Engineers report /negotiating price/where to go from here....+

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We received our engineers report on a house we have gone sale agreed on. From my laymans point of view there seems to be no glaring problems. Its an old house estimated to have been built in 1840-1900.

General things noted that they recommended :
+Repointing of the majority of the brick work on exterior/interior of the house (it has exposed brick walls inside) with lime mortar.
+repair some guttering broken at the back of the house
+there is no "background" ventilation in the habitable rooms as its so old . They recommend vents in each room & mechanical ventilation in one of the bathrooms (in a more modern extension to the house)
+clean the chimney out
+ventilated drylining to address any rising damp (I assume this means cover over the exposed brick work inside?)
+a small amount of "stitching" to some masonry.
+blocking off a fireplace properly
+evidence of some infestation in a timber truss/purlin members (wha?!) - so a timber specialist should inspect this timber along with floor joists.
+Attic and water tank un-insulated
+radon level reading recommended also.

Does any of this seem worth negotiating the price we agreed with the vendor?

Also - as advised (smartly) by many posters here to mitigate the spending before we actually secure the house. Where should we go from here with this report? My boyfriend and I do not have a clue about any of this stuff - its worlds apart from our industry.

We need costings done - for work we want done in the house, along with, I guess the things recommended by the engineer. This has to go to AIBs valuation panel and then to AIB to see if they will approve the renovation costs. Should we just go ahead and get costings done? then we will know if this is within our budget or not.


I hope the above makes sense. This is a sharp learning curve for us - its a world we know nothing about.

Thanks in advance.

TENHNY

Hello.
Not a professional in any of these areas but here my two cent worth so some of stuff is general maintenance that wouldn't warrant any negotiating

• Repair some guttering broken at the back of the house
• +clean the chimney out
• Attic and water tank un-insulated- these our minor enought

Issue that raise red flag and have most financial impact is

• evidence of some infestation in a timber truss/purlin members- This if present could lead to huge timber damage to the underneath of roof and possible be unsafe and required new roof which depending on size of house be 20k plus

Other works such as
background" ventilation & ventilated dry lining would be usually done if you have planned to upgrade the insulation and will save in he long run
the stitching and blocking of fireplace i don't think are major jobs but best to get a quote by a builder.


Good luck

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TENHNY wrote: »

Hello.
Not a professional in any of these areas but here my two cent worth so some of stuff is general maintenance that wouldn't warrant any negotiating

• Repair some guttering broken at the back of the house
• +clean the chimney out
• Attic and water tank un-insulated- these our minor enought

Issue that raise red flag and have most financial impact is

• evidence of some infestation in a timber truss/purlin members- This if present could lead to huge timber damage to the underneath of roof and possible be unsafe and required new roof which depending on size of house be 20k plus

Other works such as
background" ventilation & ventilated dry lining would be usually done if you have planned to upgrade the insulation and will save in he long run
the stitching and blocking of fireplace i don't think are major jobs but best to get a quote by a builder.


Good luck

Thank you for your reply. I agree with you - the smaller things wouldn't be worth arguing over at all.

The infestation problem concerns me too and the engineer advised that we get a specialist in to take a look.

Thanks for the good wishes....we need all the luck we can get at this point.

Roger Mellie Man on the Telly

Employ a conservation architect for an hour or two. None of the items listed are unusual or overly expensive to remedy individually. The accumulated cost might surprise though, however you do not need to carry out all the works in one go. Brick repointing can be done in a few years time.

Just follow your conservation architect and you'll get it right. Importantly, employ a builder that has understanding of older structures.

Roger Mellie Man on the Telly

TENHNY wrote: »

• evidence of some infestation in a timber truss/purlin members- This if present could lead to huge timber damage to the underneath of roof and possible be unsafe and required new roof which depending on size of house be 20k plus

This is highly unlikely. At worst you may have to splice some joists.

The_Conductor

Honestly- given the age of the property- you're just getting a quick run-through from the engineer. There is absolutely nothing whatsoever out of the ordinary there- all is pretty much as you might expect.

Vis-a-vis the 'infestation' this description from the engineer is not satisfactory. Is it a fungal infestation (dry rot or otherwise) or is a fauna infestation (rodents, bats etc). Simply saying 'infestation' is completely and utterly unhelpful- and a complete cop-out on the part of the engineer.

Given the age of the building- you also need to know whether or not its listed- and any restrictions there may be that might be associated with it (e.g. was chatting to a guy who bought a family home on Haddington Road- and has discovered he needs to spend 50k to completely redo the windows in their existing frames- and thats the best quote he got from Munster Joinery- this is the sort of thing you need to nail down now).

P. Breathnach

I'm of the same mind as The_Conductor. If I were selling you a house that is more than 100 years old, and you raised the engineer's report as an issue, my response would be "Well, what did you expect? That's normal for a house that old - and, besides, some of the issues were plainly visible when you viewed the house."

The one issue that you should pursue actively is the "infestation". I suspect that you will find that it was insect activity (woodworm-beetle) and is most likely not active. But you would be wise to ensure that it is not going to cause you trouble.

Good luck with the purchase, and I hope you have many years of happiness in your new home.

mitresize5

This is not a dig directly at you OP but I'm amazed at the amount of people who come on here saying

"gone sale agreed on a house X years old and the engineers report has show up a few things, can I renegotiate" ... where X is anything greater than 15 years old.

Whether is lack of experience or chancing their arm I always ask myself what do people expect with an older house, that it was built to modern standards. There should be an expectation that if its an older house then yes, you are going to have to put money into it and this should be factored into your offer, the same way you have to put money into redecorating to make this house your home.

If there is something on the engineers report that is a serious issue then people should pull out of the sale, its not a tool to use to re-negotiate.

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mitresize5 wrote: »

This is not a dig directly at you OP but I'm amazed at the amount of people who come on here saying

"gone sale agreed on a house X years old and the engineers report has show up a few things, can I renegotiate" ... where X is anything greater than 15 years old.

Whether is lack of experience or chancing their arm I always ask myself what do people expect with an older house, that it was built to modern standards. There should be an expectation that if its an older house then yes, you are going to have to put money into it and this should be factored into your offer, the same way you have to put money into redecorating to make this house your home.

If there is something on the engineers report that is a serious issue then people should pull out of the sale, its not a tool to use to re-negotiate.

We accept that its an older house but there were some renovations done about 10 years ago where background ventilation was not put in and it should have been put in according to regulations. That's a fair point to argue on for example.

I think its fair to renegotiate on some issues as if we don't buy the house because of it, someone else maybe wont either.

We are not trying to scam the vendor or wriggle out of the agreed amount. We will look at what is fair (if anything) to renegotiate the price - we will speak to our solicitor about these issues.

If the vendor does not want to renegotiate due to issues that we think he should - then we can walk away from it and he can sell on.

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P. Breathnach wrote: »

I'm of the same mind as The_Conductor. If I were selling you a house that is more than 100 years old, and you raised the engineer's report as an issue, my response would be "Well, what did you expect? That's normal for a house that old - and, besides, some of the issues were plainly visible when you viewed the house."

The one issue that you should pursue actively is the "infestation". I suspect that you will find that it was insect activity (woodworm-beetle) and is most likely not active. But you would be wise to ensure that it is not going to cause you trouble.

Good luck with the purchase, and I hope you have many years of happiness in your new home.

Many of those things noted in the report were not visible to us as we don't know a thing about construction. We knew it didn't seem damp, the walls seemed solid, it smelled fresh etc but we didn't know about background ventilation, we didn't know the chimney was blocked or the drain was blocked.

I wish I was in the industry but I am not.