Buying a Cottage and Need Advice re Subsidence Issue

Orchid

I am not sure what the etiquette is when buying a house so decided to look for advice here.

We are buying an old cottage and the surveyor has just come back advising that while the original cottage is ok structurally, an extension at the back consisting of two bedrooms has not been done to a good standard at all and has subsidence, he wasn't happy at all with it. Also the garage on the side is also subsiding. Our original offer to the seller was subject to an engineer's report. Now it looks like it will cost us much more to rectify the issues than we expected when making the offer under the assumption it was structurally fine. I was wondering what is done in cases like this- can we go back to the seller and give a new offer based on the findings (is this done usually???), do we ask the seller to rectify the issue before we exchange contracts or do we simply pull out? At a loss and really need advice. Needless to say this is the fist house I am buying.

Any advice will be appreciated.

Alias G

Orchid wrote: »

I am not sure what the etiquette is when buying a house so decided to look for advice here.

We are buying an old cottage and the surveyor has just come back advising that while the original cottage is ok structurally, an extension at the back consisting of two bedrooms has not been done to a good standard at all and has subsidence, he wasn't happy at all with it. Also the garage on the side is also subsiding. Our original offer to the seller was subject to an engineer's report. Now it looks like it will cost us much more to rectify the issues than we expected when making the offer under the assumption it was structurally fine. I was wondering what is done in cases like this- can we go back to the seller and give a new offer based on the findings (is this done usually???), do we ask the seller to rectify the issue before we exchange contracts or do we simply pull out? At a loss and really need advice. Needless to say this is the fist house I am buying.

Any advice will be appreciated.

I would pull out based on a structural report like that. The extension and garage could potentially be as good as worthless. Or at the very least base your offer on the value of the original cottage only. Thats not to say that the subsidence issue would progress any further, but you simply don't know.

caew

When an offer is given subject to survey I would now ammend my offer given the results of the survey.
It depends now on if you want to do the work on the house, how much it will cost and neogiatating a new price with the seller.
When I lived in England it turned out our estate was built on an old mine, our next door neighbour needed to have their house under pinned, we were lucky that we didn't have to have any work done, however we could not get buildings insurance on the house as there was a subsidence risk.

D3PO

absolutely amend your offer based on the survey. You may need to underpin the extension and garage or worse.

Get full detail of whats required, get a full costing and then add 10% on top whatever that is reduce your offer by. If they don't accept it don't negotiate walk away.

Orchid

Thanks you so much guys. After a sleepless night we are nowhere near deciding how to go ahead, your advice is very appreciated.

We had our hearts set on this cottage. Now my mind says "Run" but my heart is trying to find reasons and ways we can still buy it and not get out of pocket. Will get a builder in to see how much it will cost I guess and make a decision then. Many thanks again and any additional input is welcome of course.

exaisle

Even if you have a forty foot bargepole handy, don't use it...

ted1

Run away and don't look back.

K.Flyer

If you were buying a car and a mechanic advised that there were some serious issues with the car you would walk away.
You could walk away and be thankful you had the foresight to get the survey done. There are plenty of sound properties out there.
Or, alternatively, you could offer them less than site value and knock it all down and rebuild.

Valentine1

You don't say if you are a cash buyer or planning on taking out a mortgage on the property. If you do require a mortgage a bank will most likely only lend on the property valued as if the extensions did not exist. If they will lend on the property at all.

Presuming that funding is available your options are limited. Either walk away or proceed on the basis that the extensions will have to be knocked or rebuilt extensively and make a revised offer on that basis.