Victorian Terrace Survey - am i thinking the right next steps?

[hotshota]

Hi - just want to make sure i'm making the right assessment of next steps after receiving my L3 property survey.

Buying a 1900 Victorian terrace, 4 beds with an existing side return and loft conversion.

Overall condition is no significant structural defects or serious defects however...

There is a big long list of essential repairs - to summarise:

• Penetrative damp in loft party wall - suspect roof leaks due to missing lead flashings
• Front Bay roof needs to fully replaced including guttering
• Suspected leaks in the skylights
• Shoddy work on the side return roofs
• Suspected missing cavity trays on the side return parapet wall - poetntial failure in damp
• Side return - gutter relining and make good of the lead flashings agasint the wall
• Domer roof - flat/rubber - suspect failure due to bubbling
• Both chimneys require pointing and reflashing
• Cement render at back of house; require to be removed
• Full wall pointing on rear and side
• Significant decayed fascia
• Lead water mains pipe in property
• Evidence of woodworms "significant" in floor joists - recommended spraying and making good on decayed

and this list is quoted to cost £25k in repairs! Theres more but it is on the next level of list to go through

I had asked to chat to the Surveyor as i know that the surveys are meant to be the worst thing ever however when i spoke to him, he kept on pushing that i had to fixed imminently the roof, floor and walls (so everything!)

He did admit that this is what he averagely sees but also that my essential repairs list is longer than typical. But he does admit its purchasable but he would look for a discount.

So i have:

1. Shared the list to the EA and asked for access to a roof contractor to quote for ££ for repairs.
2. Then thinking that if its 10K and below for the roof especially, that its expected of a property this old - only loook to negotiate if its more?

Am i doing the reasonable and sensible thing?

Wow that seems like a lot of fundamental issues. The roof seems fixable but how extensive is the woodworm if they can see it on a surveyors glance? That suggests damp has got into structural timbers to create the condition for woodworm to spread. It could be a money pit. I would want to know full extent of wood worm and get three quotes to fix the roof. You need to find a figure you would be happy to take on the risk for, 25k would not be enough to me. This isn’t one where you can say 10k and hope for the best, it needs proper costing by someone you trust with experience of old houses and solutions appropriate to a Victorian house with solid walls and timber floors. Good luck!

Yep. I agree. If the roof has been leaking long enough for there to be active woodworm and rotten timbers then there could be serious structural issues to fix with the roof timbers. There could even be dry rot behind plasterwork. I would be really cautious of proceeding and I bought a total wreck and moved straight in!

Thanks - no woodworm / rotten timbers noted in the roof voids/loft.

The woodworms and impacted wood has only been picked up in the joists and living room floor/staircase.

However, they haven't said it was active.

The woodworm is concerning. I suppose it depends how much you love the house and how deep pockets you have. Your attitude sounds sensible in that people won't agree big discounts regardless of works required.

See what the roofer has to say.

talked to the EA first thing on Weds but radio silence from the EA on getting access........may be impatient i think to get this view before xmas hits

how long before its reasonable to chase up?

That's a long list of defects, I think 25k is light if I'm honest. I would be walking away from this one, or looking for a substantial discount.

I’d want to know how much the next level list would cost to fix too. So, before you consider any improvements or decoration you want to do, you could be talking north of £50,000? I’d be adding that to my budget and looking for something that doesn’t need that level of work and disruption.

Surveyors pick up the obvious issues, but all of these give cause for concern as to what is going on underneath. Think I'd walk away from this many issues with water and rot / pest infestation, as all indicate a lack of maintenance and care. I've learnt to get a builder in and let them nose around, as they really seek out the issues that surveyors often miss and have a much better idea of the costs and disruption.

The survey on our 1900 vic terrace house showed very similar things 10 years ago, lots of talk about damp and subsidence and told the roof would need doing. In 10 years we have seen no evidence of damp, roof has never had a leak and we were recently told by a roofer it didn’t need replacing. The cracks seen 10 years ago haven’t changed. We had a structural engineer go round after the survey who said he disagreed with most of what was said and that the house was fine considering age. At the end of the day you are paying someone to find problems, but I would take any future survey with a pinch of salt and get another professional in for a second opinion.

I'd get a roofer to inspect and quote. We did once when a surveyor raised some questions and it was well worth it.