Buying A House with Leaks

[Cola133]

I posted a few days ago, but there is an update and i've posted the full story so no one has to go back over old posts:

We're in the process of buying a property. We put in an offer on 13th August, 10k below asking price of £250k as the area will be having a massive development starting in 2025 and lots of properties are for sale as its currently a village and it's going to be a town - lots of people moving out and property prices falling quickly. We are willing to put up with the noise and dust as it gets us a house which we wouldn't have got, if the development wasn't going ahead.

The offer was accepted 14th August, with this statement "As the sale is not binding at this stage, we will continue to market the property for a reserve list only until a valuation/survey has been instructed by your mortgage lender. Once this has been carried out the property will be regarded as Sold Subject to Contract and we will write to your solicitor and to the vendors’ solicitor asking them to commence the legal work".

We received our Mortgage Agreed statement on 21st August and my family were told yesterday at their viewing, that they were still showing people around the property last weekend! Even today it's still listed as For Sale on their websites and the general ones, despite the mortgage being agreed, surveyor booked and solicitor details given!

When we viewed initially we noticed peeling plaster above 2 windows, 1 downstairs in a bay window with a flat roof, the 2nd in an upstairs bedroom, but it didn't seem too, too bad. We put in our offer of £240k which was accepted. The 2nd viewing (1.5 weeks later) we took a builder, he found that the flat roof in the lounge had a tear in the roof felt and couldn't pinpoint the source of the upstairs bedroom without doing further investigations in the loft which he couldn't do at a viewing. There is also a hairline crack above the main bedroom window.

My family visited today (1.5 weeks later from my last viewing) and from their photos, the damp has got much worse due to the heavy rain, and is now growing mold.

The seller and us are both chain free, but even if our solicitor moves at the speed of light, we are still looking at a minimum of 8 weeks, ideally we were looking for a completion date in December to meet our needs, but we can move quicker if needed.

The problem is that we are going into Autumn and the wet rainy season, so even if our Solicitor can complete searches and everything quickly, then we are still looking at a lot of time for the problem to deteriorate even further due to the weather.

The sellers Estate Agent told me a few days ago that they have had another offer put in that was higher than ours, but that 'the sellers wanted to be loyal to us and the other people were in a chain and we're not'. I'm now assuming that the sellers want someone to move in quickly as they know the damp/leak is just going to get worse going into Autumn - but no one can move that quickly, legalities take time and there is no short cut!

Our Surveyor is booked for a RICS Level3 on 4th September, but I don't want to waste £1k on a property survey that we may have to walk away from as the the sellers are not fixing the water leak/damp problems.

We love the house, but I don't know what to do at this point. The seller is going to say we dropped them £10k that will cover the damp/leak, but we dropped them due to the development. We're on a very tight budget and could just about afford to get the problem fixed now, but goodness knows what condition in 3 months time it will be in, after a wet Autumn, if its deteriorated a lot after just 1 short spell of heavy rain.

What can be done, are there any solutions to this? I don't want to walk away unless I absolutely have to, but at the same time if the sellers don't get the repair fixed now, we could be signing up to a disaster in 3 months time

I would honestly walk away. The sellers and their agents aren't acting in a particularly trustworthy way.

Honestly just walk away, these problems will only get worse going through winter.

Yes some of the issues may be fixable, but as I have experience off water and damp problems in a property unfortunately some just can’t be fixed long term as we know only too well.

The facts are that the problem is much worse than it was when you put in your offer. The only way I would proceed is if they drop the price. I would ask your builder how much it will cost to fix, then tell the agents you are aware the problem is getting much worse and are dropping your offer.

This looks really bad! Probably the tip of the iceberg on an under maintained house, you'll find a lot worse once you move in. If they can't even stop water ingress during marketing period... Let them take higher offer and avoid! Something else will come up hopefully better looked after. How long have they ignored it and what else is a mess they will have hidden? Shady sellers.

I just want to point out that you have not had your mortgage "agreed" until the lender has had the property valued. What you probably have is an "Agreement in Principle" which is about as much good as a chocolate teapot.

IF you wanted to proved with this property I would tell the EA that you have the valuation booked & therefore marketing should stop & the property changed to SSTC on Rightmove. Tell them if this is not done on Tuesday then you are pulling out.

As for the current damp issues, you could wait for the surveyors report to come back & then ask about dropping the price, but as others have said, things seem to be getting worse so I'd be reducing my offer even before the survey has been done.

You could tell them your offer stands but they need to commit to get the leaks fixed and damage made good before exchange or you will pull out? Or tell them you will proceed but are dropping the offer by £15K to cover remedial work from ongoing damage. Just try to stay logical. They don’t hold all the cards by any means, a house with obvious damp is going to be a hard sell going into autumn and they are losing time every day that passes.

If you really love the house offer to keep the price and in return they carry out the necessary repairs to the roof and make good the water damage.

@Biggaybear We actually have a mortgage offer, the house has been valued by NatWest. The Estate Agent continued marketing the property after offer was accepted, after the Mortgage company had valued and after I had told them we have a mortgage offer accepted. Thanks for your help

So what did your mortgage lender say about the damp ? If it was that bad & noticeable surely the valuer would have at least highlighted it. I'm assuming the level 3 survey you have booked for the 4th is your own one & not via your lender.

@Biggaybear I believe it was an online valuation, we got our Agreement letter in 1 day after application was sent. We applied through a Mortgage Broker and honestly it wasn't that bad until the heavy rain we've had the past few days. I viewed it just 1 1/2 weeks ago and it wasn't as bad as the photos. Yes the Level 3 survey is for us, never heard of a bank getting a level 3 RICS, but maybe they do?!!

