You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
After generals opinions from the hive mind as mine keeps going round in circles.
me & partner have and offer accepted on a nice house in pretty village in Peak District. Went to the structural survey today with the surveyor and turn out it needs some stabilisation work - Helifix ties in the walls, possible corner braces and external plates to stabilise some movement - probably c £10-15k of work.
now setting the money aside (we’d only proceed if cost of was taken of the accepted offer), would you proceed? My concerns are around future mortgage lending, insurance, possible future buyers running a mile, disruption of work while having to live in house and opening up a general can of worms
normally would walk away, but a village we really like were very little comes on the market and we are pretty much at the bottom of the entry price point
thoughts?
If i liked the house enough, the price reflected the work, the bank was happy lending against it and i didn't need to live in the house whilst it was done, yes. If any of those things were a no, it'd be a no for me.
Would you be intending to stay there a for a long time? If so I would ask for second structural survey (for piece of mind) then go back with cheeky offer to take into account cost of work and possible contingency.
Well done on getting a proper survey done though and spotting this now.
Nope.
Nope
Care to expand on reasons why no?
Can you confirm the works will be limited to 10-15k? How open ended is this, some proper research to be done I reckon
Deffo do some more research and prob keep looking - this house is unlikely to be snapped up. Questions to ask - why hasn’t the seller done the work themselves? Will you have problems reselling when the time comes? Hard I know but there will be other houses, and there is a risk you end up stuck with an unsellable money pit.
Bare in mind you will have to declare and structural or stabilisation work if you sell and some mortgage lenders and insurance companies can be funny about it. I have a friend trying to sell a house which has had fairly routine preventative underpinning and is struggling to sell it do to buyers struggling with mortgages and insurance even though it's quite common for the properties of that age round here due to long term settlements in granular soils.
Questions to ask – why hasn’t the seller done the work themselves?
That is probably the question there, would this not be covered by good home insurance?
Wouldn't bother me too much on an older house. They often need a bit of work along the way and if it hasn't fallen down yet it's unlikely to suddenly (I'm sure there are plenty of exceptions but it's good odds). Also I'd suspect a structural survey to err on the side of caution
I tried to arrange a viewing on a house in Nottingham. The estate agent told me there had been 250 viewings because of subsidence . One of my mates had tried to buy it, but the sellers would not accept an offer my mate though was the market value of the house - the cost of works.
My parents house has some massive metal ties holding the side of the house on. There has-been occasional problems with insurance.
So everything has its price, if you want to live there and can afford the works,and could afford to sell it at the market rate, go for it!
Nope.
Regardless of what you have done and what price reduction you negotiate the very fact that you are asking shows that any future sale will be impacted- even if it's just that you will have fewer potential buyers.
My problem with this is the estimate of 10/15 k for remedial works. Seems a vague figure and a vague assessment from your engineer. I'd be after a decent schedule of works for pricing purposes at least, as I personally can't see how the listed works would add up to 15k, and that said if I was the vendor I'd be tho king the same.
I think that there's a difference between a structural survey (Chartered Surveyor) and a structural engineer's report. Get an engineer's report paid for by the seller
@wrightyson; I started to type as you posted, crossover
Do you have a mortgage offered on it?
If so..... any retention for the cost work?
If I had a mortgage offered with no retention at all and the puchase price and valuation reflects the cost of the work(s) I would go for it. So long as I had the funds to action the work.
If the mortgage offer has a retention reflecting the cost of works and again purchase price and valuation reflects the cost(s) of work and I had the money to do the work....again I would go for it.
Anything outside of this. Declined mortgage offer, no cash to action the work, mortgage offer with full retention etc......then I would/could not proceed.
ask the important questions........ What's the riding from the door like?
ask the important questions…….. What’s the riding from the door like?
Soon to start with a gnarly rock garden
The questions I’d be asking are (not an exclusive list)
Location - is it where you want to live for 10+years?
Property - the stability work won’t be limited to £15k there will be over runs and remedial works to “make good” Can you afford another £10k just in case?
Is the property habitable now? Is there someone living in it? How long have they known about the slippage?
Cheaky offer all you like, but small works like this are two a penny to fix. If you don’t want to do it someone else might pay full price for the property then still get the work done (and more, who knows)
@wrightyson RICS say of a RICS Building Survey, "The most comprehensive report provides you with an in-depth analysis of the property's condition and includes advice on defects, repairs and maintenance options." (my italics)
I think that a engineer can offer specific calcs, methods, materials and so an estimate of cost, so yes, it seems (EDIT as written in the OP /EDIT) to be too vague
I think that there’s a difference between a structural survey (Chartered Surveyor) and a structural engineer’s report. Get an engineer’s report paid for by the seller
This, but only if it's a house you really must have and nothing else floats your boat.
Thanks for all the thoughts so far.
tge £10-15k figure has come from the RICS building survey and the surveyor has recommended getting a structural engineers report and then 3 quotes for the remedial work off the back of that. He’s also made a recommendation of the Halifix system of stabilisation, which looking at it look like a relatively quick & easy fix to tie bowed walls and pin cracks, rather any major underpinning.
as yet we haven’t informed the mortgage company, which we will do as it will need to be declared for obtaining the buildings insurance anyhow, until we’ve made a decision on what we want to do IF the vendor reduced price significantly. Although given potential exponential faff with mortgages, insurance, additional costly reports and future potential issues when it comes to sale I’m starting to cool on the idea. Potentially different matter if old stabilisation work done 7-10 years ago, but given it would take a while to prove its worked and no further issues I suspect we’re opening up a can of worms
Shame, its in the hope valley so the riding from the door isn’t too shabby!