Hello. Really after some advice pls as I’m on the verge of a mental breakdown I feel. We are selling and have a buyer. The buyer sent a surveyor round from the bank, whose report highlight that the chimney breast in my front room has been removed and is inadequately supported in my bedroom. We bought the house in 2014 and it was picked up by my solicitor or my lender - I have raised a complaint with the solicitors - thabks to a thread I read on here. However I’ve been told by estate agents that are selling my house that the surveyor requires me to instruct a chartered structural engineer to inspect and provide a costed report . Which I did. I paid him £400 . On the back of the report I asked the estate agents would the buyers like me to knock that off the price and they do the works. She said yes they would be happy to do that provided the lender lends the money. I was then told that no they won’t lend the money. So my only option was to 1- get the work done, 2- go back on the market in the hope that someone wouldn’t pick it up or if they did would still lend but do a redemption.
so I decided to go down the route of having the work done. But before I did instruct the engineer I called the council to ask if they would be happy with the recommendation I had been given. They asked to see the report and said it was no good to them as it didn’t include structural calculations. So I called the engineer who said that was going to cost me a furter £450. I’m abit concerned the engineer is out for himself and wants money as he has quoted me £6150 to remove the chimney breast in my bedroom and a third of the chimney breast in the loft and advising me to notify my neighbour and saying he cld refuse and then he has to do a party wall application which is going to cost us £3k. So I called another CSE who said if next door had gallows brackets we wouldn’t be able to said we would need a steal beam. Which is what I was also told by the council earlier on in the process. I called my CSE back and explained and he said he doesn’t know much about steals ! Alarm bells were ringing! But he’s insisting he knows what is right for my house and his is the cheapest option. I really am loosing my mind over all this. All the while I’ve been speaking to the council hoping they can advise me but they are not really helping me at all. Just telling me to get the calculations from the engineer and they cld say yes or no. But that’s another £450 cost! All the while I’m being told by estate agent that my buyer has to go with this particular lender and they have said no to lending until the work is done. Pls can anyone help in any way x