Should we walk away?

[ellleeb]

We had the survey results back on our 'forever home' yesterday and I'm at a loss of what to do. We knew the house needed a lot of work internally but was mainly cosmetic and a new kitchen, bathroom, boiler etc.

The survey came back with a need for a new roof and new felt roof on extension, high levels of damp, drainage and guttering blocked and not up to standard, windows blown, electrics needed to be replaced, damp floors, etc etc. it's turned into a huge huge job with much more substantial work needed :( they said it's had no upkeep for a very long time.

We have funds put aside, but nothing to cover that much. The surveyor said many things are liveable for now, but I worry about how much we are taking on for the future.

Has anyone been in the same position, is it worth it? We absolutely love the house but it seems doing it up as we go isn't an option, for most things at least :(

I would be very concerned about the damp and the roof - both are horribly expensive jobs. Can you take the survey to some builders and get some ideas for the costs? I wouldn't go any further forward until you have some idea of what you're going to need to spend fairly quickly.

DD has just bought a house that had a fairly quick survey done on it, and she and her fiance are kicking themselves for not getting a more thorough one done. Theirs is a late 70s build but that's had no maintenance done since it was built... and 6 months later they're still nowhere near being able to live in it. They currently have no upstairs flooring and the simple cosmetic work of kitchens/bathrooms has turned out to be a huge can of worms.

What is the age of the house btw? On first reading, it looks like a "walk away" project but I think you perhaps need to get builder around if possible to investigate further.
roof - lots of survey are overly cautious about roofs. ours was flagged on a survey 25 years ago and hasn't been replaced as it is still ok
windows - if they are all blown, did you not see when you went around? do they mean all or just one or two
felt roof - do you mean it is a flat roof. limited life, I'm afraid so not surprised at that.
electrics - very common survey report fault, but worth doing either in sections as the house is refurbed or in one go .
the most difficult bit will be working out the damp/damp floors, If gutters and drainage is blocked, has that caused all the damp and damp issues or is it more than that?

My first house, bought in 2001, had a survey that stated might need a new roof. Just been to look on Google maps, and it's still got the original (ie 1920s) roof on it.

It's definitely worth getting a trusted builder to look further before progressing. That should give you the information as to if you should walk or not.

Has the surveyor valued it and given rough repair costs surveys often highlight essential works. so you can negotiate if you go ahead. What sort of roof is it, is it leaking or just old, is it a flat roof. Do the electrics all need doing or just fuse box and power points, the gutters are easily unblocked.,

If it was a standard mortgage style builders survey I would recommend getting a proper specialist damp survey done. My builders survey said all sorts about damp which turned out to be supposition. Yes there was damp but not as a result of a failed damp course as stated in the mortgage one. The damp course was fine. The issue was the house above me was above the damp course and damp from the higher ground was seeping over. Had 12m long by 1.5m of wall exposed. New injected damp course, vertical damp slurry applied and replanted for under £900 sp it isn't necessarily insurmountable.

Roof issues again...my flat roof i was told was in poor condition. Friend who is a flat topper popped round to check. Felt is absolutely fine but it was a bit thin on sun chips. £20 of shingle later and all sorted.

Depending on the style of house. A full tile replacement would normally range between £6-10k but again you need someone properly qualified to look at it for you.

Guttering...again had mine replaced along with fascia boards etc for under £1000

The roof and the damp you probably have recourse to reduce your offer to accommodate these costs. I had a battle with the seller of my house over the damp. I was originally quoted 3k and said I was prepared to put 1k towards it but they needed to pay the rest or have it done and redecorate and I would pay my original offer. She argued and then caved. I then shopped about for a tradesman as the survey company couldn't don't for about 3 months and got very lucky!

Electrs may be old but ok. They always tell you they need doing if not up to current standard. But legally they only need to be up to the standards for when they were installed I.e. when built or when the last new installation was done I.e. New shower or cooker

Not necessarily as costly as you might worry.

What does it actually say about the roof and electrics on the survey - are they flagged red?

Is it just that the electrics don’t conform to the latest regulations (most don’t unless they are new builds)?

Our survey said that we should budget for roof repairs in the future but it was only Amber on the survey.

We did get a heating engineer to go in and check the heating and boiler - cost us two hours of his time - he went and got the key from the estate agent and reported back to us.

How much do you love the house? Enough to get prices for the work that needs doing and to either renegotiate or ask the vendors to do the work?

Has the surveyor mentioned whether you should proceed, is it structural sound and insurable.

We had a similar survey on a possible' forever home'

The outcome was similar to the one you described, new roof and damp etc

We pulled and then later on found a better house

The cost of a roof varies on its size but ours cost £26,000 and we also had new bathroom etc as well as other things which we not seen by the survey £3000 for drain relining for example

Personally it depends on how much money you have and how willing you are to do the work as well as anything unexpected

It can take over your life 😊😂

Surveyors are often covering their backs. Everything in a house will need doing eventually. Blocked gutters and things are trivial, damp you need to find out why and fix the cause an injected new damp proof course is fairly cheap. New roof now or in 10 or in years 20 years? Flat rooves seem to need redoing often, but not hugely expensive. Electrics as said above he will have reported them even if it's just that they don't meet the latest regulations, but they may be fine for years and can be included to be upgraded as you modernise the house.

