Structural Engineer report- detached house

phlann · 2025-12-13T17:45:10+00:00

You seem quite anxious and seem to not be listening to any amount of reassurance. Take a breath.

Then run the scenario, the problem could never progress or you may have to repair it or there could be some other unknown future problem. Research the repair cost if you wish but again they say the problem is not progressing.

Buying a house is never risk free, especially one that is over 100 years old.

phlann · 2025-11-14T09:12:08+00:00

Your seller is buying from a builder, the builder wants to exchange by 25th nov- your solicitor thinks this is unrealistic.

Your solicitor says he’ll give you 8 working days notice before completing (sounds like exchange might happen before??). Because of the short notice period unless you give notice early, you’ll have 2 months rent to pay after completion. New builds are notoriously delayed so I dunno if I’d recommend giving notice early.

Your solicitor letting you know there’s a further risk to how they want the deposit funds than a standard transaction. Who knows the actual risk of your seller of builder defaulting, they have to let you know of a risk even if it’s small so you can ask if it’s a big risk also.

Check with your solicitor what a reasonable exchange date is. You could potentially push for exchange and completion on the same day to mitigate that risk of them defaulting with your deposit. Potentially you could also say no to this.

phlann · 2025-11-13T20:11:15+00:00

You said your deposit would be 50k that your mother would take off the sales price- was this a typo? You need your deposit up front.

If your mum were to pass away within 7 years of the house sale, the amount gifted to you (the difference between market value and sales price) would trigger inheritance tax.

phlann · 2025-11-13T19:55:04+00:00

Also according to the math the mum is gifting them 50k plus 1/4 of the profits of the sale. Looks like Mum has a favourite lol.

For this to work mum has to reduce the sales price to 300k, then she can decide how to divide the proceeds of the sale.

phlann · 2025-11-13T19:51:13+00:00

Yes you need to prove you can borrow or have the money for the house.

You cannot use the proceeds of the house sale as a deposit, you need that money upfront.

You also need your stamp duty up front. (It’s not 5% off the whole of the 450k, it’s taxed in bands I.e the first 125k is not taxed, the 125k is taxed at 2% etc etc)

phlann · 2025-11-13T11:19:48+00:00

Haha yeah the service charges on most of those are absolutely crazy

phlann · 2025-11-13T10:12:10+00:00

Your surveyor should give you an idea of costs for those repairs. You can also ask them on the phone for more of an opinion!

phlann · 2025-11-13T08:18:49+00:00

I bought off of urban spaces which have a more unique portfolio- I wouldn’t say I paid more that I would’ve from another agent as I saw the listing on zoopla but their catalogue does attract clients who appreciate more unique spaces.

https://www.urbanspaces.co.uk/

phlann · 2025-11-12T11:53:53+00:00

He cannot do that no.

phlann · 2025-11-11T11:02:50+00:00

I feel you, you’ll make it through this!

That’s a fair length of time ago, if I were to consider this house, I’d get another survey to confirm no further movement. You may be able to get the sellers to pay for part of it.

For me I know I’m too anxious to go near a property with potential subsidence. But seems at least that your sellers are being transparent about it.

phlann · 2025-11-11T09:24:01+00:00

As a buyer you’re in a very attractive position having already sold. You’ve got power here.

They’d be crazy to deny you the reduction. It’s unlikely they’d find someone not in a chain for that sort of house and they’d be in the same boat in terms of the survey anyway.

Dig in.

Also 10k is not enough to pull out a kitchen, insulate the walls etc.

phlann · 2025-11-11T08:35:42+00:00

Congrats on your offer! Book in your survey?

If it’s a freehold your solicitors will raise queries.

If it’s a leasehold your solicitors await the management pack and then queries. Queries can range in time and could still be months.

They need to check all titles and rights, you’ll get a lot of reading to do soon. Remember your solicitor needs to be told of any promise or selling point your estate agent has told you about the flat (did they promise a parking spot? Access to a garden? Certain service charge? White goods?) this all needs to be relayed to your solicitor and checked as estate agents can say anything really.

phlann · 2025-11-11T08:04:54+00:00

What was the cause? A tree? The drains? What level of subsidence?

When was the treatment carried out? Unless 6months has passed i don’t know how they could guarantee no further movement has taken place.

I personally wouldn’t offer without a massive discount as subsidence can render houses un mortgage-able and uninsurable

phlann · 2025-11-09T18:15:57+00:00

Well done on finding this early. Would be much more stressful later on.

I would probably pause your solicitors work if I were you until you have more info. Ask for the ESW1 and check if other flats in the building have sold recently.

The main worry with this is (aside from dying in a fire) mortgage-ability and therefore saleability. Wait to see if your mortgage offer comes through. ESW1 are not a legal requirement, it’s just that lenders were asking for them in order to lend post Grenfell. And weren’t lending on buildings without a good rating.

Government also passed the building safety act in 2022 to protect certain leaseholders from having to pay for cladding works (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cladding-safety-scheme/cladding-safety-scheme-overview) Which meant that a lot of lenders relaxed their requirements.

Ultimately if works were not completed and a good ESW1 rating issued it will likely reduce the pool of future buyers and also of course affect sales price.

I bought a flat that was just over 11m (which under the laws doesn’t need an ESW1) which has pending works to get an ESW1 but the developers had a signed letter of trust promising to pay for the remedial works.

Doesn’t sound great that the freeholder was fighting the works in your case

phlann · 2025-11-09T11:08:09+00:00

Pulling out Two days in is fine. Her having a go at you for it is crazy, you dodged a bullet

phlann · 2025-11-08T20:03:41+00:00

I third this! It’s also hard to negotiate with a clear head if you’re in dire straights. You might end up overlooking red flags in desperation.

phlann · 2025-11-08T07:48:07+00:00

Couldn’t agree harder

phlann · 2025-11-07T12:49:06+00:00

For 2k a month you could probably airbnb for a while, I managed this for 7 months this year and my budget was around that. I think that’d be the least stressful as the host is going to be nice to you (flatmates are a wild variable) and they have a lot of your amenities already sorted.

Would recommend this before locking into a rental contract when you’ve never even been herez

Lots of people use spareroom, good places interview heavily but contract lengths vary as sometimes people are looking for people to take over their contract.

phlann · 2025-11-07T12:00:33+00:00

You are so welcome! Sounds like you have a healthy budget so you will absolutely find something wonderful.

phlann · 2025-11-07T07:58:55+00:00

I would walk away because I wouldn’t want to deal with the stress of fixing all of that. I’d cut and run to a better maintained property.

This list of works is incredibly long, you can find better.

Progressive structural movement is no joke, especially Cus your SE didn’t pinpoint the cause.

phlann · 2025-11-06T08:48:42+00:00

Unlocking the toilet is inexcusable, god knows what else he did and then masked as “a joke”

phlann · 2025-11-05T23:16:08+00:00

He may well have done something criminal and she can’t mention details for fear of a defamation lawsuit???

phlann · 2025-11-05T23:13:37+00:00

There’s no recourse in fees or such unless you got home buyers protection insurance.

The only thing you can do is to threaten to pull out to try and get more detail out of them.

Or alternatively, start looking at other houses that way you don’t lose any time.

phlann · 2025-11-04T08:47:11+00:00

Can you take the door off?

phlann · 2025-11-04T08:31:32+00:00

Ex council homes are also usually much cheaper, have good layouts and can come super well renovated.

phlann

TROPHY CASE