Buying house with sagging roof

Spear100

I am thinking about buying a house, but have noticed that there is a slight sagging roof and cracked chimney. I haven't yet paid for a survey, so I have no idea of the cause or the cost to fix (am reluctant to pay for a survey at this point, as I am only thinking about buying). It's a semi-d, and the sag is on both houses. The roof is a hipped roof. They are the only houses in the estate with such a sag (I have walked the estate and checked). Houses built around 1970. Anyone any idea of what I'm getting in to here? Any advice on how to proceed?

BryanF

Spear100 wrote: »

I am thinking about buying a house, but have noticed that there is a slight sagging roof and cracked chimney. I haven't yet paid for a survey, so I have no idea of the cause or the cost to fix (am reluctant to pay for a survey at this point, as I am only thinking about buying). It's a semi-d, and the sag is on both houses. The roof is a hipped roof. They are the only houses in the estate with such a sag (I have walked the estate and checked). Houses built around 1970. Anyone any idea of what I'm getting in to here? Any advice on how to proceed?

Pay for a survey, explaining your concerns to the consultant engineer. should cost you 3-400€, suck it up or walk away:)

muffler

Moved to C & P

sydthebeat

with so much property available on the market, dont even consider it.... walk on.

dan_d

If you've got a bundle of money to spare after buying and an interest in structural problems, go for it.

Otherwise I'd strongly advise you to walk away. If you're in contact with the agent or seller of the house, you could do them a good deed and tell them that's why you're walking away. They probably already know they've got a problem there, but you'd be surprised all the same.

Poor Uncle Tom

Spear100 wrote: »

I am thinking about buying a house, but have noticed that there is a slight sagging roof and cracked chimney. I haven't yet paid for a survey, so I have no idea of the cause or the cost to fix (am reluctant to pay for a survey at this point, as I am only thinking about buying). It's a semi-d, and the sag is on both houses. The roof is a hipped roof. They are the only houses in the estate with such a sag (I have walked the estate and checked). Houses built around 1970. Anyone any idea of what I'm getting in to here? Any advice on how to proceed?

Semi-D's built in the 1970's usually didn't have the party wall built up to the underside of the roof making access to both attics possible from any one house. If the sag is only in this block of two it was probably not in the construction but afterwards that the damage was done.

You are probably looking at a case of some busy body having gone into the attic and removed a load of timbers at some stage because they "weren't needed" or the attics could have been very poorly converted leading to the problem. Either way you need a survey carried out before going further.

rayjdav

If this is what you can see (sagging roof), consider what you can't.
As said above by Syd and others, so much quality built houses on the market for a fraction of their "worth", why consider something that may be a moneypit??
Unlike my learned colleagues above I won't tell you to walk, BUT RUN FOREST RUN..:D

Rooferman

Dont touch it! Plenty of bargains out there if you spend some time looking around. You could be looking at 10 grand to re roof and rebuild a chimmney. Not to mention the roof trusses and wall plates. If the roof is that bad the rest of the house probably isnt much better.