Buying a house, surveyor discovers damp..

[oversteer]

Hello all,
buying a ~1890s semi and have had a full survey done.

Our surveyor noticed an overflow that had been dripping for a long period of time. This has eroded the cement render and made a wall damp in quite a large area, which shows on the inside plasterwork.

The surveyor says a specialist needs to check the wall to ensure it will dry out - he says it is possible the render and internal plaster will need to be removed for it to fully dry. He also mentions the risk that floor joists could develop dry rot and need to be checked too.

I am happy to push this back to the vendors; but removing render and drying the wall to dry will presumably take quite a few months ! So, is it the vendors' responsibility to have the damage checked, dry rot ruled out and a report saying how long it will take to repair - and hopefully fix the render before we exchange ? Or is this up to us to arrange more surveys, at our cost?

There's also a couple of other areas of damp that need checking and the walls replastering. These were hidden by furniture upon our own viewings.. should we push for this to be fixed too?

What would others do in this situation? We could make a deduction, but it doesn't seem right to knock £3k off (as per the survey) when it might be a minor job to fix .. or vice versa!

thanks in advance

 

[mointainwalker]

So, is it the vendors' responsibility to have the damage checked, dry rot ruled out and a report saying how long it will take to repair - and hopefully fix the render before we exchange

?

There is no responsibility here. It is a question for negotiation as it is for the other issues of damp you mention.

 

[jeds]

Agree with the above. The usual thing here is to negotiate some money off for you to carry out the repair later. Of course you do run some risk that the repair and making good costs more than you expect. In the end it's your decision and probably depends on how hard you are prepared to negotiate and how keen the vendor is to sell. If he's not that fussed he might just say; that's the price. Take it or leave it.