Trusses Being Cut? Any Advice Please?

I recently had a valuation done on a property i should be moving to very soon.

There has been a £5'000 retention put on the property as it is mentioned that trusses have been cut.

The property is a detached bungalow, Part of the loft space has been boarded out and made into a room.

Can anyone give me a little advice with these trusses, Are they easy for a builder/roofer to strengthen or redoo once cut?

Thanks for any help.

Roof trusses are manufactured under factory conditions and designed to use the minimum timber to support the intended loads (e.g roof covering, some storage and some snow).

Because they are produced in a specific way to support the design loads any modification to them needs to be carried out be someone with a good knowledge of how they were designed (e.g engineer or similar)

If they have been cut without substantial designed additional suports being introduced it is quite probable that they are f**ked

it all depends on whats been done and how any extra strengthening has been carried out - you really need someone competent to assess whats been done as anyonne on here is speculating without seeing it

PS What is the £5000 retention figure - is it like an indemnity insurance that you will get to put it right if it fails or collapses?

I understand this know-----lesson is dont cut roof trusses !!!!

£5000 wouldnt cover the cost of re roofing your house if the trusses did fail, so thats confusing.

Thanks for the info,

I will get a roofer/builder in there to have a look when the owners come back off holiday.

The 5,000 figure was from the mortgage lender, They said they would release the full figure when the work has been carried out.

Thanks again

Steve

diggy.1 said:

I will get a roofer/builder in there to have a look when the owners come back off holiday

Click to expand...

I wouldnt think a roofer/builder would be able to assess the structural integrity of modified roof trusses - a structural engineer is preferable

the connection details are very important to its strength and builders/roofers basically just put the pre constructed roof trusses together like lego rather than design or size the rafters

Sounds dodgy to me the amount of work involved in modifying trusses to complete loft conversions is usually not worth it, I have done a couple of truss roof conversions and luckily both have been detached properties and we have stripped and re-cut the roofs, modifying trusses is a complicated job involving usually several steel beams and timber structural stud walls. I would be very surprised if this has been done properly in your case, as the surveyor has picked this up, but check with the owners and local building control because there is the possibility that it may have been done correctly. Your solicitor should have been asking these questions with regards to modifications done to the property.
If you are serious about buying this house then I would speak with a SE and find out what needs to be done and then get a quote for doing the works and adjust your offer accordingly.
Remember that if you don't carry out the works within the period specified by the mortgage company not only will they retain the £5000 but they may also withdraw your mortgage offer and demand a full repayment, also when you come to sell in the future you will quite likely run into similar problems yourself.
Get them to reduce the price or walk away, would be my advice, there are times to negotiate and times to walk away.

A couple of years ago I spent nearly £3000 on the preliminaries to a house purchase, including paying the owners mortgage for 2 months, my solicitor found an irregularity over the ownership of a piece of land that we would have to cross to access our property, apparently this had been messed up by the land registry 2 sales ago. After investigation my solictitor advised me to walk away as it could take years to resolve and that the neigbours would be legaly allowed to fence off the piece of land and deny us access across it if they so desired.
Anyway we walked away and two years later the matter still hasn't been resolved the property remains un-sold and there is a notice on the land registry which states that the property is subject to a land registry investigation, so no-one will go anywhere near it.

Thanks chappers for the advice

The bungalow is a detatched property, I have been told that the problem is over building regs, Because they havnt been down the proper channel the conversion has to be checked again.

Hopefully this should be sorted over the next week, Cheers for the advice, i think i will put it in the hands of the solicitor now as being nice hasnt got me anywhere.

I wil let you know how i get on.

Thanks again all for the info.

Im at the last hurdle now, A Structual Engineer and a builder have both put pen to paper stating that the partial conversion is above board, eg solid and done properly, I just cant understand why the people didnt get permission in the 1st place.

Just need to get a quote from an arboculturalist and a tree pruner/remover which is tomorrow.

So hopefully should be moved in some time early next month.

Thanks again for all the advice

I know where to ask in future

are you having building regs approval for the loft conversion - i ask as the structural aspect of the loft isnt the only consideration (or are you just trying to satisfy the mortgage people - are thay happy with just the structure being ok?)