Surveyor says we need to replace the roof?

[noramoo]

Hi all,

We are in the process of buying a house and have just had a survey take place. The surveyor has come back to us saying the roof is not felted and this could cause issues down the line. He says the roof will need to be replaced (and felted as part of this process) in the short-term. He has advised us to flag this to the sellers and renegotiate purchase price to account for this (c. £12k cost).

The house is a 1930s terrace and from my own research a lack of felting is common in these houses - it's just the way they were built at the time. He said the roof itself was in a decent state and no leaks or damp detected currently. I am therefore a bit confused as to why we would need to replace the whole thing. He said there is a chance we end up with a leak down the line if we don't address this promptly. Would one not just patch repair as needed?

I certainly don't want to be a CF to our sellers - is the surveyor being heavy handed/overly cautious? Is this actually very common and a non-issue?

My fear is more around if we leave it, when we come to sell ourselves down the line are we likely to have buyers say the exact same thing and want money off?

I am very uninformed about what is considered reasonable in such circumstances!

Thank you.

I bought a 1920s house in the early 1990s and the survey said the same. The roof is still going strong (not mine any more, but the next owner clearly didn't bother either)!

If you're worried about it, you could ask a roofing contractor for an assessment?

Hi, my dads a roofer and has a lot of calls for quotes for roofers that surverers have said this. He said 70% of the time they don't need redoing or doing straight away. I would if I was you get 2-3 quotes from different roofers. Don't tell them they have said to have a new roof just get them to come look at the roofer and quote to put it right. This might help give you an idea of where you stand.

We bought a 1920s house which had the original roof tiles, and the surveyor said it would need a new roof. We asked our roofer to give his opinion, he agreed it needed replacing in the next few years. It had been patched in multiple places for previous leaks. We could probably have carried on patching for a while but after two years we got the roof replaced.

Thank you all. There didn't seem to be any indication that it was an urgent job as no leaks currently and it has been unfelted for 90 years so far with no issues - we don't plan to live in the house for more than 5-10 years max so our fears are more around the next buyer. We don't want to lose the house and spook the sellers as it's a great property in all other regards but equally would be a nightmare having to have a new roof put in with small children in tow, not to mention the cost... such a dilemma...

It isn't a nightmare having a new roof by the way, it was one of the least nightmarish jobs we've had done. It's a bit noisy but obviously it's all accessed from outside via scaffolding so you aren't inconvenienced (except by the hammering).

I think the surveyor might be telling you in a roundabout way that you are overpaying. Your exactly right that it is likley something that will come up again when you sell if it isn't done. Better to deal with the cost of that now really. It certainly won't be cheaper to resolve next time you want to move - and you definitely can't rely on the value of the property increasing in the next few years to cover that expense.