Buyer has pulled out after being spooked by survey

[BunnyWilliams]

We're absolutely devastated. Our buyers pulled out today after getting their full survey back over the weekend. Surveyor was from Countrywide and sent by Nationwide to do a valuation and he also did a level 2 survey.

Apparently, he has stated that the house is "liable to collapse" and the roof needs extensive work. We've already had a roofer out and there are a few cracked tiles which we're replacing. Definitely not extensive work needed! He was doing a level 2 survey and has made these claims with no evidence or further investigation to back them up.
We only moved in 4 years ago and had a level 3 survey which raised none of these issues.

Our buyers were getting a structural engineer round tomorrow because they'd already been spooked by his initial findings but they've now cancelled it.

I am devastated and furious (with the surveyor) in equal measure. Our buyers aren't willing to have a conversation about it. We've already said we'd cover the roof repairs and I'm getting 3 builders out this afternoon to look at the one ceiling that has cracks to quote to repair/replace it.

I'm sure we'll now lose our onward purchase. Of course, we'd completely fallen in love with it. We've already done all the searches. Our survey is booked for Thursday but I think we'll probably have to cancel it or we'll be liable to lose a further £800. Our house was on the market since September and we only had 4 viewings. The market here is beyond dead. Nothing new has come on in the bracket we're looking at since November!

Have you spoken to the agent to liaise with the buyers so they are aware you will cover the repairs?
In the meantime yes I would cancel your survey on your onward purchase for the time being. Hopefully though they will give you a chance to find a new buyer before remarketing. Depends on their position I guess.

I've asked them to reiterate it again. Our agent is now not picking up the phone which is infuriating when I'm panicking and want to resolve this somehow.

I will cancel our survey. I'm just going to have to hope our vendors are understanding. It's a holiday house that we're buying and not their home but I understand that they are using the sale to pay off a mortgage.

Sorry to hear OP. Countrywide (via Nationwide) did a survey on our property when we were selling it - they valued its at £0!!! The EA said he had never seen anything so ridiculous in his entire career. He also said Nationwide are notoriously difficult/strict - whether thats true I dont know. But solidarity!!!

Could you get a structural engineer round yourself? There must be a reason why the surveyor has said that, if you could have expert evidence to the contrary ready then you might not get caught out again? I'm so sorry OP, moving house is the most stressful and miserable experience!

We’ve had a valuation on a property which came back at £nil because they couldn’t find a comparable property. Absolutely batshit.

Countrywide seem to be notorious for undervaluing properties. Have you shown the buyers the level 3 survey you had done? Unless something dramatic has occurred, I can't imagine the structure of the property will have changed so significantly in 4 years.

We're considering it. I just don't want to keep throwing money at the problem if it won't get us anywhere, especially as we're going to be out of pocket with these repairs anyway.

The reason that he gave was that the ceiling has a crack in it. It's a crack in the plaster (lath and plaster ceiling) because it's an old house and because the floor is slightly sloped in one room - again, old house. While I accept that the crack needs fixing, it certainly doesn't mean the house is falling down!

I've shared the relevant sections of it with them already. It doesn't seem to have made any difference.

Awful!! What happened in the end?

Yes true! We had a mortgage offer fall through due to a survey for Nationwide, they also valued the house we wanted to buy at £0.00 because of a previously undisclosed problem with Japanese knotweed at the end of the garden behind a shed. I was totally spooked; the seller’s EA said I was being unreasonable but as I pointed out: if the survey is saying the house is worth £0.00 how do you expect me to buy it? I am not a cash buyer.

I had to pull out, but I also wanted to pull out because I felt the seller would have said anything at that stage to complete the sale. I trusted the surveyor and had no experience of a zero house valuation. It’s pretty shocking to receive a report like that believe me!

Give it a week or two, stay calm and keep making the same reassurances, you could offer to cover the cost of a re-survey if that would help.

I am really sorry for you OP.

