99% damp reading in ground floor- renegotiate price?

[Lavendar01]

After 6months of looking and being sold stc, we've put an offer on a beautiful house, matching the asking price, paid for a L2 survey report and unfortunately its come back showing "unacceptably high damp readings in the solid construction ground, rising damp and penetration damp" 😩

Got off the phone to the surveyor, the penetration damp will be quick fix to the roof but thinks there's costly repairs for the other two:

1. The house slopes downwards as you come towards the front and rises to the rear garden, and no floor drainage around the house to collect water, he suspects water is travelling/ pooling into the house, house also flagged up as risk of surface water flooding, recommends french drainage or something similar

1. He suspects the ground floor is too far gone to just remove carpet and let it dry (uneven ground) and thinks will need to exacerbate and put down new concrete floor, in worse case scenario the whole ground floor (68m²)

1. Surveyor suspects in total it'll cost around £10k but suggesting to get either a damp specialist or floor specialist /builder for other opinions and costs for repair

He said we have good reason to negotiate the price of the house. Dreading this because we're absolutely sh*t at this despite knowing we're being reasonable here. All of our money is going into the house won't have anything apart from first mortgage payment and bills.

Any tips on how to have that conversation with EA?

Thank you!

It’s simply a we’ve had the survey results back which have identified x,y,z and therefore we do not feel that we are in the position to offer full asking anymore. Before this, you need to have a discussion to identify:

1. are you prepared to walk away? Are these issues deal breakers for you?
2. if not, what are you asking for price reduction wise? From what you are describing I’d be surprised if that came in under 10k. Concreting 68 square meters could be 10 grand in materials alone let alone labour etc.
3. what price are you now going to offer?

I'd be walking away.

I would walk away tbh.

Even stripping wallpaper can turn into 2k job by uncovering some surprises, let alone floor work like that...

I had a very similar situation. Seller refused to budge so l backed out.

This sounds really bad and I'd walk away. I had some possible damp identified in the lounge of my last house. That meant ripping up the floorboards as the joists had rotten, repointing the bay outside and replastering inside, replacing the joists, ripping up part of the driveway but fortunately replacing the original flooring. The previous owners knew this was a problem for years and had laid plastic under the flooring which covered the smell but made the problem worse.

Thanks for the responses everyone.

It's really unfortunate as the house offers everything we are looking for, literally!

The surveyor said £10k plus in worse case scenario, meaning whole house ground floor. Wasn't able to get reading of kitchen floor because tiled.

Is it worth getting a damp specialist out to assess the problem further? Or go straight to a builder and get quote for worse case scenario redoing whole ground? And take that back to buyers?

I would do both so you can present the quotes. Also if it's the whole of the ground floor you cannot move in or to have to move out so more expense?

It could be really bad under the tiles.

You cannot just replace the floor with like for like construction. Regulations will require insulation and reinforcement (to prevent the slab(s)) from cracking. So that is a deeper excavation. Then the concrete slab needs to be screeded. There is no way it will come in under 10k for the whole house. Also you’ll need to strip the kitchen out, possibly plumbing will need replacement.
It’s not a job where you should accept they meet you half way on the reduction. If one room is gone, then the others are as well.
It also takes time, a few weeks no doubt. Personally, I’d walk away also. If it really is the dream home, get a quote off a builder who knows what he is talking about. Also, you will still need the drainage sorting out, another few £k’s.

Sorry OP... but I'd run away.
The £10k the surveyor suggested (which sounds v optimistic) won't include making good afterwards (eg new floor tiles, new kitchen, plumbing work, anything electrical, etc) nor your costs for renting whilst work goes on.

Also to note, the staircase often flexes and cracks, so needs to be repaired and repainted or whatnot.

Gosh, I would run away from this.
It sounds like the sort of major problem where you will discover more and more problems once you start removing things to investigate further.

I would not buy a house with a medium or high risk of surface water flooding. Flooding only has to happen once and, as well as the damage it will cause to your property, it will also affect any future sale and your insurance premium. I would walk away.

As an FYI a friend was renting out her flat - hadn't realised the bath & shower waste were leaking and aqua board hadn't been applied behind the tiles ( relatively new build) Came to put in a new bathroom ended up having to replace entire bathroom and new walls. Water had spread through the floor into the kitchen - had to replace the kitchen as unit bases were rotting and also some of the walls and two door frames and doors as the damp had got into plaster etc. A bill for £20k later it's just about sorted in a 2 bed flat so I suspect your £10k is the tip of the iceberg , not to mention the time it will take and the cost of having to live elsewhere.

A neighbour renting in my block has ended up with us for 2 years following damp problems in her house - it was only supposed to take 6 months to resolve, but...... they kept finding more and more issues.

Moral is you don't know what you don't know until you start taking up the floor etc and it will always be worse than the anticipated worse case scenario. The work needed is not for the feint hearted and If I were you I would walk away before it becomes a money pit - difficult as it might be as you see the house as your ideal home.

I know nothing about the work but I would say the "risk for surface water flooding" where are you getting that from ? If it's the environment agency website it's not actually THAT accurate. It sort of covers a big area and if your house is in the area it might flag up as a risk when really it's not your house but, say the pavements across the road. If it's the individual environmental report then that's different as it's specific to he address. The house we're buying shows medium risk on the website but when we got the full one done for the address it's actually "negligible risk".

I would run like the wind in the opposite direction.

Walk away, this could turn into a nightmare. I had bad damp downstairs in a house I purchased. Concrete floors had to be dug up, plaster taken off walls from front lounge to rear kitchen. Had walls rendered with chemical damp proofing plus some kind of bitumen membrane in the lounge. All had to be resurfaced, more concrete downstairs and plastering. I already knew I'd need a new kitchen. It cost thousands around 20 years ago. House was like a building site.

I honestly regretted purchasing (despite renovating) and guess what, damp came back eventually. Yes it was guaranteed but the thought of having all that work done again, no way. Sold up. Someone else's problem now.

You can key in the exact postcode and house number on the environment agency website. Problem is if they want to sell in the future and it is flagging up as medium or high risk on the environment agency website then savvy buyers will check this before they even view the house. Plus insurance companies will also use this to quote for insurance. This paired with any possible risk that your house could flood would make me run a mile. There is a reason it flags up and I wouldn’t turn a blind eye personally.

Run away. This isn't a dream house, it's a black hole for money.

Thanks everyone

We're thinking of getting a damp survey on the property. But I would like to know before pursuing this, now that the vendor is aware of the damp and that there will costs involved, will they be willing to account for the estimated costs, through the selling price. Because if they don't want to negotiate on the price at all, as within their right, then I can save that money for my next home buy report.

When I spoke to the EA re this, she just said get the report done and let's take it from there, not sure if my request was unreasonable here? Should I go back before booking samples surveyor?

Nearly everyone who responded suggested that you walk (or run!) away.
I doubt you will get an answer to your question.
Personally, I wouldn't waste your money on more surveys and would pull the plug as suggested but it's up to you.