Building Survey Outcome

[Sammyjoegreen]

I've had a Level 2 building survey conducted on a 3 bed semi-detached detached that I recently put an offer on.
The survey brought to light several issues classed as red flags/category 3 which means they are urgent and require immediate attention.
Amongst these were the EPC rating which was stated as C (72) in the property's particulars and which is one of the reasons that motivated my to put an offer on this property over others. The survey however uncovered that the listings for walls and windows presented in the properties details were incorrect. The walls were described as insulated cavity however, they were actually of solid construction. The windows were described as fully tripple glazed however, the survey uncovered they were in some areas double and in other only single glazed. Consequently, the EPC does not provide an accurate energy efficiency assessment for the property which brings me to my question: how do I approach this with the estate agent /seller?
What I intend to do is to request that the seller has the energy assessment revised to determine the correct EPC banding as this is directly correlated to the future energy costs will face.
Would you say this is a fair approach ? Any other suggestions are welcome.

Thank you for reading and for your feedback.

I don't really get hung up on the EPC report, it is what it is. If you love the house and the rest of the survey is fine, I'd proceed. I've noticed with surveys, the surveyors 100% cover their backs. No house is perfect, it's all, if you do this and do this, no reason not to proceed. I just want to know is there damp if so how bad, is it going to fall down, are the electrics ok. Re electrics the survey always says get checked by a qualified electrician. With the cost of the survey, I personally think they should take one along with them.

The EPC on our current house was G! I’ve gone online to look up the report and some of it was down to lightbulbs and radiator thermostats, so easy to fix really but had a big impact on the rating. I’m far more aware of EPC now than I was when we bought 10 years ago. Digressing, sorry..

It would be useful to highlight the discrepancies from the full EPC report and your survey in black and white when talking to the agent. Asking them to get a new EPC report while theirs is still in date could get messy and honestly I’m not sure it will achieve much for you on a day to day level. If they agree to reduce price, the long term issues will not go away.

You can’t change the fact that the walls are solid for instance so that’s always going to impact your costs if you buy this place for instance. Windows you can upgrade (costly for us at the moment though). Are any of the other points raised insurmountable?

I absolutely do think you should raise it with the agent btw, I just think you should have a clear idea of what you’re looking for as an outcome if that makes sense.