Yes, we had a valuation done, via Nationwide, on the house we were buying. It was a new build which I know have a new build premium but they drastically undervalued it and the reason given was that the road surface hadn’t been fully laid at that point.

The sales staff couldn’t believe it, especially when the road was properly surfaced two days after the valuation was done!
Fair play to the house builders, they were desperate to sell so that they could commence building the next phase so matched the valuation.

Hope everything works out for you OP, it’s such a stressful time without any extra difficulties.

Our buyer knew it was absurd and went with another bank, the did a survey and valuation. Best of luck, its just a hideously stressful time 💐

First time buyer? They tend to be more easily spooked by surveys than someone who has been through it all before.

So sorry to hear this, OP.

Sorry to hear this. I think the answer here is to have nothing that could be perceived as alarming visible to the naked eye. The surveyor is not an expert in all aspects - they are generalists who flag potential issues. So best not to give them any molehills they could make into mountains, such as cracks in plaster, mildew, peeling paint etc. Sounds like you may need to relist so probably worth some quick patching up before you do so.

I've just had a call with the structural engineer who was due to come tomorrow. We think we will still pay for them to come as then we'll own the survey and can offer it to future buyers, plus it will give us peace of mind. He actually laughed when I told him that the survey had said our house was liable to collapse because of cracks in the lath and plaster ceiling. He said that cracks in lath and plaster are 'of no real concern' and it was a simple repair (which we will do). He said that sloping floors aren't structural and instead 'serviceable' - basically it's up to the home owner as to whether they're happy to have sloped floors or not from a practical point of view.
Roofer has just come back out to confirm what needs doing. I asked him to double check as we'd been told the roof was 'in need of extensive repair' and that the chimney stack was blown. He said, "Eh?!" with a very confused look on his face and then proceeded to look again. We've got EIGHT loose tiles (but the slates are still there) and 3 cracked. Nothing. There is nothing at all wrong with the chimney stack.

I cannot believe this surveyor. I'm actually furious that he can get away with being so terrible at his job and cost people so much.

Hope it all works out for you OP. When I was selling my first flat, the surveyor came in, was in the house about 5 minutes, charged £80 and wrote in his report that there was damp in the floorboards. It had solid concrete floors. Not a floorboard in the place. So infuriating.

Definitely going to get the cracks fixed. They are so thin and not big scary ones. Here's one of them (there are two). The ridges are the ceiling structure and not cracks.

I do think that surveyors should be experts in these kind of things actually. It's essential for them to do their job properly. If not, surveys should be carried out by engineers instead.

Sorry op, we had a survey completed by the same company last week we have taken advice and are proceeding regardless but they sure do make things a pretty scary read

They are completely normal hairline cracks that happen in lath and plaster walls. They are barely worth bothering with. I thought you were talking about bigger gaps tbh.

No, and they also live in a period property currently so you'd think they'd be more understanding! I do wonder if they're using it as a get-out.

They're now not answering the estate agent's calls.

And these are the reason our house is going to collapse, apparently!

Those surveyors make me mad! Are they just not taught how to assess period properties?

Is there no recourse for these people putting out inaccurate reports?

Oh god what an absolute nightmare! I'm so sorry, as if its not stressful enough. Bloody surveyors can be a nightmare.
For what it's worth I was selling a modern house a few years ago. Absolutely nothing wrong with it.
Along came the surveyors, did their bit. I was floored that he said the entire house needed a re wire! Buyers promptly pulled out. I got the best electrician to come out and check everything. He said no way does it need a rewire and gave me one of those 10 year certificates (sorry I can't remember what it's called). I immediately sent it on to the EA who passed it to the buyers but they weren't interested. EA said the buyers had actually done similar to 4 other houses in the area. I wish I had known that at the start. They were not willing to share their survey report. Absolute time wasters!
Anyway I had a new buyer by the following week and EA passed the certificate over. Nothing showed up in the survey on electrics.
No real help to you, but if you do get your own survey it will certainly help incase the next people send the same surveyor and you can be ready!!