Any structural engineers/surveyors on the forum? I need some advice!

[tonytiger 0]

To counter those saying walking away (which may be the right thing to do depending upon your circumstances) logically that might make sense, but then you might forever wonder what if you hadn't. It depends what the house/location/etc mean to you, and depends how many you've looked at previously - is this the only one that you really felt was the place, or were there other close contenders?

 

In the case of my sister and brother-in-laws house, apart from monitoring for subsidence for the first six months and having the drains surveyed to check for damage (what an exciting video that is!), in the first week they moved in they thought they could smell gas and called a plumber out to check things out. He promptly condemned everything - and switched the gas off at the meter - and of course took some money from them too! So no heating and no oven/hob as that was gas too. New boiler needed, and fire, and all new pipework from the meter - and not in their budget. And to make matter worse, they even had trouble with the people who attempted to install the new boiler - stupidly they paid upfront, and the job was never completed, so then had to pay somebody else to come and finish the job. BUT, they don't regret it at all - it was the right house for them. And I think unless they come into a substantial amount of money, I doubt they'll move for a long long time.

 

So, I can understand why you're going to have the wall cavity survey - but you've still got to be prepared to walk away if there are serious problems, or be prepared to have the work done - whether funded by yourselves, or through a reduced sale price. Good luck, whichever way it goes.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

I sympathise!

 

I'm on the other end of this frustrating process as a seller with historical movement! Basically, we had a buyer try to totally screw us over with a very damning and untrue 'survey' so that they could knock 1000s off the asking price.

 

My garage has historical movement but stopped years ago, with a report to prove. The buyer's surveyor claimed it's ongoing because he couldn't open the side door. He also claimed the big beech tree a few meters behind the garage is responsible for the movement and it's roots have also broken the drains because the drainage flow is too slow. He also claimed the boiler's chimney stack is unsupported, the electrical earth bonding is wrong and a load of other other minor 'defect's about the property.

 

Utter bullsheet, the lot of it. The garage side door didn't open because it was stuck closed from a recent repaint. The drain was just blocked and was soon rodded clear again. The chimney stack *is* supported and the other defects were cobblers too. And we didn't need a professional survey to ascertain all that.

 

I know you're not trying pull a fast one, but just be aware that sellers and buyers alike are trying to fleece people these days! Yet another example of a poorly regulated industry in this country. Surveyors, lawyers and estate agents. All corrupt and charge huge amounts for very little.

 

We were upfront and honest about our house though, but it sounds like your sellers are being uncooperative, in which case I'd tell them to keep it and good luck selling it with movement issues!!

[eugopnosaj 0]

I spoke to a couple of specialists and we have arranged for a wall cavity tie survey to be done on the house, its only £100 + vat and refundable against any work that needs to be done, the house has cavity wall insulation and they will have to remove a brick to do the survey.

 

We will then survey what needs to be done if anything and if necessary renegotiate the cost of the house to cover the work needed. If they refuse then we will walk away, we love the house and it ticks every box but this whole situation has put a downer on it and although we will be sorry to walk away it would be the right thing to do. The plan is to then get the boiler surveyed depending on the outcome. Sure, the surveyors could fleece us and make out that there are issues but we won't be paying the money to do the work and although we'd lose the money its better than having all the problems.

 

Tonytiger, it was the right house for us when we first went to see it, it sounded perfect, nice big corner garden, wider than normal garage (not quite a double but bigger than a single) 2 double bedrooms, large driveway and was 1950's period with bay windows. We had been told that they'd had lots of work done including new windows, roof light, boiler, plumbing and electrics so we thought that all the major problems or things that needed doing had been dealt with, it wasn't until the survey came through that the sellers started to become unhelpful. I appreciate that your sister and brother in law had issues and spent a lot of money resolving them but we haven't got the money to do that. Naively we are entering the purchase with everything we have got because we assumed that anything that could have gone wrong in the first 6 months had already been fixed so didn't think we needed a huge contingency.

 

The final conclusion is that, if there is work that needs doing and the sellers refuse to drop the house price we walk and they make a bigger loss as they will have to do the work themselves and still lose the sale of the house. We've come to terms with this and we can continue living where we are, its much cheaper and we've living with a mate but thought it was time to move on, maybe it isn't as now we can go on holiday and travelling, I'm only 25 so I've still got time to get a house and grow up!

 

Its just so frustrating as this whole thing could have been avoided if the sellers were more cooperative as you say and if they really wanted to sell the house then surely they'd do everything to sell it, we're not asking for them to move walls or redecorate