Offering on a house with a visible leak

[Thinkingtomove]

Hi, I am in London and all houses are expensive for us so we have not moved for last 15 years even though we have run out of rooms. The house we went to view today was beautiful and what we had in our minds but only thing we were not sure about was a leaking water wall in downstairs toilet. We didn’t see any leaks on top floor of the house.
pro is reasonably priced and I was just wondering if the leak was a plumbing issue or something more serious and expensive. Any experience or advice would be greatly appreciated . I am confused and trying to figure out how to proceed.thanks

It’s probably a pipe under the upstairs floor boards, that can make water seep through the downstairs walls as though the wall is crying (source: had a pipe with a slow leak, probably only leaked for a week or two, insurance company sent water damage assessors round who supplied 3 industrial dehumidifiers that ran night and day for a fortnight, no lasting damage but affected walls needed repainting).

if the leak in the house you are looking at has been going on for ages, there may be rotting joists below the upper floorboards, which will obvs be a much bigger problem than my short term unnoticed leak (likely caused by a carpet fitter nailing a wobbly floor board into a copper pipe 🙄)

Edit: repainting not replacing!

Thanks TathingScinsel downstairs toilet was behind the garage and I noticed the wall was wet and cold so maybe it’s been leaking for a while. Good point about the joints and the cost of replacing it

oooh that sounds a little off. It's good the rest of the house looked fine but you should ask the agent and get the vendor to confirm what it is and if work was done, to provide proof of it. I know it's hard with the expense of london :( but you don't want to end up buying something that might cost you even more so definitely do the due diligence!

cupcakesarelife the property was reduced by £20k and the location is lovely. Do you think it will cost us more than £20k to fix it. It was raining here this morning so now I am not sure if the water was leaking down through the garage roof.

Literally impossible to say without seeing it / investigating. If central heating pipe then easy fix for any plumber / Handy DIY’er. If the boiler needs frequent repressurising then that’s the clue there. If mains water leak then again reasonably simple fix, but may need some pulling up of floorboards etc. If a roof leak or similar then nobody going to be able to tell you based on the info you’ve given. Anything from some missing flashing or tiles to tens of grands fitting a new roof. 🤷

Was it definitely a leak or could it be condensation?
I would speak to the estate agent and see what they say as if it is a leak then will need fixing or offers will be low.

I'd ask a surveyor to give you an opinion