Hi all,
We're in the process of buying a 1930s house which has had a number of extensions and a loft conversion. The house needs quite a lot of work as the owners haven't looked after it that well. We were expecting this but on the advice of the survey took a builder round to look at a number of points and get estimates. He noted what the surveyor said re. some strange lead plates on the roof (which the surveyor said should be covered with tiles) and had a look in more detail only to find that the RSJ in the loft conversion was sticking out through the roof - hence they couldn't cover with tiles!
He looked in the cupboard in the loft and saw that the RSJ was proped up on 4 bricks above the main wall and was actually several bits of RSJ all bolted together. He said it wouldn't fall down but was really quite dodgy and the surveyor should have picked up on it.
We asked the surveyor to go back and look again which he said he would do - partly we were hoping he would say, 'don't worry, it's fine, it's one way of doing it and it meets building regs'. The surveyor phoned this morning to tell me that the vendor refused to let him survey again, worried that he might now get a 'bad survey' which would affect ability to sell. They still haven't sent the documentation through to our solicitor and yet have had 6 weeks so far to do so.
I'm dubious as it sounds to me like they have something to hide but am I being unfair? Given the amount of work which is needed I'm wondering whether we should just cut our losses and walk away....
Anyone experienced anything like this before or anyone have a loft conversion which has the same thing and is basically fine>???
Sorry for the length of this - hubby is away and so need to share this!