Be Excellent To Each Other

Dudley has all these things AND a castle! Come to Dudley! It's great.

Then I'd have to talk to like Lenny Henry does, whenever he tells people he's from Dudley!

That's exactly what I was saying, whilst sobbing endlessly in the shower that I use to wash off the stench of weakness because one whiff of weakness in London is fatal.

Probably my most compelling factor, tbh.

Lies.

Oh, I wasn't replying to Rich at all, just giving my thoughts from living both in and out of London. Maybe it's different for me though as I was never rich.

It's easy: Just be loud and science people to within an inch of their lives.

Science people an inch, and they'll take 1.609 × 10^13 angstroms.

Somebody make him stop

rich with a small 'T', as in affluent. Not a capital 'R', as in annoying.

Rich tea biscuits?

riTch

Titch

Titchy Rich, London's Bitch
Ner ner, ner ner ner!

Siren, Yeah! Woohoo!


Oh

CLEEQ

Supakleek

NEW MEMBER

Close the gate!

Nah, just a really kleely in-joke

Kleely.

AMAZING SCENES

You disgust me.

Get a KLEEK members thread.

So since this we've:
* submitted documents to the solicitor
* submitted more documents to the solicitor
* had the survey done
* been to the zoo

The survey was done yesterday and we've only had a verbal report so far, but he says there's a big damp problem along the gable end wall (which is massive and would affect two bedrooms, the kitchen and lounge. He reckons there's around £10,000 worth of work needs doing to fix rising and penetrating damp so as to avoid problems in the next couple of years.

He also says that there's apparently a warranty in place for work where a damp course was fitted in 1999. So, we've sent an email to the seller's estate agent asking them to provide details of the warranty so that we know if the work can be done under warranty, or, of the company is now defunct, so that we can get quotes for the work to be done. Looking around online however nobody will give you estimates without doing their own survey first.

I'm going to follow up the email to the estate agent with a call this morning, but what is everyone's advice here for sensible next steps?

If it's like that, I'd walk away. Moving in in and getting it fixed would be a big headache and uncertain. There'll be another, little point in rushing. Write off the money money spent as worth it for the warning. Unless you can arrange 20k off the price or something.

I agree with Mali. Unless you can get the price down massively, I'd walk away. This is why the surveys exist after all.

Yup. Unless you get double the money off it'll cost to repair (because it's hassle, and it's always more expensive) then walk away.

The house is massively underpriced for the size, location and general quality of the property. Even the surveyor said that even with the cost and scope of the work it's a fantastic property at a very, very good price.

For the same price we could get somewhere else, but it would have about half the available space (very small garden, one reception room, two bedrooms)

This has 3-4 bedrooms (depending on whether you consider the lively loft conversion a bedroom... Not what we'd use it for, but nonetheless) massive garden, two large reception rooms and basement.

That's another warning sign - houses aren't priced cheaply by accident.

We got 10% off the asking price which was a good deal as an acrimonious divorcing couple need a quick sale.

But anyway, I'm chucking in the idea of ever finding a decent place to live.

The reason I want out of here is because our landlady is quite happy for my little boy to live in a room where the damp is so bad that mould re-grows in under a week, which means he will have to sleep in the living room in winter.

But yes, it's a blow. At least it was something I thought we might have some control over if we could deal with it. At least I thought the surveyor was genuine in his advice that it's a relatively big job but worth doing for the value of property at the price we can have it. He seemed to suggest it was very much the worthwhile investment to pay for the damp coursing and pointing to be done. It was something the current owners were aware of and were in the process of sorting (they've done a massive amount of work on the place already, converting the loft and putting a new bathroom in, etc, but they've only been in a year before obviously hitting relationship trouble and the husband wants the wife out so she's going with the kids to live with mum. But advice here conflicts with that of the surveyor, so I guess we'll think some more.

Thank you all for your honesty.

I wouldn't write if off Mimi, we got a survey done on our house and were minded to walk away given the list of remedial actions required, but like yours it was priced pretty damn cheaply for its size and we took a view as to what would need to be done immediately versus what could wait a bit. (Some dodgy electrics needed addressing immediately for example at a cost of over £1000 IIRC, but the roof which was in a poor state was nonetheless intact and we left it until we could afford to get it done.)

