need replacing, however they have suggested they remedy the fact the the upstairs may move in the further because we’ve put a steel in downstairs. So the apparent 30k of remedial work is costing them their extension.

Im getting quotes for the work, will polyfil the cracks and get it all ready for the full day of viewings our agent has sorted for next Tues Thanks for some fab advice.

@implantreplace I didn’t no. The work was done 40 years ago (we bought it 4 years ago) zero paperwork exists (same with the other houses as I mentioned in PP). There wasn’t even a hairline crack underneath the beams before being replastered, if it was structurally unsound there would be.. at the very least.

We called a structural engineer who said we can come and do a structural report if you want but it’s pretty pointless. They’re getting more and more calls like these when in reality the fact that it’s still standing 40 years on without sign of movement shows more than a piece of paper that it’s sound. We’re not talking cavity walls here, we’re talking black mortar and lumps of stone 50cm thick.

I’m amazed how many people seem to expect perfection

Yeah - some seem to expect a house 100+ years old with 100+ years of people DIYing/employing god knows who to maintain and repair it to be of equal state as a newbuild.

When I bought my current house, the survey highlighted that it needed a new roof. I got two roofers round to view it from the outside and both of them told me it just need a bit of an overhaul to sort out a few slipped tiles and some battening over the front door.

A new roof would have been around £8,000, the overhaul cost me £1,000 and has been fine ever since.

It did worry me a bit but didn't put me off buying the property, I just needed a professional opinion of whether it was going to cost me shedloads of money.

Hmm I think you need to sort the loft and then be honest on your next sale or get your agent too. At least you wont have any time wasters of they already know.

I don't think it's inappropriate for them to have a survey and then decide the property is not for them for whatever reason. What would be the point in paying a grand for a survey and then disregarding everything that was said.

I'm in the process of buying, albeit not FTB, and loads cropped up on survey, various things must be resolved before exchange, and some things we were advised to keep an eye on regularly. We were happy to disregard some red flags as we'd spotted them at viewing and planned to

My vendors were happy to have some of the works carried out or get certificates advising everything up to standard. The property had a new roof and that needed certifying and had also had a supporting wall removed, so they got it inspected and a cert saying the beam installed is enough to support. You can't expect an FTB to accept the house after survey has brought up loads of issues if they dont feel comfortable with it. Either get the issues resolved or negotiate to reduce the price to cover the cost of putting right.

No one is obligated to buy a house, and no one is obligated to take on a house where their survey has raised red flags.
This is your asset to sell and its up to you to ensure ah6tjing stopping ot being sold is resolved

First time buyers are often spending 8x their joint salaries and have spent years scraping together a deposit. A bit of caution is hardly ridiculous... .

@Rosser

I had an email last night to say for our onward purchase they will give us 10 days to resell. They ‘apparently’ had 2 cash offers in the few days after they accepted ours.

I would reply and say 'I respect the seller's right to proceed as they choose but please could you convey to them that we are remarketing immediately and remain very keen to buy their property'.

That is all you can do.

Then hopefully your next buyer will be realistic.

Check with your agent about price too - if your price is too high these issues will come up, if your price reflects the condition of your house you will be fine.

I have complete sympathy + for you, and for your lost buyer who spent a large chunk on an fss. That's what they're there for - as a seasoned buyer you can weigh things up and decide on what's a deal breaker or just necessary updating.
The roof space is a fire risk, and I don't know what might be suggested about the structural aspects of your extension? Have building regs changed a lot since?

All you can do -
Get quotes for necessary remedies.
Either make these yourselves and put it back on the market, or go back to your buyer and renegotiate.
It will work out - it's a tough process and this sort of thing is not unusual
You'll sell, and you'll find another home to share with your mum. Really bad idea to add tight time frame into the mix - it's stressful enough.

No advice OP but just wanted to wish you the best of luck.

@Rosser I don’t think that people expect perfection (depends on the price) but it is the case that lots of little things to sort out, plus a few big things screams money pit/ expensive and at the moment it’s a nightmare to get work done. So unless you’re happy to start knocking money off it is a good idea to get the place as close to perfect as you can (without losing your mind!).

