OT - house cracks

[simon l& and a half]

And one final (really) thought. Anns v. Merton. Bognor Regis UDC v. whoever. Do not, under any circumstances, think that because Building Control has given you consent to take that wall down or whatever that you have some kind of assurance that all will be well. Just. Do. Not. Think. That.

 

[simon l& and a half]

and this really is the final point. You're buying an old house and you get it surveyed. What assurance does that give you? Think carefully about who paid for the survey. Read the survey carefully.

(and, yes I am at work on my own)

 

[Baggy]

Ah. Thanks

Well, the house isn't on clay, and we've not knocked down any internal walls.
The cracks aren't unsettling enough to make us head for a surveyor, hence asking a load of cyclists first. But aI agree a crack is a crack, and worth keeping an eye on.

The blown plaster part was in response to Buggi...the outside of the house has been well looked after and even re-pointed with lime mortar in the recommended fashion.

Went through the survey here fine tooth comb but had nothing horrifying, although the surveyor managed to confuse a solid brick outhouse with a rotten timber porch in the report and recommend the former be removed. Fortunately we queried it.

 

[domtyler]

...a crack is a crack, and worth keeping an eye on.

I like that, mind if I nab it for my sig line?

 

[wafflycat]

and this really is the final point. You're buying an old house and you get it surveyed. What assurance does that give you? Think carefully about who paid for the survey. Read the survey carefully.

(and, yes I am at work on my own)

To add to what Simon has said - it also depends upon what kind of survey you had done. A valuation survey is *not* a survey which looks at the structure in anything like the sort of detail required to *properly* check the structural condition of a property, especially an old one.

To put it bluntly, a valuation survey for a mortgage is really nothing more than a lender covering its backside to say that if you stopped paying the mortgage and the property is repossessed, is the lender likely to get its money back on a quick sale.

With any older property, as a person previously involved in the property market, I cannot stress enough the importance of getting a full structural survey done. Even more so than a housebuyers' survey which is the bastard offspring of a full structral and a valuation, and is neither one thing or another. A full structral costs serious spondooliks, but for an old property, it really is the only way to go.

 

[simon l& and a half]

the surveyor managed to confuse a solid brick outhouse with a rotten timber porch in the report and recommend the former be removed.

well, there's a surprise . I trust he or she managed to lift the carpets....

 

[simon l& and a half]

To add to what Simon has said - it also depends upon what kind of survey you had done. A valuation survey is *not* a survey which looks at the structure in anything like the sort of detail required to *properly* check the structural condition of a property, especially an old one.

To put it bluntly, a valuation survey for a mortgage is really nothing more than a lender covering its backside to say that if you stopped paying the mortgage and the property is repossessed, is the lender likely to get its money back on a quick sale.

With any older property, as a person previously involved in the property market, I cannot stress enough the importance of getting a full structural survey done. Even more so than a housebuyers' survey which is the bastard offspring of a full structral and a valuation, and is neither one thing or another. A full structral costs serious spondooliks, but for an old property, it really is the only way to go.

I'd go a little bit further than that. You may see a structural survey, but that survey may belong to the building society. Get a written answer from the structural engineer to the very simplest of questions 'If you screw up, will you recompense me?' It might be worth getting the valuation survey and commissioning your own structural survey plus (sorry) specialist reports

 

[simon l& and a half]

mind you - don't presume on the competence of your solicitor. Here's a quick quiz question. 42 flats in a block. The contractor didn't make the final payment to Building Control - therefore no certificate. How many of the purchasers' solicitors spotted this? 40? 30? 20? 10? 0? I think you know the answer........

 

[Baggy]

well, there's a surprise . I trust he or she managed to lift the carpets....

Well, they did manage to detect the presence of floorboards She also managed to discover a trace of damp in an unventilated bathroom with a concrete floor.

The survey I had for my old Edwardian flat just had lines and lines of "this is falling off, but that's not unusual in a property this age and you should get a specialist surveyor to look before purchasing. We have now covered our arses". This made me slightly cynical about the value of surveys.

As this place obviously needed a fair bit of work doing anyway we opted for the homebuyers report and decided to get any additional surveys done if anything suspect showed up, which it didn't. Luckily nothing showed up when the builder was doing his stuff either...

 

[Chuffy]

Who'd have thought my crack would generate such interest?
Ta for the advice all.
Chuffy

 

[TheDoctor]

We had a survey done 12 years ago when we remortgaged. The surveyor insisted on a structural engineers report, as there were trees which may be damaging the foundations. This would have seemed reasonable, except that it's a 450 year old timber framed house. It doesn't have foundations!

And it's not yet fallen over...

 

[bonj2]

Who'd have thought my crack would generate such interest?
Ta for the advice all.
Chuffy

Actually Chuffy I've slept on this, and having had another think about it I've decided I'm not happy about it at all. I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I'm afraid that I'm going to have to insist that you knock your house down completely.

 

[Chuffy]

Actually Chuffy I've slept on this, and having had another think about it I've decided I'm not happy about it at all. I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I'm afraid that I'm going to have to insist that you knock your house down completely.

Bring round your giant iron conker then....