We got our house for £184K versus around £215K-£225K for a similar property in supposedly 'perfect' condition. At the time £175-£185K was buying a modern-build shoebox sized house similar to what we'd been renting and found far too small to be comfortable in (and very cheaply built IMO too, I much prefer Victorian build houses as they're solid, even though they come with issues).

We also had damp flagged up and even had to give a written commitment to the bank we'd get it done after we moved in, but a couple of friends gave us advice that because of the sort of house it was (a big three-storey mid-terrace Victorian town house that had been empty for a while), the damp might just recede once it had people living in it again (movement of air, heating on, windows and doors opening and closing etc) - it sounded somewhat fanciful to me and we were fully expecting to have to get the damp sorted, but amazingly after we moved in it really did disappear over the course of a few weeks and months. (We've been in there nearly ten years now, still haven't had it done, and there's no problem with damp.)

Now I'm not saying the damp in the house you're looking at will magically disappear, but if you go in with your eyes open and are realistic about what it'll cost to put right, when you'll need to get it done, and whether or not the house is OK to live in during the interim, then it doesn't have to be a deal-breaker - and of course it needs to be reflected in the price you pay, which it sounds like is the case.

Also it sounds like your rental situation is a bit of a nightmare, so there's the mental and emotional improvement that'll come with being in a place of your own that you have control over, even if it's imperfect and needs stuff doing to it - part of that is how you feel about the house and if you want to be in there, and if your heart is in it and it works for your family and improves your collective state of mind, then that can be a massive plus point all in itself.

Have a think about it, chat with your nearest and dearest, and see if it's something you want and are willing to plan around going forward.

Perhaps because they're aware of the damp and lowered the price to take it into account?


I'm the kind of person that would fall in love with a house and then move in and fix whatever needs fixing whatever the cost (because I want to find a home, not an investment to make a profit out of), so I'm the wrong person to give you advice Mimi, but to you - hope you manage to pick yourself up soon.

I wouldn't write off a house that needs work, as it will be cheap because of that. As long as you have the funds and the want to fix it up, then if you go in with your eyes open it could be good.
However, the difficulty comes with finding the cash, getting £20k off the price of the house, doesn't put that £20k into your pocket to use to fix it up. You'll only get the mortgage to the value of the house minus your deposit, and buying it for £20k cheaper will reduce the value of the house, so you'll get a smaller mortgage on it.

If you have the money in the bank to fix it, and you like the house, and it's a good deal, and you have had the full survey done and know all the issues, then go for it.

I'd say it's time to go back to the vendors with the report and say that it's highlighted a very large expense that you hadn't taken into account when deciding on your offer.

If they are prepared to accept less, then it might be worth proceeding, especially if you'd be able to stay in your current flat for a few weeks before moving in while work is done.

The vendor is going to have to deal with this whether it's you that buys it or someone else.

Thanks all for the perspectives and advice.

It's obviously something we'll have to think on with some foresight to what may be involved. We can't move out of this craphoke until December, anyway (or at least will be paying until then), so if we did decide to have it done then we could hopefully gave it done in that time.

The walls on the gable end are mostly papered, having been decorated over a year ago, so have seen it through one very wet winter anyway, and I could see no damp myself, so it isn't overt (easy to hide in a painted wall, not so easy when papered) whereas our current problem looks like this (these were taken in May... It's pretty depressing. We use mound and Mildew treatments, leave windows open to dry, heating and run a dehumidifier... Landlord put up rent extortionately and we asked her to look into a fix, she told us to buy more dehumidifiers... She's refused to do anything since.

I just can't bear the thought of having Darwin here another year. It breaks my heart. I'll have to do something, I just don't know what yet.

Today would be better if I had a Guinness and some pokeballs.

And if I wasn't massively ill.

I think these are the most relevant points.

