Just received a mortgage offer – yay!

But… There is a section “Special Conditions” which says any recommended repairs are to be carried out immediately after we sign the dotted line.

The recommended repairs are the cavity wall ties and a damp proof course. We got the survey done through the lender, and the people who did the survey, surprisingly enough are a company that provide cavity wall ties and damp proofing.

They have given the offer in full so there is no retention or anything, but this seems like a company just trying their luck to me.

Any suggestions? Do I really have to get it done? (I’m guessing the answer is yes). FWIW, the quote is about £2500 all in so not an insignificant amount of money – any damp proof/wall tie experts in the house with an opinion on price?

Reduce your offer sum if this is the case.

That was one of my plans, but not sure how it’d work – do we get the vendor to accept less and spend the remainder on getting the builders in?

What evidence have they provided re necessary works? Wall ties and damp proofing et al are often complete BS.

Never go with inhouse surveyor.

If there is no retention they can’t be that bothered. I doubt they’ll come and check.

In-house surveyors bid for the status – ie they undercut independents not least as they are hoping for additional work. If you get the work done 100% go with another company. IMHO the lender will not check the work has been done but you do bear a risk they will ask for “proof”

Sounds dodgy. How did they ascertain new wall tiles are needed? Did the use an inspection camera all over the wall?

As above re the wall ties. Damp is an easy one to spot, wall ties not so unless it looks like one of those schools up in Scotland!

We had a special condition to get a damp and timber survey……. by a company who does the remedial work! Unsurprisingly they said we needed a damp proof course for a few grand. However, the house is made of natural stone which generally doesn’t need one. Plus, Mr Pea’s damp meter showed no damp.
The company proceeded to bombard me with phone calls and emails asking when they could make a start, but I told them to sling their hook!

Sounds dodgy. How did they ascertain new wall tiles are needed? Did the use an inspection camera all over the wall?

I’m going to try to get all this information. My understanding is that the spacing of the existing wall ties does not conform to modern requirements. The house is a 1930s-ish semi.

As far as I see it, getting them done is a total waste of money but I’m happy to be convinced otherwise.

We had a special condition to get a damp and timber survey……. by a company who does the remedial work! Unsurprisingly they said we needed a damp proof course for a few grand. However, the house is made of natural stone which generally doesn’t need one. Plus, Mr Pea’s damp meter showed no damp.
The company proceeded to bombard me with phone calls and emails asking when they could make a start, but I told them to sling their hook!

Did the lender ever chase you for proof that you’d had the work done? This is my main concern.

Never go with inhouse surveyor.

We only did because they did the additional surveys for free.

Surveyors only base their findings on visual inspections. My mortgage offer was on condition that an ‘unsupported’ chimney stack would be fixed within 3 months. If the surveyor had bothered to lift a floorboard he would have avoided me needing to pay a builder to tell me the stack was already fully supported after all.

Building regs are not retrospective so unless it’s causing problems it should not be an issue.

Edit; re the wall tie spacing.

Once the money is drawn and house paid for all is generally forgotten. Technically the mortgage company can hassle you to get the work done but in reality – cant they be bothered? answer = no!

The condition seemed to be that we got a damp and timber survey because of the age of the house, but no apparent condition for us to have the damp proof course done. No one ever followed up. Even the estate agent who is a surveyor said it was unnecessary.