Should I buy this weatherboard in Belgrave, Vic?

Hello everyone,

We are on day 2 out of 3 days cooling off period into buying this one:

25 Belgrave-Hallam Road, Belgrave, Vic 3160
https://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-vic-belgrave-134945338

We just found through a building and pest inspection that it has 2 major structural issues:

Defect 1: OUT OF LEVEL AND UNEVEN flooring in all area, ranging from 30mm at back or house where the tiled kitchen is, to 60mm at subfloor level in the bedroom.

Defect 2: Bouncy floors, again in all area

We were told the defects are serious. We have 2 choices one being just walk away ( recommended by building inspector) and two to spend $50-60k if not more to relevel and restump it properly. The second option may not even an option, as relevelling the house would lead to even bigger issues ( ruin the kitchen, serious internal crackings, etc)

The house has been restumped just 3 years ago. But as we spoke to some stumpers they said it could be just a quick fix to bandage the problem.

There is a huge tree near the house and we have no information on soil condition/movement.

The weatherboard hasn’t had termite treatment, so we worry if jacking up the house would lead to cracking up open a can of worms.

There are also various other defects and possibly other legal issues too.

With all that said, are we crazy to say I still love the house and want to go ahead?

Who have been there done that could give us some advice please! Your help is much appreciated!

Thank you very much!

 

I would take the professionals advice. That’s what we pay them for.
Walk.

 

* The house was partially restumped 3 yrs ago in Apr 2017. They may have just had the outside perimeter stumps fixed not the internal.

 

50-60k seems excessive....

Give me a call if you want, I'm a restumper and am working in the area today.

Pm me for my number if you want.

 

We were told maybe 20-25k for restumping and 20-30k to fix up the kitchen and internal crackings caused by jacking up the house. So total is $50-60k if not more.

 

After the cooling off period maybe, right now even us can’t

 

Why not get Optimus to look at it?

Also, did your offer / contract not have a structural defect clause?

Those quotes seem excessive.

 

Lots of miscommunication here...

Actually someone started a topic today about this... think it was terryw

 

By who exactly?

 

By b&p inspector.

 

The Y-man[/QUOTE]

You guessed right. We had our offer accepted before getting Bp done, believing the house was in good condition. We offered well above asking for it.

It wasn’t easy to get an appointment with a BP inspector that week. Plus we really believed there wasn’t a need. But then one became available on day 1 of cooling off period. That was when we found out.

Why not do it now within the 3 days? Well we upset the real estate agent when we had the BP over. She said we “should not have done that” and “we could have waited until after 3 days”

Anyway, moving forward. We have to give an answer today by 11am.

I guess we’ll just walk away like everyone suggested.

Or should we have it another chance and ask for a reduction in price/ vendor to share cost? Most likely they will say no as there are others behind us who also want to buy it, and may have money to fix it. But our ground is we offered what we offered because we had their words that there is nothing to worry about floor nor stumps.

 

Your cooling off period is usually when you get B&P done, not before. If you find something that is not to your liking, you are well within your rights to amend your offer. For instance, we bought a property a long time ago now, but the Building Inspection showed a plumbing issue. We asked for a quote to fix it, which came back at $10k. Showed that to the agent, who subsequently showed the vendor & we offered $10k less than the original offer. As a side note, once settlement happened, we went to a plumber, not the builder & it was fixed for less than 1K. This is NSW.

So, there is a likelihood that the builder was padding out his quote of works to be done, as he would then engage the correct tradesmen to do the job.

 

Seems very high if what you're telling me has been done already, has been done.

 

Too many lies here for my liking... think I'll pass, thanks but no thanks..

Best of luck