It very much depends on what you want - we bought a house that we knew was too small for us all and needed lots of work because the cost of turning it into our dream home was nothing compared to the cost of buying what we've ended up with. There were 6 of us in a 3 bedroom bungalow, with one reception room and one bathroom. It was a nightmare at times, and it had damp and the windows were awful - one of the sashes fell out! I had no kitchen for weeks, right before Christmas and there is dust everywhere, constantly. But... It is so worth it now. I wouldn't do it again but it has been worth the hassle and expense.

You very much do need to be objective and I wish you guys all the best of luck.

We do have the money in the bank to fix it, almost double what they've given as the cost of the work. I think we'll have to have a think about whether to make a reduced offer in light of the issues.

Yep. Under no circumstances should you proceed without a discount.

Hullo, just to update this. We did end up cancelling the sale in the end. We wanted just to see what the sellers would move on with the negotiation, but I don't think we'd ever have got anywhere.

The place was lovely (well, to my mind... obviously that's very subjective) but damp is just something that you can't leave to fix another day. Anyway, the surveyor ball-parked damp-coursing the gable-end, re-pointing and plastering at about £10,000, and ideally it'd then need rendering and painting to provide better damp=proofing to keep the value of the house, so that would have been a longer-term project but more expense.

For the curious, the house is here, for pictures: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for ... 60930.html

So, we communicated this to the estate agents, who went to the sellers. Now, the sellers told both the estate agent and the surveyor that they were aware of the problem (though hadn't mentioned it until now.

Then when we asked for the cost of the work to be covered, they came back basically saying no way, there was no damp and they didn't believe that there was a problem with damp, and that they wouldn't accept the survey and we should say for a specialist damp surveyor. Really, that's their job, we aren't going to pay for their damp survey. Right?

Anyway, then they said that the price of the house was accepted because they knew about the work needed for the damp (even though they don't think any work needs doing for the damp.

They then agreed to drop the price by, I think, £1,2000.

After we stopped laughing we phoned the estate agent to cancel the sale, but the lady we've spoken to the entire time has just gone on maternity leave and this new woman (Cathy) basically wouldn't let us walk away, said 'no, wait until they look into an estimate, yadda yadda.

I kept saying no, we were out, but she actually kept on just interrupting me and talking all over me, which was horrid. She then said that they had miscommunicated to the vendors what we were saying (perhaps because she wouldn't listen?) and that we would wait until she was back in on Friday and she will talk to them then.

ANYWAY (phew) today we cancelled with the solicitors, and phoned and spoke to someone senior at the estate agents, who was actually excellent. He did say that the vendors said that they had contacted him to say instead of taking the £1,200 off they would paint the inside with some waterproof paint... err... nope. Really don't just want to trap the water between the bricks and a layer of paint, you weirdoes... We explained our reasons, he said that it sounded as if the vendors were not being upfront or transparent, and was actually very supportive and said he thought it was the right decision for us in our circumstances, especially when we said that damp was our major concern because we were worried about the baby's health.

So, I'm sad, because I liked the attic, and the garden especially, and the parquet floors, but oh well. Will keep looking. I just wish I had a little vegetable patch to grow carrots and tomatoes with Darwin And a washing line.

I can see why you liked it. It's been very well decorated.
Sadly if they weren't going to be sensible you've done the right thing.

I didn't like much of the decoration, as it happens. I liked the fireplaces and original floors, etc, but not the walls (but they would have been easily changed). I did like the rooms, though, and the garden.

I liked the dining room colour, though

It's a nice looking garden but I think you've done the right thing. There's no way Russ would have coped with the low ceilings in that loft.

THE CEILING WAS MASSIVELY HIGH.

Oh man. It was nice. Never mind, I hate it now.

Stupid house.

You will find the perfect place with no damp! This has been a lucky escape.

And you now know that gable end walls could be bad.

Damn walls.

Pretty difficult to find houses with no gable end unless you want a mid terrace, though.

We're going to make a few more viewing appointments, but I can't find anything else I like. I can't help but get s little hung up on a garden. It's become a bit of a pressing point for me. I think I need an outside since where I feel completely safe and at ease with the BEEX Baby, for those times when I don't want to brave the town centre or busy park.

It's easy when you start looking at houses to find one you like and become convinced that it's definitely the one and that you'll never find anything as good or better especially after it falls through. But keep looking and you definitely will.

Thank you.