What issues would make you walk away after a survey and what would you take on?

[Aquickquestion82]

Assuming you’d renegotiated and sale price took into account the quoted cost of jobs you’d need to do. Would you expect to have to sort some stuff out or do you look for a clean survey (does it exist?! 😂)

personally I would never touch movement/subsidence..

Damp seems to come up commonly. Is that a walk away? Is it fixable? Worth getting a specialist survey? We’re looking at older properties so guessing it will be common

New kitchen/bathroom wouldn’t be an issue and would be reflected in the price anyway..

Roof repairs?

I think subsidence is the only thing I'd walk away from. Damp doesn't bother me, we've had that on surveys on previous homes and it's always ended up absolutely fine. I suppose I might also pull out if there were a public footpath through the garden or something.

Subsidence

A listed building with very strict rules and expensive to repair features.

Evidence of conflict with neighbours, but that wouldn't be on a survey I guess.

Open plan but when they have taken out a wall and not put the girder thing in so the ceiling sags.

Lots of massive protected trees, again expensive to maintain (although I generally love trees in the garden).

Evidence of bamboo or invasive species

High risk for flood? That’s the dilemma I’m currently having! Surface flooding, not river/sea

Flooding risks

Subsidence

Damp

Very high flood risk would make me walk away.
Possibly subsidence & maybe anything that would take a year or more of my time to fix.

If the subsidence was historic, more than 10 years old say and had been fixed, I'd be ok with it.
No listed buildings, they are just a pain.
Cant think of much that would make me walk away, maybe rotten roof trusses? On a large roof with many angles. Bog standard roof not a huge problem.
Nothing with a right of way, they seem to attract a lot of ire. And no shared drive or shared garden or limited height fences, or worse no fences allowed. I like my privacy.

Across 3 houses, have bought with a subsidence claim outstanding, with damp, with new roof needed, wiring, windows, and general kitchen/bathrooms etc.

Having seen the effect of flooding on my neighbours I think a moderate to high flood risk is the only thing that might put me off, but even that would depend on what mitigation was in place already or possible to implement.

No shared drive or shared anything. No right of access, none of that.

@Aquickquestion82 If you are looking at older houses and presume buying with a mortgage, have the mortgage valuation done, but then appoint your own independant surveyor who specialises in old buildings. Standard surveyors will use hand held damp monitors which are useless and the survey will be full of "recommend further investigation of" and "electrics etc do not meet current regulations".

Not much which would put me off a house from a survey - I would do my homework on items raised and only if they are not fixable, or the cost to sort it out is too high or not recoverable on future selling, would it stop me purchasing.

Renegotiating after a survey for all the back covering a survey normally has is not always adviseable and could annoy the vendor!

Agree re your last paragraph! But not for the genuine highlighted things that actually need doing and will cost a fortune.

great idea about a surveyor who specialises in older buildings, hadn’t thought of that, going to do some research !

If I had to buy a property again I'd ask to come along to the survey. It's so much easier to assess the severity of an issue in person, and you can ask follow up qns, etc. And check what the access is like to the loft / roof spaces in advance, in case the surveyor needs to bring any extra equipment to safely access. In an ideal scenario, I'd also bring along a trusted builder so they could quickly give quotes for any repairs!

When we had our survey done they didn't go up into the roof space because it was 'unsafe', and we found a major issue after we moved in. Also the pics they took of the roof were taken with a drone (fancy I know!) but they were from directly above so didn't show a significant dip in the roof - the surveyors failed to mention that in their report, but if I'd seen it in person it would have been obvious. Some things you don't notice the first time you view a place. (btw I took this case to the Ombudsmen but it was dropped as surveyors put all kind of wording in to cover themselves...)
Funnily enough subsequent surveyors didn't have any problem accessing the same 'unsafe' roof space - the only difference is that we opened the loft hatch for them..!

We walked away from a house because of the following on a survey - it was newly converted from offices, and there were just too many red flags

• Roof timbers eaten by woodworm and possibly needed new roof
• Chimney needed rebuilding
• Walls had been rendered in cement instead of lime, so lots of potential damp issues
• Inside walls had been lined with plasterboard, so you couldn't see the original walls and there were very high damp readings
• The balcony was not legal based on the planning permission
• Double doors had been put in at the back but there was no lintel above and there was already a big crack up the wall
• The floorboards upstairs were all chopped up and then covered over with carpet, so it all needed taking up and new floorboards put down
• The patio was too high and too close to the building, so any rain water would drain straight into the walls
• The garden wall was leaning and needed to be repaired before it fell over
• And the list went on...........and on

Is there is a way to check if the area/property has actually flooded?

We lived in an area that said it was at high risk of surface flooding for 15 years without there ever being an issue.

The house we then bought also said it was at risk of surface water flooding and our neighbours who have been here for 50 years stated they have never flooded even when half the town did in 2007.

Yeah serious woodworm damage and subsidence are the only things which would put me off.

I don't think there's much in the way of a single issue that I think couldn't be solved - it would be more just quantity of issues, where it all just added up to more work than I wanted to do and more money than I had to do it. Would depend a lot on how much I loved the house though.

Although dry rot might see me off on its own.

I had a full structural survey on a property that turned out to need extensive damp work (plaster removed, kitchen removed and membrane installed costing £20k or thereabouts) - I went back to the house to discuss with the vendor and noticed how cold it felt inside (hot August day outside) - I pulled out of the sale.

Ditto.

I doubt there is any such thing as a clean survey @Aquickquestion82 but these are 3 things that would make me walk away. Because there’s no way of knowing as a buyer how bad the problem really is and how much the costs could potentially escalate.

I've found that in most circumstances (three houses sold and brought) any major issues highlighted by the survey are already reflected in the price in the first place. We recently brought a house which required a new roof but the vendors had already taken this into consideration and priced accordingly.

If I liked the house/location enough nothing would put me off really
Even subsidence is sortable.

I could deal with anything but subsidence.
My absolute no and no negotiation when I’ve bought a house is shared anything. Drives or access. Never!
Anything else is doable.