Survey report is back... not looking good

[Charliechoco]

I've attached an image of the topline survey report, and it's not looking too good.

This is our first home, period conversion ground floor flat. We expected some works needing done, but not everything mentioned in this report.

Really struggling to make sense of it and if these are normal problems you would get with a period conversion.

Any help or guidance greatly appreciated!

It's hard to say without seeing the detailed report - what does your conveyancer say?

That image is too blurry to see

It's hard to say without seeing more details. Gas and electric will always be flagged as not up to current standards unless they property was built 5 minutes ago!

Hopefully this should be more clear

Is this more clear?

But what does it say

Impossible to say just from that list. Surveyors will say something is a 3 if they haven't reviewed it, so eg heating- they don't inspect the boiler as they're not boiler engineers so they'll just put 3.

I guess it's the "reds" you are concerned about but we can't see the details. It's normal to get quite a lot of reds in a period conversion flat. Most of them are not actually that much to worry about and some are just the surveyor covering themselves. Personally, however, I would worry about the possibility of damp in a ground floor flat.

What's the identified problem with each of those though?

If they don't have more detail on the problems I don't see how they can say things need such urgent attention.

If they have detail I am sure people here can help.

Damp: there are low levels of damp on the inside of the walls. The walls were rendered on the outside at a low-level, which apparently is not good practice because moisture can get trapped between the render and the brick.

Subsidence: there are potential signs of visible cracks on the bay window outside the apartment, which the surveyor has indicated may be down to subsidence.

The short answer is that surveyors will flag anything they haven't checked themselves and recommend checking and anything they have spotted as a potential risk even if the risk or cost of rectification is very small. My current view of surveyors is that they are running a bit of a racket- they come in, do some superficial checks and then write an arse covering report that can often lead to uncertainty and confusion.

For example, they will always recommend you get an electrical report done. That's because they haven't tested it themselves and there is a potential (but most likely very minor) risk of fire if electrics are not properly done. They will also flag things like walls and floors if they can see there are issues but they go no further than that so it's down to you to consider whether you want to do any further investigations.

You need to read the main body of the report that corresponds to the things flagged as an issue. If you aren't sure what the issue is or don't understand the consequences having read the report then ask your surveyor for a call for them to run through it with you. The next steps of you consider there are issues that require further investigation are one of a few options (a) instruct your own specialists reports and surveys at your own costs (b) via your solicitor ask the vendor to carry out additional reports or surveys (c) choose to proceed without additional investigations . Option (c) may be appropriate where you consider the risk on a balance of probabilities to be low and/or you are buying an old property or one that clearly needs a lot of work or buying a property cheaply. You may consider that all the cumulative costs of rectifying high risk items is too high and you want to pull out. Or you may decide that you want to buy the house more than you care about the issues flagged.

Damp and potential subsidence would make me run a mile.

Run, don’t walk .. damp and subsidence are major issues, sometimes subsidence can be historical and the building is fine now but you’d need to investigate further.. I Woukd be walking away personally

Subsidence is not a trivial thing. I would, and have, withdrawn from sales where the survey has thrown up subsidence....

What is a ‘potential sign of a visible crack’? Either a crack is visible or it isn’t.

Do they mean a visible crack which is a potential sign of subsidence? I’d ask for a more detailed explanation. That sounds very hedgey

From the report:

"cracking was noted to wall below the bay window, which indicated structural movement has occurred. Prior to exchange of contracts, you should instruct a suitably qualified structural engineer to investigate, provide diagnosis and a full schedule of works of rectification together with indicative costs. Such investigations are likely to involve a period of monitoring of weeks or months in order to confirm if the movement is progressive."

It's hard to tell from that snapshot, but It's probably fine. We had an offer on a house and the survey started by saying "we strongly advise you do not buy this house!" That's how bad the issues were.

You'll always get a load of reds for anything the surveyor can't fully asses. It's because they don't want to get sued. Pretty much all old houses have damp, so that's a red herring. If you're worried about the subsidence then get a builder or building surveyor to look properly. But it honestly looks like a normal survey for any older property.

Subsidence isn't run of the mill for older properties. It might be in some areas but it needs to be investigated.

Think carefully if you want to spend more money on another survey. I did this and l ended up withdrawing anyway.

I think subsidence or cracks are quite often seen in bay windows as they often have shallower foundations than the rest of the building. I'd investigate further but wouldn't run away over this particular issue.

I've bought and sold several times over the years, always older properties, and surveys pretty much always mention cracks BUT they also always have assessed the cracks as historic and not due to recent movement.

I'd be much more concerned with this survey which seems on the face of it to suggest that the movement is recent and potentially on-going.

I think most surveys will throw up a few 'red' issues.

Our windows and electricity were both flagged as red and I've still done nothing about them 11 years on.

Pretty sure our boiler was flagged for being very old but I had it checked by a gas safety engineer who declared it absolutely fine.

It's the structural things you want to give more careful consideration to.