Old Gatehouse - Build Log

Martynt74

Martynt74

Martynt74

Soldato
Joined
20 Feb 2004
Posts
23,235
Location
Hondon de las Nieves, Spain
***Update***

We're in and work is ongoing-pics towards the end of the thread.






Original message



Am sticking this in it's own thread rather than the "Nervous Wait to Exchange" thread.

We're buying a property that was built in 1874. There's a little bit of lime coming through one of the walls which we're aware of.

I keep being told (by family/friends) that we should have the expensive home buyers survey done as there's potential hidden issues. My opinion to most surveys is that they're just covering their backs and everything will just be marked as "get specialist advice" which isn't going to help us.

However i've found this company called Heritage House, which seems to specialise in older properties and are potentially decent value.

https://www.heritage-house.org/

I've had a quote of £1200+vat for a survey, it's considerably more expensive than a regular survey but i'm hoping it would be much better value for money. I've been advised this takes about a whole day to do the survey and then 1-2 days to write up a 50 page report.

I'm erring towards giving them a go but wondered what peoples thoughts were on this.
 
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I suppose it's underlying things we might not be aware of. The father of one of the sellers is an architect so i assume that any issues he'd have mentioned to them, and the woman selling was very honest when i asked her a few things, even mentioning additional negative aspects that i hadn't asked about.

The floors upstairs are very uneven but i'm not overly concerned about them being a problem. The house generally looks in very good condition. I'm just a little worried about anything underlying.

For reference this is the property
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-52537722.html


One thing i did notice was that when i was in the loft i could see some rays of light on the side of the loft which wasn't boarded so i couldn't get over to it to inspect. It's probably around this area. I'm also trying to work out why there's a drain pipe going into the loft (the upstairs window there is the bathroom)

ZrD7vKn.png
 
@Skillmister - Want some online conveyancing work. Sure you'll offer ocuk discounts won't you :p

Jimmeh - Yeah the plan is to get some kind of full building survey. Just wanted confirmation really about whether going with a firm who specialise in old building techniques would be worth paying the extra for.
 
@Skillmister

Whilst we have you in here. When i've got my conveyancing quotes it mentions work for leasehold properties. I understand that this involves speaking to the leaseholder and getting permission to transfer the deeds etc. With ours we have indemnity insurance in place as our leaseholder is absent and we pay no ground rent.

What are the solicitors likely to be doing in this instance to warrant the fee?
 
Great advice so far guys thank you.

Spoke to an independent surveyor yesterday. He was talking about having taught Historical Building Conservation at a local university and one of his team have just done a 2 week course in lime based mortar so it sounds like he would be competent for the job. Bonus part was his quote was£600 less than Heritage House!

Had a call from the Sellers last night, the house they wanted was sold the day before they were able to offer. They had initially said they'd remove the house from the market if they couldn't get that house (prior to accepting our offer) but would keep looking to see if they found somewhere else.
 
Ok, we've had the survey. It doesn't make for fantastic reading. Our areas of concern are the roof really.

I've uploaded a few exerts and put them in a word doc which i've upload. If any of you guys could have a read through and see if you have any thoughts. I have spoken to te surveyor who suggested it wouldn't be a deal breaker for him and that we just need to be aware of problems.

I'm trying to get some quotes for the work so we have an idea but i'm worried about all the damp proofing scams out there and wondered if anyone had any advice on that front.

Hopefully the below document works for you all.

http://docdro.id/fyIoQJs
 
Thanks for that. Think it’s what we were afraid of. We budgeted for some of the work that we could see from the outside (brick and pointing) but the roof issues are potentially taking it well over what we’d be able to afford.

I’ve contacted one roofer and also a damp proof company so will have to see what they come back with.
 
@platypus

Thought i'd post in here to avoid disrupting the other thread!

Cheers, things are going well so far. We've had a roofer out yesterday to take a look and his opinion was greatly different to the Surveyor. We've used him a few times and referred other work his way all with good results so i trust him.

Have found one or two other builders who specialise in Lime and older properties so one of those is coming out next week to meet me there.

We've decided to press ahead with the purchase, it might be stupid but we don't want to lose it as in the last 12 weeks since first viewing absolutely nothing has come up which has tempted us. Having re-read the survey i'm less and less concerned about things. We've got a contingency budget of around £15k for any immediate works and i think that should stand us in decent position. We have around the same again but that's intended for the kitchen/flooring.

However...Plot twist

The original building is split into 2 properties and there is a small section of land adjacent. Our plot would be the blue one and then this bit of land is in red. The people who own our house were interested in buying it a few years ago but the guy in the other home ended up getting it.

He's now thinking of selling and i'm debating having a chat with him about that plot. It has a decent looking garage on it and i was planning on building a workshop/homegym in our garden anyway. It could be in his interest to sell to me as it might not add as much value to his house sale as it would by selling separately.

I could already be spending our contingency money before we even move in!

fNr6EXP.png
 
Have sent a message to my sellers asking for contact details so we'll see what happens.

@Skillmister You might be the best placed to answer this but is there anywhere i can see the previous purchases price of land? I know Zoopla/Land Registry holds things for property but i'm struggling to find anything for land without having to pay the £3 charge for title documents.
 
Cheers, think thats what i tried the first time around but it only looks to show details for property and not land.

If i look on this link and put the postcode in i get what looks like multiple entries for "land adjoining". I'm not sure why there are 2 entries for the land adjoining "1 Gatehouse" as i'm sure it's only one piece of land.

I know i could pay £9 for all 3 searches but seems a bit of a waste at this point.

https://eservices.landregistry.gov....L3NwZl9zdHJ1dHNBY3Rpb24vITJmUURTZWFyY2guZG8!/

Bboqd19.png


EDIT - Also at some point i should probably remove the above links to my future address but will leave it in for the purpose of conversation - You can all come round and help repair the house! :D
 
Ah that’s good to know. Thanks for that. I really appreciate it. That last one is showing on our deeds as having been separated so might ask the solicitor what the deal is.

Last thing I need is to be spending a fortune on a tiny slither of lane!
 
I'm not 100% to be honest. Title deeds read like nonsense to me!

EDIT - Actually, yes it does look like the land adjoining no2 is included. No idea why it's been split off. Maybe something to do with the extension and extending the boundary.
 
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Crap!

Yeah no contract yet. Although have had a nice letter from the Solicitors saying First Direct are talking about a 3k early redemption charge. There isn't meant to be one as we're just adding to the existing rather than paying it off so that'll be fun to sort out.
 
Cheers Domo, we can't wait to be in :)

Mortgage stuff all fixed, seems they always include it on the original letter and then it gets removed in the final document.
 
Well now i'm in i figured i'd keep this thread updated with updates to the work we do. Sadly it won't be anywhere near as impressive as some of the others on here at the moment!

Today the carpets are being fitted. Will make a huge difference to the feel in the bedrooms. Can also start getting furniture out of the shed for the kids bedrooms and start sorting that out into a workshop.
 
Will update with the pics i've posted elsewhere at some point :)

Have also just hit the button on our kitchen worktops. Very nervous about that as ideally could do with the money elsewhere but i never saw any i liked anywhere near as much!

There are 5 Velux windows in the house and i'm now also looking at remote controlled solar powered blinds :)
 
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Sad face. Solar powered blinds are £170 per blind :(

Plus there's a fancy controller module (extra £150) that i want. Have ordered one to see how they are. Solar powered would be a hell of a lot better than having to use a pole though is it £400 better?
 
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