Damage to property: where do we stand?
- Thread starter Natwee
- Start date
If you're going to need a new roof, it might be worth asking a suitable expert if it's possible to have a sloped roof instead. I don't know if it is, but a flat roof is an inherently bad idea in a rainy climate and you're better off with a sloped one if you do have a choice.
I suppose it's possible that the flat roof wasn't damaged by the rain. Maybe someone had gone up to check it before the sale and put their foot through it by mistake. Not that it really matters what the cause is - a hole in the roof is a hole in the roof.
While I agree that a roofer is better suited to assessing a roof than a surveyor is, I think you might be well advised to check how thorough a survey you have had done. The flat roof seems to have been rather dodgy. Maybe other things are too. A basic survey can be too basic. Given the overall cost of buying and owning a house, I think a very detailed survey is worth paying for. I paid extra to have a surveyor do everything that could be done without damaging the house (e.g. smashing the plaster off to examine the walls underneath it). I ended up with a thick report of trivialities...and peace of mind that there wasn't anything other than trivialities.
![( |-| |2 ][ $](/styles/overclockers/avatars/4.png){kind=avatar}
Associate
- Joined
- 18 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 1,748
- Location
- Chesterfield
An over garage extension with a flat roof, that must be the ugliest thing in the world.
I don't understand why people are so desperate for extensions but will completely ruin the look of their house and street just to save a few £k.
I don't understand why people are so desperate for extensions but will completely ruin the look of their house and street just to save a few £k.
You can convert a flat roof to a pitched roof, I have done many of these in my time as a roofer.
( |-| |2 ][ $;24983847 said:
Maybe planning wouldn't allow a pitched roof? who knows.
A flat roof isnt as pretty, but tbh, if it hadn have had damage to it it wouldnt have been a priority... Im not going to be sat in a chair in the road staring at the roof so who cares
Permabanned
- Joined
- 20 Nov 2011
- Posts
- 3,814
- Location
- Cambridge/Chicago
This is what Im hoping, but I'm just sad its all going a bit pear shaped. I only asked if we could drive past because I was so excited
awh, poor you
Poo happens... Be glad its now and not later.
Caporegime
- Joined
- 20 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 77,696
- Location
- Wish i was in a Ramen Shop Counter
It's call negotiation.
They accepted an offer, doesn't matter what the starting price was.
Then property is not in the same state as when the offer was accepted.
Yes, I would expect either the property to be repaired to the state it was or deduct the amount (with builder's quotes - say 3 of them to get an average) from the original agreed price.
What if the property was marketed at a higher price in the first place, knowing that buyers will negotiate a lower price? The estate agent has no final say when it comes to the selling price. They can influence or persuade you to try and sell at a certain price, but at the end of the day if you want to try and sell it £30k above market value then that's what they will try and sell it at.
The estate agent won't 'just resell it and probably for more'. If the agent/seller reckon it's worth more than what Natwee offered, then I'm sure they would wait for higher offers from other buyers instead of accepting an offer £30k below the marketed price.
I think it's rare (or probably doesn't happen at all) that properties are put back on the market for a higher price. I've only ever seen properties decrease in price.
What sort of cost would I looking at for a single-storey extension that's only about 8 feet by 8 feet? Just a ballpark figure, assuming that there aren't any unusual issues. If that's possible. The extension was built with one wall being part of a dividing wall between my house and my neighbour's house on that side and that wall is higher than the extension, so it looks like there's space for a pitched roof without any effect on my neighbour, so I should be allowed to have it done.
I've not had any problems with the flat roof and it seems completely fine still, but I'd rather have a roof that the rain will run off. It seems like such an obvious thing in a rainy climate.
( |-| |2 ][ $;24983847 said:
I don't look at my roof very often, so why would I care what it looks like?
If my neighbours care, then they should pay for it. It's their issue, not mine. Why should I occur significant extra cost because of their ideas of aesthetics?
In any case, I expect that a common reason would be cost. Firstly, a few thousand pounds is a significant amount to many people. Secondly, it's not unusual for a business to alter a house (by adding an extension or in some other way) solely in order to sell it for a profit.
Ugliest thing in the world? Silly exaggeration. You can't possibly have lived a life so utterly seperate from the rest of the world that you can't even imagine something uglier than a building with a flat-roofed extension over the garage.
Never buy a property you are unsure about. Either get it checked out sufficiently so that you are comfortable with the purchase or walk away....
You well within your rights to have any concerns addressed right up until the contracts are signed.
You well within your rights to have any concerns addressed right up until the contracts are signed.
Last edited:
In fact as you live in a community and are bound by planning applications and the law, what your building work looks like is indeed a concern, your neighbours have a right to object to any planning application that will potentially devalue their homes or affect the aesthetics of the area in which they live, just as you do...the planning application will consider this and the planning officer will judge accordingly.
So it isn't true that it is only their issue, it is also yours. Legislation makes it so.