When you apply for a mortgage the lender will offer you 3 options.

Level 1 - valuation
Level 2 - homebuyers report
Level 3 - full structural survey.

I am surprised that they did an online valuation. I can only assume you have a big deposit because in my experience anything over a 75% LTV would mean a valuation in person.

I'm alsp very surprised you got your mortgage offer just a day later. Are you absolutely sure it's a formal mortgage offer ? Lately the turn around is at least 5-10 days from application to offer, and that is with the better lenders.

Drive by/ desk valuations are very common. And it is not the mortgage co that arranges the survey in England. You do that yourself normally.

You can certainly arrange a survey via the lender. The person valuing the property for the lender will do it. You can ask them beforehand to check out certain things that you might have noticed & want checked out.

For straightforward applications, it's around 3 days with NatWest at the moment, my friend had a similar turnaround of 2 days, but as we went with a Broker he got it turned around in just over 24hours. Yes 100% its been accepted and also been sent to my Solicitor. We had a DIP for a few weeks prior. We've actually only got a small deposit. It was all going swimmingly until these problems started up. Anyway, I'll leave it here, I need to get back to the actual problem.

You may be able to but it is not usual in England. Are you in England? Are you involved in a related profession?!

I think I would worry slightly that even if this particular issue was fixable and fairly cheap to fix, there may be other maintenance shocks further down the line. And the bit about there being another buyer is likely total bullshit.

@Messen Thank you for your message and support. I agree, we have a RICS level 3 booked as we were worried about other possible shocks and we hoped this survey might limit any possibilities. But at this point, I don't want to waste £1k on the survey if the sellers are not going to fix the leaks before we are able to move in - especially now it seems to be deteriorating quite quickly. The real problem here, is that I am emotionally invested in the house, it feels like home, otherwise I would sensibly walk away.

I don't know how to push back with the Estate Agent on this matter, I know I should ask them to fix it, but I fear they may get a cowboy builder and cheap as possible cover it up, then we have a big issue when we move in. The other option is to ask the sellers to get the repair done with a builder we choose and we will raise our offer to cover the repair, but that leaves the sellers open to losing money if we pull out (we wouldn't, but that would be their worry). I can't think of any other solutions and they'll probably pull out and go for the higher offer if they are forced to do the repair :-(

If this was directed to me then yes, I'm a mortgage broker. I think the reason why lots of people instruct their own survey is 2fold -

1. they are not aware they can do it through the lender.

2. they feel they want some form of Independence over it.

But I also agree many more valuations are bring done as drive bys or by desktop. Accelerated by Lockdown of course.

What is this house - is it an old property? I wouldn't be unduly worried about the leak above the bay window, in fact I have that currently and haven't got around to fixing it due to money. It only needs the felt or the lead flashing to be sorted, and some repairs to plaster inside where it's cracked, perhaps some replastering. I don't think it's worth giving up a house you love over.

As for the upstairs window - is that a bay too? If it is, same solution. If not, something different. The only thing I might want to know is how old the roof is - because I had a small damp area in the corner of the bedroom and it turned out the whole roof needed doing. You'd want to know about that before you committed - will they allow you to send a tradesperson round to look?

Sounds like you're not a builder/surveyor. Yes, you put in an offer, some people may not even have noticed the problem as too busy taking other things in, but if they did, many wouldn't have been aware it could escalate in a short space of time. So I think it's fair enough you made an offer, many would, but not that you would know it's an impending problem and wish to renegotiate.

If you love the property, get the survey done and if it's this problem and others are likely to be more than you're comfortable with, renegotiate. At that point, any other parties will have probably walked away and if they haven't the problem could well be more obvious.

I'd walk. It could well be the tip of the iceberg and
even if you manage to negotiate it doesn't get you the money to fix it in ready cash. Plus they are still actively marketing it. Possibly because they are aware there are lots of issues. Have you asked them what the leak is and how they plan to fix it so it's in the same condition as when you offered? Because its not and it will get progressively worse in the conveyancing process

We have an issue with our roof, tried a couple of fixes over the years but issue always comes back, we are biting the bullet and having new roof as we are selling up in 3/4 years, should have had it done sooner but we’ve managed the issue, morally we couldn’t sell as it is, we thought we might knock cost of new roof off house sale or at least go 50/50, your sellers obviously know there’s an issue, which maybe they hope isn’t going to get picked up on survey, so if you really want the house offer less. Roof leaks when you don’t know where they are coming from are a PITA, expensive to repair, especially when a tower is involved, and constant redecorating internally.

I've had a roof leak and it took ages to get to the deep seated root of it.

In this case it's either the roof or guttering I suppose

Sometimes it's a really easy fix other times not

Hard to say without photos of the roof

I would say from your photos that the damage is worse than it looks

I think the best solution for you is to get the work costed by your own independent professional if you are thinking of proceeding. Someone trustworthy and recommended by people you know and trust, no-one else, not checkatrade, not anyone who is recommended by the agent, definitely no one with any connection to the seller. It’s a great idea to get a RICS surveyer in. The cost of a full structural survey will be worth every penny and can save you loads of heartache and £££, especially if you are already emotionally invested in the purchase.

Would strongly caution against following your heart on this one. Your heart will feel very heartsick when you’ve had to forgo any fun stuff/ holidays/ going out for the occasional nice meal till you’ve paid off the dry rot and the new roof ;) Old houses in particular can be absolute money pits. They are lovely but they will cost you dear unless someone has meticulously maintained them.