Did you walk round with the surveyor? They will often give much more information informally compared to what they are willing to put in writing.

Get a builder to review, quote for the repairs and then renegotiate. But be prepared to walk away.

Thanks everyone for your responses, didn’t expect so many so quickly! I didn’t mention but the house is 1920’s. On the electrics we know RCD’s need to be fitted and the box needs looking at but have an electrician going to check it out, hadn’t thought of doing the electrics bits at a time as we renovate, if we can that would be much easier.

The surveyor hasn’t given estimated repairs costs but we’ll get in a roofer, damp specialist, electrician and someone for the drains/guttering to get an idea. The vendor wouldn’t budge on the purchase price so I don’t hold out much hope on getting a reduction from them. The damp is the bit I’m most worried about but from the report the blocked drains and guttering seems to have contributed to it!

Have you name changed? I get confused. If the surveyor has suggested a selling price you can negotiate on that but it may be sold as seen if it needed work.

The roof has come up as "needs replacing within 5 years" on each of the three houses I've bought, we spoke to a builder each time and they all said it's a common thing to be brought up and each house was fine, just surveyors covering their arses. We are having the flat rooves done on our current home as they are more prone to issues and as we're extending it makes sense to get it done whilst scaffolding is already up and at a lower cost due to it being part of a series of works rather than in five years.

Damp is a more pressing issue imo, we didn't go further with one house years ago due to damp being more extensive than the seller had originally realised. Surveys can seem worse than they really are, it's worth chatting to a couple of builders locally to see what their opinion of it is, a good builder will tell you if the work is actually needed sooner rather than later (or not at all)!

Have you spoken to the surveyor to see how severe it actually.is? Often surveys look horrifying, but, actually, things are marked a certain way by surveyors to cover themselves. Have a chat.

Also be cautious about damp surveys- often those behind these are selling something and will push to their own agendas. What you need to do with damp is work out the root cause, and fix that.

I certainly wouldn't "run away" if it's your dream house. Most houses over a certain age need to be completely rewired, not a lot of people do the work though. Roofs are almost certainly flagged on most surveys. Double glazed units that are blown can be changed without replacing the whole window.

I'd want to look into any damp which isn't obviously caused by blocked gutters/drains, to find out the cause. I wouldn't be paying cowboys for damp proofing injections either.

If you don't want to walk away then use this to knock money off what you pay

Try and decide if you can afford this (and have money left over for other life emergencies) and also whether you can put up with the disruption. Would you get it all go in one go? What is essential? What jobs would make sense to do together? Will you be unhappy if there is always another job waiting to be ticked off?

I would also add that even good surveys read quite bad and all the jobs will need doing during your ownership of the house if you plan to be there long term. I think the damp would concern me the most.

I also agree to speak to the surveyor. Ours explained the amount of work needed and gave us an off the cuff estimate of cost. He also gave us a heads up about potentially difficult neighbour who we would have shared a drive with. For both these reasons we ran!

Our survey read like it was written by Stephen King.

We bought the house, it was the only one we could afford in a 50 mile radius and we had already moved 200
miles to be able to afford anywhere.

Had builders in over the last couple of months. All the horrific things were fixed during renovating - 8k. Not the hideous amount you’d have thought by reading the survey.

And the flat roof that was supposedly on its way out and causing damp on the extension was actually an easy £250 fix.

If your survey has pictures of the flat roof, can you post them? Flat roofs which have water standing on them with poor drainage, don’t last. How old is the flat roof? If it’s over 20 years it might be on the way out.

Electrics might be problematic. Depends what you want to run! What hob do
you want? Modern electrics are important.

Damp: I would pay the surveyor to investigate further. Not a cowboy damp “specialist”. No point injecting anything if the walls are running with water due to guttering being inadequate. Where is the water getting in and how can it be fixed? The surveyor should be able to tell you more. Damp floors suggest air bricks blocked. The cost of renovating or replacing floors will be much higher than you think. Other posters are being hugely optimistic. Flat roofs really don’t get fixed with a few stones if the covering is shot. You are better off getting a slight incline on the roof so it drains properly!!

If the owner won’t budge on price, is it likely to sell at that price? Is it priced to reflect the issues? Is it a house a builder should buy?

Every house I have purchased, have always said the roof needs replacing or coming to the end of it life!

1920s house and the roof is still going strong, surveys are always worse because they are covering themselves.

The electrics will always need to be replaced as standards change every 2 years, just update as you go.

I would get more info on whether the electrics are dangerous and get those done before moving in, along with the gutter clearing. You don't really want electrics done when you are in if you can possibly avoid it.

The rest is likely to be typical surveyor arse covering, but I agree, talk to them on the phone.

Dream home is too hard to walk away from if the bulk of the costs are cosmetic.

And ofc you can try to negotiate down, but EAs are aware that surveyors are scare mongerers so will advise their client to take it with a pinch of salt, so definitely know exactly what you are talking about and give technical details on the call. 'It needs a new roof' is not enough. You need to be able to describe why, what exactly is wrong with it and what immediate problems it will cause. If the EA is convinced your surveyor is right, that will come across to their client, who I hope will not then shrug it off.

Good luck OP. It always cheers me up to read about people finding their dream home.