We are in the process of buying a house. It’s a great size, lovely garden, excellent location. However, we’ve just had the survey back and finding it quite scary - would really appreciate an outside/ more experienced perspective!
The house is an old stable block that was renovated in the 1970s. It’s basically a large L-shaped bungalow with a loft conversion which includes a couple of bedrooms and a bathroom. The house was advertised as being ‘recently renovated’ and they’ve done a lot of cosmetic work but, as the survey says, haven’t done much to address some of the larger issues.
The main things we’re worried about are the roof and the damp. The slate roof has already been patched up many times and the surveyor said a neighbour ‘regularly’ has slates from the roof falling into his garden. The survey suggests that the whole roof needs to be re-slated in the near future which, given the shape of the property, would be a big job. The surveyor couldn’t check the state of roof timbers as the ceilings are pitched but there is rot to timbers visible externally (behind falling apart fascias).
There is damp along the back and front walls of the property. This is likely due to failing gutters (presumably not too expensive to replace?) and a higher ground level along the bottom of the property. The surveyor was particularly concerned that the vendors might have covered up damp as they’ve added lots of new plasterboard in the recent cosmetic refurbishment.
Other concerns are how much it would be to heat as it’s a single brick construction (and likely no insulation in the roof) and the upstairs bathroom only has a macerating toilet which isn’t ideal.
We are up for doing some work, but don’t have much wiggle room in the budget once we’ve bought the house. We also have two young children so didn’t really want to take on too much of a project.
Does this list sound horrendous? Reasonable? Should we try and renegotiate or run??
Thank you!