Damp.
It all depends on if any damp has impacted the structural integrity of the building. It can be easy to paint over damp patches as a bodge fix to get a place sold.
Get a full structural survey done.
Damp can be caused by a whole host of things. Foundations, the roof, cavities between buildings, next-door's property (which you may not be able to do anything about), someone not opening the window after a shower.

Offers
Unfortunately in England seller is King until the date of exchange. It is a ludicrous system.
What you want to do is demand the property is taken off the market as part of accepting the offer. This doesn't protect you legally at all but will prevent others viewing and so improving your odds.
Saying that you are not tied into an accepted offer. If you have a survey done and it shows a lot of work is needed you can amend your offer to suit and it will be up to the seller to accept or decline the new offer.

There are sealed bids but very rarely.

Personally I told them I would pay asking price and to take it off the market. My advice would be to pay what you think it is worth and no more or less.
For the brief time I looked in London I found people were getting into bidding wars for stupid money. Flats priced at 185k in the morning were being sold for 220k by the end of the day. The problem with this is it can quickly lead to negative equity if the markets don't continue to rapidly rise.

Big piece of advice.
Always, always be ready to walk away. There will be other properties.

Liveinadamphellhole summed it up to be honest. If the property has been empty then you can get some mouldy damp caused by condensation, but you can sort it out with a scrape and some antifungicidal paint. This happens in bathrooms etc. and is nowt to worry about.

The full structural survey will pick up the other types. They could be caused by leaks in the roof which isn't cheap to fix, or if it's your external walls which are affected a bit of salt retardant rendering will do the job.

It's not the end of the world, but I'd get someone in who offers a guarantee as it can be tricky to sort out and if it's not done right first time you're snookered.

I did what Liv did with the offer too, gave them asking price and told them to cancel the veiwings they had planned and take it off the market. The asking price was at the upper limit of our budget so we couldn't fuck about, and I think the seller realised we meant serious business so accepted the offer and blammo, deal done.

If you arent in a chain (first time buyer) then let them know as that is another strong bargaining chip.

Put an offer in, get the survey. If there's damp, lop the cost off your offer.

Freehold! we've done a fair bit of research already so know the key things to look for.

I guess the main thing that I'm questioning atm is whether having money to fix any problems means they're actually fixed for good. I've been in rented accommodation before with problems that just seemed to always return. I want to be sure that we can be confident that if we have the money, we can repair and prevent.

And aye Griff, we'll definitely be negotiating following any issues found.

I dunno, maybe over cautious but I guess we're right to be so.

nick_md wrote:

Thanks Luv, (auto correct stays) Tallies with our thoughts and findings, and yes ofc full suvey Will be had. Kinda hoping any construction folks or home owners with experience of similar may chip in? @Roujin you build stuff don't you?

Harro!

I dunno the ins and outs of what an estate agent can tell you but I'd try and get hold of the the person who pulled out and ask where they saw the damp.

Damp can can be anything really from relatively minor stuff like grout being fucked on a tiled shower wall and leeching through to the other side (I SAID RELATIVELY MINOR) to oh fuck the the foundations have had it and water is osmosising it's way through the cracks like a motherbitch just waiting for the weather to get cold and then it's gonna blow fucking chunks out of the cement or mortar when it freezes. 

Too hard to diagnose really without pictures or more info. Was the house generally in good condition throughout when you saw it? How was the property and how recently had it been decorated?

Wasn't there something in the news about interest rates going to go up or down or something soon?

Thanks all, bit of a 'do what's best for your circumstances' Q I suspect.

Aye sound advice, cheers Luv. (auto correct stays).

Looks like we're all set tbh, a nice 3 floor terrace towards the end of where the new crossrail will be, so into TCR in about 20 mins I think. Needs a bit of work but we've budgeted for it and we're enough below our max offer range to do what's needed.

Questions now are will the survey find anything we didn't expect, and what rate/year mortgage to get.

Tbh I'll be happy when it's all done so I can start planning the games room and start a new DIY cabinet project. She won't be happy.

Contracts exchanged, should be moving in 2nd March!

Don't want to do all that again. Quite looking forward to having a games room back after 2.5 yrs sharing a studio with the missus.

A games room is a beautiful thing. No matter the size, level of disorder, or style. A beautiful thing.

That Beatmania stuff is a new level of hardcore. The space that must take up and the bloody racket it must make.

I'd like to get a CRT again, I have quite a few ps2 games that I simply can't play effectively on HD.

That last pic I posted is completely OTT, they're actual cabs and aye, would make a fucking racket. I really like the sleeker, custom made efforts in the first two pics, particularly the Sound Voltex in the first pic, looks lovely.

I think best I can hope for in the immediate future is a smallish HD, a CRT and a stand for controllers. Would be happy enough.

Another forum swinger.
You should PM Sparkly.

So I'm moving again.
Bigger place with a little courtyard but will have to share again. We'll see how that goes.

But best thing is going from



To