Before i get the survey-Edwardian House

[missrosegarden]

Hopefully,will be arranging a survey shortly through our building society on a 1910 property.

Possible concerns

Basic internet checks show the property is in an area with a high risk of subsidence( but then so is our current house and that has no previous history) http://www.homecheck.co.uk

It is a semi,and I seem to remember that on the side wall there appeared to be some sign of re-pointing-I use this term loosely,but at least i can see what,at a cursory glance appeared to be cement,newer than the existing mortar,and roughly running near to the end of the house on the side,about three quarters of the way up.I cant see if its right at the base as there is a 5ft trellis in place.Am thinking maybe a crack?

I notice the bay window has a very ugly stone window seat added in recent years.

Does any of this suggest anything adverse?

I will be having a choice of surveyors from a list so am going to ask if they have experience of this age of property.

Anything else i should do.Am thinking of having a homebuyers survey-they dont have a hipp report i think,as they went on the market before these came in.

I am going to view the property again next week. THere did not appear to be any sign of other cracks inside-in fact the walls seem in very good condition,and apart from the aforementioned window seat and some hideous double glazing,doesnt seem to have been altered too much.What other issues could i look for when i view-i am all ready to ask the vendors questions so fire away.

Any other pertinant questions i could ask them to elicit more info about it and subsidence? THanks-newbie to forum.

 

[Lime]

From your description it would be almost entirely guesswork on my part as to whether the property has subsidence or not.
Old cracks are not that important but new ones are.

I wouldn't take any notice of an internet comment about subsidence.
The reports are far too general, often completely misleading and are meaningless when dealing with a specific property anyway.

You need to get a survey done on the property.

If you need a large mortgage expect the usual list of damp problems from the BS surveyor.
It is almost par for the course.

A few tips:
Look at the property from a distance.
Compare it to other properties nearby.
Is the house upright both back and front?
What are the chimney stacks like? (Use binoculars)
What is the roof like? Is the roof level?
Are all the tiles in place and straight?
Guttering? Any signs of leaks down the wall?
Is the garden lower than the inside of the house?
Is there an odd smell when you enter the house?
Are all the floors level?
Damp anywhere?
Cracks anywhere to be seen?
Electrics and gas, new or old?
Ask if there has been any work done or if the house has any problems.
Make a list of questions before you go and take notes of what you see that worry you.
Use your eyes, look everywhere if you can.

 

[chuckey]

Around where I live there are a lot of houses that suffer fron subsidence. Can't remember exactly but its some thing to do with sporadic blue clay deposits, which suffer from more shrinkage/expansion then yellow clays - too bad if your house is built across a junction of the two.
Neighbours of mine had to spend £15k on their under pinning. Before the under pinning the victorian house would "breath" and shelves would be in line in winter and all wonky in summer. The flank wall of their house has about 30% of the old red rubber bricks with diagonal cracks in them. About a mile away the side and front fell out of a 1970s house while it was being undepinned. It looked very spectacular, mind you the decor was awful.
Because of the nature of these types of deposits their actual scope is very limited, could be 4 houses in one road. The interesting thing was our neighbours house, 100 years old, then started to move about, are the water tables changing, global warming?
Frank

 

[JMartin]

I would have said in a property of this age you should go for a builder's survey rather than a homebuyer's survey. May be different in England but up here a Homebuyer's survey is very basic...one step up from a valuation. You need the best survey you can afford particularly if you suspect problems. Forewarned is forearmed as they say!

 

[missrosegarden]

Ok-thanks for all that.

So,when we get the survey,we should also expect damp should we?

 

[missrosegarden]

Oh and looked at the house again-what i thought was a crack (from the ea photo)was just some bricks had been cemented over here and there.


They did seem to go a little tight lipped when asked about damp-but i could not smell it and could see no "damp marks" on the wall paper.Bit of rough edges on the edge of the roof tiles and a few chips off a bit of the chimney but not severe-am sure survey will highlight this.
Whenever i have bought (much older ) properties before i thought you had to go for a full structural,but the surveyors said a homebuyers report now is not that different.

 

[Nemesis]

Well there is quite a bit of difference in the type of survey, frankly, although maybe a full structural one is not required.

But finding a surveyor with genuine sympathy for, and expertise in period buildings is not always simple.

A house this age though should have been built with a DPC.

Don't let some idiot loose with a damp meter to tell you you need expensive treatments...

 

[JMartin]

Our homebuyers report missed a lot of major problems and managed to rid the surveyor of responsibility for this by including a clause at the end that we should have a full strcutural survey to properly inspect the property.

Of course we only noticed this after the power company had all but condemned our electrics and the builder had told us the house was falling down.

None of these things would have stopped us buying the house ... nothing would have in fact ... but we could have knocked several thousand pounds off the price had we known the full extent of the problems. Ultimately this was our fault for being a bit wet behind the ears.

 

[MdB]

When I phoned around surveyors looking for someone to do a survey most refused to do a homebuyers on our house due to its age. I would go full survery again if I ever bought an old house again as I thought it was worth the extra. (The surveyor missed various structural problems but they were impossible to see without digging up concrete so can't blame him for that.)