RICS Homebuyer Report - advice needed with two or the recommendations

[ste mc ©]

Hi there,

I'm about to buy a house, and I got the RICS Homebuyer Report sent to me today. Thankfully, there are no urgent repairs or major faults with the house, but there are two things that I'm unsure about, which I hope someone can give me some generalised advice/guidance about.

Here are the quotes from the report:

Timber Defects: "Within the limitations of inspection, no sign of any serious timber defects, although there was a rotten piece of timber to the front of the chimney stack within the roof space. This should be stripped out and replaced, and adjoining timbers checked and treated to prevent any risk of rot setting in."

Rising and Penetrating Damp: "Still one or two highish readings to the base of the ground floor walls but these do not appear to be serious and may be due to the fact that the property has been unoccupied for some time. Damp stain in rear bedroom chimney breast has dried out. You are advised to ensure the flashings to the chimney stack above are watertight."

I know that I can't get accurate advice from anyone without them seeing the house, but from the quotes above and the fact it's a 3 bedroom semi-detached house built in the 60's, can anyone tell me if replacing a rotten timber, and ensuring the flashing to the chimney stack are watertight, is a big job? And what sort of price range could I be looking at to have this repaired? Is it a DIY job at all? (I don't even know what the second one is!)

Thanks for any help.

Stephen

[Al Reynolds]

semi-detached

This isn't advice and you should ignore what I say.

Sounds fine to me. I wish my homebuyer survey had been so kind about the house I was buying. I don't know how much it will cost, but an absolute max of a few hundred pounds for both jobs I would have thought.

Surveyors aren't in the habit of playing down issues like rot, so I suspect it will be just the one bit of rot. The flashings seem a likely cause as well (although in my house it was the complete blocking up of fireplaces that caused damp in the chimney breast).

HTH, Al

[PoP]

I recommend you give the surveyor who did the report a call to discuss this. The service doesn't end with the report on your doormat - you are entitled to ask questions which might come up.

As he has seen the property recently he'll be best placed to advise on what options you should consider. Any other advice offered from "blind" sources could be quite dangerous to consider in a financial sense, and clearly you don't want to be sending others in to check this out at a cost.

PoP

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[Christian McArdle]

That sounds better than any report I've ever seen (although that's not many). You do need to check the rotten timber though. In particular, these things can get out of hand if someone has been overzealous in installing insulation and hasn't allowed ventilation of the roof timbers. In the worst case, all the rafters may be rotting.

The damp part of the report is as close as they ever come to saying it is as dry as a bone.

Christian.

[sam ende]

as pop says, ask the surveyor :) but, i do know the flashing is and pointing etc is not expensive and not worth dangling on a ladder for. i've just got a quote from a local builder to fix that and sort out some lose and missing slates for 140 squid. the damged timber could be from that. but what does 'Within the limitations of inspection' mean ? whether it's a standard disclaimer or whether they couldn't assess because of access for instance is something you ought to ask the surveyor.

sammi

[Peter Taylor]

Yep - best talk to the surveyor as PoP says. I just wondered if the rotted chimney trimmer and the stain in the bedroom could both be due to the leaking flashing? As it's a 60's house the lead might have perished, but my guess is it's more likely that the flashing has slipped out of the joint and just needs re-wedging and pointing.

"Within the limits of the inspection" simply means in accordance with the standard limitation clauses somewhere else in the report, which all surveyors have to include on the instructions of their insurers. It goes along the lines "we have not inspected hidden or inaccessible parts and cannot confirm these are free from defects".

Peter

[ste mc ©]

Hi there,

First of all, thanks to Al, PoP, Christian, Sammi, Peter and Richard for your replies. I've never posted on this group before, so wasn't sure if I'd get any help or advice, so thanks again, it's appreciated. Sorry for not replying to everyone individually

The general opinion seems to be that it's nothing major (to that's a relief!), but I should contact the surveyor to get more details from him. I did read these posts in work today, and meant to phone then, but I didn't get the chance - but my boss is off tomorrow, so I'll call then! ;-)

If all goes well with this house, I'd hope to be moving in by easter! :-) I'm a first time buyer, and something tells me that I'm going to be a frequent visitor to this newsgroup for DIY stuff, so apologies in advance! ;-)

Thanks everyone,

Stephen

[ste mc ©]

...oops, who's Richard??!! :-) I've added his name in by accident, because I'm watching another thread on here about loft flooring, and I've got my Outlook Express sorting my newsgroup by 'watched threads.' Never mind! :-)

Stephen