Buying a house and concerned about damp and dry rot

[Big Zee]

Hi I am purchasing a flat and concerned about damp in the property.

The flat is a basement flat in a grade II (200 yr old) listed building.

The house was completely derelict up until 2 yrs ago when it was developed into 9 flats. The vendor has decided to sell the all the flats which were initally rented.

The two main areas of concern in the flat are:

1/. Room that was a former wine cellar - I think due to the Grade II listing this was basically left untouched. On both a homebuyers survey and a structural survey damp was noted extensively in this room and a corridor adjacent.

2/. The bedroom is completely underground and must have been tanked - it was originally the old houses coal celler.

The bank will only release the £, if they a full damp survey is done on the flat and another survey on dry rot that was noted in the communal areas.

I am very suspicious of the Vendor (a moderately large developer) - he sent over a supposed "damp survey" done by another company that was litterally 4 lines, and just said no damp was found anywhere in the flat and it was all ok. The supposed dry rot survey by the same company was exactly the same!

Obviously I don't believe this at all and neither does the valuer - and therefore the bank.

The valuer recommended that I get someone in myself to do a damp survey and he recommended "Kenwood".

At this the estate agent said the Vendor would not accept Kenwood "as they were just unrealistic with their reports".

This just rings further alarm bells with me - although they did say they would let Rentokill in.

Can you advise on another high quality Damp company that I could get in, as I am not going to accept someone they recommend as I would expect a similar stitched up report as the last.

Are Rentokill any good and could they be relied on to provide a good report?

What other steps should I be taking to protect myself? Should I be looking to get a damp proof guarentee from this damp company? - If so what sort of guarentee should I be looking to get?

Thanks for any advise you can provide me with.

[Simon Site Manager]

Hi Zee,
Walk away m8......sounds like a can of worms.

S

[ultimatehandyman]

If you could have access to the property and say it was yours you could probably get firms out to give you a free quote to remedy the work, and they would have nothing to gain by not finding something.

When they do find the defects you can either negotiate or walk away, like Simon says.

[Big Zee]

Thanks for the advise.

Yes I am seriously considering walking away from it - although the property is very cheap for its size (guess there is always a reason).

The only way I am not going to walk away is if I can get some guarentee's in place for the damp - the homebuyers report recommended I get long term guarentees in place for any damp, but I'm not sure how these work. Can you get some damp company in and get them to guarentee any work they do, as well as any work done previously that may not need immediate work? - I am thinking of the bedroom which is totally underground and must be tanked or something. On the intital survey it said walls in the bedroom could not be tested for damp because its been dry lined.

Thanks for the help.

[ultimatehandyman]

A damp proof survey probably won't pick up damp in the walls if they are drylined. Perhaps if you tell the damp proof company they can test the wall behind the plasterboard?

Guarantees are often not worth the paper they are written on.

Making a basement into a habitable room that is damp free is not going to be cheap to remedy.

[leebwk]

Hi Big Zee,

If it is a basement flat and it has damp now WALK AWAY you will be letting yourself in for a whole world of hurt, standard homes with damp problems can usually be sorted out for about £1000-£1500 but basement work especially flats tend to have the problems re-occur and it is a totally different ball game to have it sorted ie basically total renovation