structural damage on hmo

[Martin Scroatman]

OK but you don't say how to go about these issues

Get the advice of a structural engineer.

[Support Monkey]

Hi, i have a question to and i know there are many landlords here.
So I've just viewed this property - 5 bed terraced for nice entry-level price. Now there were few cracks on the on 2 walls (not very big, in the corner under ceiling). Also in one room the floor seems to be lower than the panels as if it dropped slighly, so i highly suspect structural damage. Other than that this property is nice and have 5 decent size rentable rooms
Is it automatic walk away or should I survey it and see?

thanks for tips.

I purchased a house with obvious structural damage on the outside and every room had cracks in the walls and ceilings and a tree trunk within a foot of the back wall, everyone who looked at it walked away, I negotiated with the venders to have a test hole dug where the external cracks were and employed a structural engineer to give me a report on just this damage\area (I was not paying them to tell me it needed rewiring\plumbing), engineer costs were around £80 an hour

His advise was that it would need the gable end under-pinning at a cost of 10 grand however he also advised on this that the property was still mortgable as it was minor ??, the mortgage company took his word for it and gave us a mortgage.

so with this in hand we used all the damage the underpinning and the tree trunk to negotiate the price down to what was aceptable to us to cover the costs, clearly with all the issues the vendor let it go.

2 years later after a full renovation inside and out we found no subsidence and never did any underpinning, the cracks were poor workmanship from when the property was built and the tree trunk was a tree stump someone had buried in the ground as a feature, total saving was around 50 grand on a good house in the same street, obviously the gamble paid off

your best bet is to get a structural survey done on the damaged area and go from there, if others have also avoided the house because of the damage the vendor may be aware of this issue already, your going to have to cover the cost of the engineer but this will then put you in a good negotiating position.

[MrMarkyMark]

total saving was around 50 grand on a good house in the same street,

Well done

[diseasex]

I purchased a house with obvious structural damage on the outside and every room had cracks in the walls and ceilings and a tree trunk within a foot of the back wall, everyone who looked at it walked away, I negotiated with the venders to have a test hole dug where the external cracks were and employed a structural engineer to give me a report on just this damage\area (I was not paying them to tell me it needed rewiring\plumbing), engineer costs were around £80 an hour

His advise was that it would need the gable end under-pinning at a cost of 10 grand however he also advised on this that the property was still mortgable as it was minor ??, the mortgage company took his word for it and gave us a mortgage.

so with this in hand we used all the damage the underpinning and the tree trunk to negotiate the price down to what was aceptable to us to cover the costs, clearly with all the issues the vendor let it go.

2 years later after a full renovation inside and out we found no subsidence and never did any underpinning, the cracks were poor workmanship from when the property was built and the tree trunk was a tree stump someone had buried in the ground as a feature, total saving was around 50 grand on a good house in the same street, obviously the gamble paid off

your best bet is to get a structural survey done on the damaged area and go from there, if others have also avoided the house because of the damage the vendor may be aware of this issue already, your going to have to cover the cost of the engineer but this will then put you in a good negotiating position.

yeah, if that was the case and i could negotiate the price down . But there's other guy bidding on it and i would have to fight with him.
Because of that i will pass

[northernladuk]

If tenants spot it and know their rights they will get the council in. There is some legislation which i forget which allows them to get the council involved. If it is deemed unsafe or inhabitable you will have to put them up elsewhere at your cost until the work is complete. As many other places won't allow short lets it's likely to be a hotel or something which will obviously be very expensive. I'd be walking.

[MrMarkyMark]

If tenants spot it and know their rights they will get the council in. There is some legislation which is forget which allows them to get the council involved. If it is deemed unsafe or inhabitable you will have to put them up elsewhere at your cost until the work is complete. As many other places won't allow short lets it's likely to be a hotel or something which will obviously be very expensive. I'd be walking.

Get some illegals in, then, the problem goes away

AYCOTBAC?

[diseasex]

somebody now overbid the other guy by 5k, agent has told me, and is a cashbuyer. Hmmm

[MicrosoftBob]

somebody now overbid the other guy by 5k, agent has told me, and is a cashbuyer. Hmmm

If they exist obviously I wouldn't bother, but why should you trust an agent to tell you the truth ?

[diseasex]

If they exist obviously I wouldn't bother, but why should you trust an agent to tell you the truth ?

because we were flirting and she likes me