Neighbour maybe doesn't realise house is concrete WWYD?

[lineylines]

My neighbour has put their house on the market. It's a normal ad.

However, their house is concrete construction. Definitely - not only is ours, and the houses look the same, but theirs in a semi and the one next door (that it's atttached to - effectively the other side of the same house) sold last year, and the ad clearly said "cash buyers only as concrete construction".

The price they're asking is normal for a standard construction house round here, but they're not going to get nearly that for a conrete house. The one next door sold for £75K less than they're asking.

I'm trying to work out whether I should say something to them.

If they already know it's concrete I guess it's none of my business really. It's very unlikely a buyer won't find out as the houses on this road are flagged as "possibly concrete construction" and it will be hard to get a mortage. Unless someone buys cash, I guess?

But if they don't know, then it's going to be a nasty shock - they may find out once they've offered on a new place and then their buyer's mortgage falls through when the lender finds out it's concrete.

Lots of people here don't realise about the concrete I think as this is an ex council estate and some of the houses were bought ages ago and passed down families.

I don't know them well, they keep themselves to themselves.

Should I say something to be neighbourly? Or stay out of it? WWYD?

I’d say nothing, it’s not really your problem. It’ll either sell or it won’t, but it’s their worry not yours. It won’t take long for them to discover why it’s not selling (if that turns out to be the case).
If they’ve “spent money on surveys or other moving costs” before getting a firm offer on their own concrete property, then more fool them. Nobody would be that daft surely, in today’s housing market?

😂😂😂😂

How exactly would it help me when I intend to declare mine is concrete?

There is no way a concrete house will sell for the same as standard construction.

I've explained how up thread, at least twice.

Because you can point to that property as a comparable when you come to sell. And, your potential buyers would assume that the buyers of the neighbouring properly went in with a survey/eyes open - as most folks do. At the end of the day, you're only looking at a listing. Why would you assume that buyers/lawyers/surveyors/lenders (ie piles of professional people) would not do any diligence whatsoever on the construction of a property?
its like asbestos - no obligation to declare on a listing but very often becomes apparent later down the line in a transaction.

If your home isn’t on the defective list then how do you know it’s an issue? The defective list are those identified after a specific piece of research carried out by the BRE. Concrete construction can be defective usually because of accelerators added to mixes or certain aggregates, not because concrete is inherently risky or always degrades. Concrete pathology is complex. I think you’re putting two and two together and making 10 here unless there’s a massive drip feed coming.

I sometimes inspect social housing and I’d say half the people living in concrete construction houses aren’t aware. It isn’t obvious, because, for example, Wimpey no-fines concrete houses are rendered and have a few courses of exposed brick at the bottom. You need to go in the loft to check. ‘Airey’ homes have often been overclad with insulated render panels or insulated brickwork, and look like normal brick houses. Some or maybe most (not sure) are mortgageable, although some (e.g. ‘Wingets’) were designated defective (because of the steel frame, not the concrete panels), and the government carried out works on them all. I wouldn’t be surprised if an estate agent or energy assessor assumed a concrete building was a brick building with a render finish, because of the exposed bricks at the bottom. They usually can’t tell the difference between a brick cavity wall house and timber frame house with brick cladding.

I was also going to add to my previous post - you mentioned that "In the 15 years I've been here, only 2 of the concrete houses have been sold". Was the most recent sale yours, if so when? Apologies if you've mentioned before, just wondered if that - ie the passage of time and increase in house prices- would perhaps account for at least some of the 75k value, rather than a non disclosure of concrete construction.

Yeah... No.

I'm going to sell my house honestly, for the price it's worth, not hope to profit because people are further duped by one of my neighbours managing to pull a fast one (not saying that's what they're doing, but this is the scenario you're describing).

It's a concrete house. I am going to sell it as a concrete house.

And anyway, I live in a small town. I'm likely only going to be moving round the corner, not burning my bridges and disappearing into the sunset!

No, sorry I wasn't counting mine. One changed hands about 12 years ago, then the one attached to the one that's for sale now, earlier this year. I don't think prices have risen by a lot since the beginning of the year?

