Trading up - Structural Survey

Hello,

Have recieved the structural survey report on (second hand) house we are to purchase. If there are some issues which have arisen from this report what is the normal procedure from here? Is the report submitted to the vendors estate agent? Is vendor compelled to address any problems/faults? Most of the points are minor but one or two are more serious e.g. ...'some timber work which is fixed directly to the chimney. This is a breach of building regulations as there should be minimum of 40mm between the wood and chimney. The gable ladder of the timber frame does not appear to be strapped correctly in accordance with the building regulations.....'

Thanks....

If you don't like what you see, you can walk away (I presume you are "sale agreed subject to survey")

If I was selling and you asked me to do repairs, I'd tell you to get lost to be honest. I am not aware of any obligation on the vendor- the house probably met the regs that were in place when it was built.

Have you had many surveys done? The first few always look very scary but when you've seen more you realise that there is always something that sounds bad but is (usually) easy to fix.

I would not show the survey to the vendors unless they were going to pay for it.

golden mean said:

If I was selling and you asked me to do repairs, I'd tell you to get lost to be honest. I am not aware of any obligation on the vendor- the house probably met the regs that were in place when it was built.

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Why would you tell me to get lost? At least vendors should be reasonable in terms of give and take. If you were selling a car and it had a large dent or scratch on the side only by adjusting the asking price would you sell it.

golden mean said:

I would not show the survey to the vendors unless they were going to pay for it.

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I've already submitted the report to the vendors estate agent for review.

Mickaxe

We've gone sale agreed on a house in Dublin and the surveyors report confirmed (what was blindly obvious!) that the chimney was cracked and falling away and there was huge risk of cracking the tiles as chunks fell.

We talked to the vendors EA about it and they came back to say that they talked to the vendor and apparently the stuff that the chimney was constructed with is of poor quality etc...

I accept that the vendor doesn't want such work on his hands but does anyone know what happens if the adjoining property say they are happy to leave it the way it is? Anyone any idea of the cost of reconstructing the chimney?

are you willing to pay for this yourself or Will you try to negotiate a reduction in the selling price?

I would prefer to negotiate the selling price. We will pay if it comes to it though. We want the house badly enough!

That's the problem isn't it? Not letting your heart rule your head.

mickaxe said:

Why would you tell me to get lost? At least vendors should be reasonable in terms of give and take.

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I agree that vendors SHOULD be reasonable Mickaxe, but that does not mean they are.

If I was trying to sell a house and someone who had said they were going to buy it came back asking me to do repairs I would worry that there would be no end to it, that the closing date would disappear into the distant future and that whatever I had planned to do with your money would not be possible as a result.

As regards what the house it worth, it is worth what someone will pay for it, and if someone else would pay the full price without doing the repairs, I would sell to them.

Not nice, but that's life. Its a seller's market.

(I hope your vendor is nicer than I am, by the way)