If u spend a grand on an ex councik midnterrace property

I am
A) a serious buyer
B) going to take the survey’s conclusions seriously

They made the right call

We had a similar situation with some buyers - their survey pointed out loads of things that needed investment but none of them were really a big surprise and all houses in our street would've had the same issues. Also the survey issues were more 'this could mean x and y' as opposed to 'this needs fixed asap'. They asked us for £20k off the purchase price (a significant %) and this was despite the fact they'd been in a bidding war to get the house in the first place. Our EA had our back with this and convinced us that this was largely the buyers' naivety about older houses. He convinced us to go back and refuse that size of price reduction. The buyers then pulled out and we went back to the other bidder, they agreed to buy at their last offer price (£1k less I think) so we went with them. Sometimes people just aren't ready to buy an older house, they will never find one with a perfect survey.

So I’ve had some quotes for ‘the work’. I went on checkatrade and had 2 builders and a roofer pop in. I’m sure I won’t hear back from any of them now but I feel better! Filling in the gaps in the roof party wall is apparently a five min job with fire resistant foam. The holes are only small and we’re originally for ventilation. The roof is structurally sound otherwise and definitely not at risk of collapse. All 3 were astounded that it had been suggested.

None of the builders could find any evidence of the steel going between the kitchen/diner 9 years ago causing any movement upstairs. So there is nothing I can do to remedy that, it might happen but lots of things might happen.

All agreed that cracks were nothing sinister.

I’ve got someone coming round to do me an electric cert. Ive already got the gas one and a record of it being serviced every year since installation.

I’ve got polyfilla. I’ll fix the cracks ready to resell next week. Luckily most cracks are in a white room so it should be fairly easy to make them look not freshly done.

I might attempt to take up the carpet and fix the squeaky floorboard but I’m not sure it’s worth the risk if I can’t get it back down.

All 3 were astounded that it had been suggested

Yeah same here when our survey said ‘roof made up of concrete tiles, concrete tiles are heavier than slate and can cause bowing and failure of the roof structure over time’ it was marked as a red concern.

Got a roofer over and there were 4 (!!!) concrete tiles right on the edge so directly above a beam. How an earth that is a red condition rating I’ll never know.

Out of curiosity
What kind of Figures are being quoted?

No real figures because nothing needs doing!

The fire resistant foam he said was single figures, an hours work.

The polyfilla will be a days work for me and the electrical test/cert is £200.

They can’t quote for the possible future movement as it hasn’t happened yet. They are covering their backs.

The only real issue is if, on taking up my squeaky floorboard, all of my upstairs joists are rotten. That’s some leap though given the floor feels sound and not bouncy!

Sounds rather better than most of the surveys I've seen. I don't think there's anything you'd need to declare to a new buyer here at all. Just get a quote for bricking up the holes in the loft to satisfy the next person that it's not a big job, as that will need doing. Up to date certificates for electrical and gas safety are handy but most sellers don't have them. And as for the removed wall, as you went through building control it's a non issue - you just need to provide the completion certificate or get a copy from building control. Hairline plaster cracks and a squeaky floorboard... i challenge them to find a house which doesn't have those things. From your title i was expecting major subsidence or something. It's fine - good luck!

@Rosser please do be very careful if you try to screw down the floor board - dh did this once and went through a cold water pipe🙈….we were darn lucky we lived in a city with plenty of emergency plumbers back then…these days in the sticks we’d have we’d have to wait 24hours for someone to get to us!!

@Blinkingbatshit I hadn’t thought of that. I was going to delegate to DH! Maybe I won’t then. It’s a lot of hassle for something that is a non-issue. I just don’t want it to come up on the next survey.

Rosser
If those gaps in the roof area were for ventilation, will there be any implications if you seal them up?

@Musicalmaestro I don’t think so. Builder today said he does them regularly when they come up in surveys.

Oh no. I have lots of squeaky floors and cracks in the plaster.

We had a crazy structural survey commissioned by us sadly. Didn't put us off buying but it wasn't our first purchase.
We bought in SE London in 2015. Had a full structural survey. It was ridiculous. Lots of confident assertions that things were wrong. Including roof struts being too few and roof at risk of imiment collapse. Total cost of renovation estimated at 100k by the surveyor. When I rang him to gauge if this was a terrible buy or of he was covering himself, he was very agressive (didn't like being questioned) and suggested we were way in over our heads. We had a couple of trades round to get quotes on some stuff and had an electrical and timber survey at the insistence of our mortgage company. Essentially most of what was in the survey was nonsense and things which might be wrong, it was him covering himself. It is a 120 yr old house mid terrace. We bought it. It's been fine. I would never again get a structural survey. It was a total waste of money and caused us endless stress. I know that doesn't help you OP but I wonder if it helps to know that others have had a similar experience.