[Amy]

Hi,
I'm a first time buyer and just had a survey done on a house. It's come back as showing that the gable end wall shows sign of damp which is penetrating onto the hall wall and kitchen wall. (The basement has been converted into a kitchen recently).

It also says that the roof mortar applied to the underside of the covering between the battens is in poor condition/missing.

What would you recommend as next steps? Do I ask if a damp specialist and roofer can take a look and negotiate house price with vendor? Do I pay or they pay? Or is this quite normal?

Regarding the damp, the surveyor said that it would be costly to fix so would recommend ventilation, but I'm not sure how much the damp will have penetrated.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
​​​​​​​Many thanks
Amy

[ianbus]

Hi

Regarding the roof mortar, this should be an easy fix, however with reference to the damp that can indeed be very costly. It all depends on what kind of damp - penetrating, rising etc. Your surveyor should be able to give you more details. Some kinds of damp such as penetrating can sometimes be fixed by applying a decent breathable water repellant to the external brickwork, however if your kitchen is now in the basement and that is suffering from damp I would get a damp expert to fully examine everything as sometimes the cost can be minor, however sometimes depending on the severity it can be expensive.

[Amy]

@ianbus many thanks for your response, that sounds like a good idea. I'll contact the solicitors to see how I go about organising a damp expert to examine the property. Thanks for your advice.