Actually there was another one up the road that I suspect must have been concrete, although I don't know for sure. It's a very different style to mine. It went up for sale with a standard ad. Many months later it reported for sale as a cash only sale. This is before I was really paying attention to this issue though.

That's not what I'm saying at all. I'm saying IF the house sells for it's asking price then it would not be unreasonable for you to assume - given the inevitable involvement of surveyors, lenders, solicitors Etc- that the concrete construction had been disclosed. This is just the way conveyancing works, not every single thing about the construction is disclosed on the listing. Thats just the way conveyancing works - it's not about trying to pull a "fast one".

No you're right. Property prices won't have risen to that extent. all very odd - if you've sold a property then you'll know how it works. The selling agents will generally look to the most recent sold prices on the land register for the street and then it's really a crude sort of estimation based on that and the condition of the property. I'm sure it won't take long for potential purchasers to ask why it's valued so much higher when the last sold price is 75k less for a sale that took place in recent times.

This is quite interesting:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5538415/just-found-out-my-house-is-of-non-standard-construction-liability-of-seller-agent

V interesting. I think there's probably established case law on what has to be included in the listing in terms of misrepresentation etc but I wonder how much of that relevant given the practice of surveys?

Ah, I see, apologies I misunderstood!

I'm not at all surprised to read this.

I'm pretty sure lots of people round here either don't know the houses are concrete or don't realise it may cause an issue.

If you go up into the loft in mine, you see a great big brick wall - where the chimneys are. So it looks to the untrained eye as if it's a brick house.

Is it odd, isn't it?!

If they know, it makes no sense to price it so high (unless they're actually trying to pull a fast one - but they must know it's bound to come out at survey).

Unless there's something I'm missing I feel it does point to them not knowing.

FWIW I looked at the for sale board on my way in tonight, as I wondered if maybe it was an online agent who doesn't know the area.

Turns out, it is an agent from our town, but one that I think usually lists properties in the posher parts of town. I remember when we were moving we didn't give them our details as they had nothing in our price range.

So maybe they're not used to selling ex council properties and aren't familiar with non standard construction? Or maybe they've just diversified in the 15 years since I paid any attention to the types of property they list.

Make of that what you will!

(And now I do feel like a nosy neighbour. If it wasn't for this thread it wouldn't have crossed my mind to look!)

Interesting!

Do you know what type of non-traditional house it is? In Yorkshire we have a lot of Wimley no-fines concrete, Winget and Reema properties. If you don’t know, it might be on one of the lists on this website:
https://nonstandardhouse.com/local-authority-non-traditional-housing-stock-lists/

Curioser and curioser! I've found my road on that list, but neither my house nor the neighbours is listed.

The houses further up are listed as "Parkinson" - so they are pre-fab after all! (But not what I think of as pre-fab - they're sturdy houses, potentially crumbling concrete aside!)

They're slightly different from mine though - very similar so it could well be the same construction type, but sufficiently different for me to wonder if mine is a different type.

I wonder why my house isn't on that list.

I'd love to believe it's because it's not concrete after all! But I've seen our tough walls break drills with my own eyes :(

Well maybe it isn’t concrete… i’ve just noticed that you said your house was built in the 1930s. I’m pretty sure non-traditional concrete houses didn’t start being built until 1945 after the war… A typical 1930s local authority semi would be in brick cavity wall. Only the lintels above windows and doors would be of concrete, and maybe some of the ground floor. I’d better go to bed now…

Sadly it's definitely concrete!

The walls are thick concrete, almost impossible to drill. They're not brick.

It's not easy to find stuff on concrete houses in the 1930s, but I did find this:

"Wimpey’s No-Fines, Laing’s Easyform and Wates precast concrete slabs were all developed by the named contractors during the 1920s and 1930s as ways of trying to industrialize the building process. They were based around concrete construction methods and required the construction of formwork, in timber or steel, around and into which concrete was poured."

https://pre-war-housing.org.uk/blank-1-5/blank-1-9-2/

I'd love it if I was wrong and actually my house wasn't concrete, it'd be a weight off my mind! And a great outcome of this thread (not to mention a fabulous real life plot twist!) ☺️
Thanks for your optimism @HoppyFish!

But sadly all the evidence of living in the house points to concrete.

And the identical house across the road that was sold as non-standard construction.