Got the results back on a survey on a house, Friday past I hope to buy. The report stated that there were high levels of Radon gas in some properties in that particular area. Has anyone came across this? Also, the seller is putting pressure on me as she wants to move abroad quickly but I have to wait on my mortgage offer. I've applied to one of the big lenders. Any idea how long this might take. The report valued the house at the price my offer was accepted at.

Typical survey offloading on to someone else. Was it free? Why didn't he do a radon test on the actual property? Then you would know where you stood.


lee

Tillie, I presume you live in or near an area with granite.( Dartmoor / Exmoor etc. ) We have similar situation in Northern Ireland, around the Mourne Mountains. All new buildings have to have a continuous polythene membrane fitted, very similar to damp proofing under the floor and walls, to trap any radon and stop it percolating up.

In an existing building, there's not much you can do short of pulling it down and re-building. I would suggest the surveyor is covering his behind.....

You can have a radon test. If it's level 2 or below it's hardly worth bothering about, just keep it well vented. If it is higher have a memebrane fitted. These things, like subsidence come with an area and tend to frighten outsiders.

Tillie,

We had the same issue come up from the searches that were done on our first property. It wasn't the surveyor that told us, it was the solicitor. She said that the house was in a radon affected area so there may be some hazard. After doing a bit of research I found that if you live with a lot of radon for a long time you're incresing the risk of getting certain types of cancer.

Our house was a new build and we knew it had been ventilated properly, but we were still concerned. You can buy a test (do a search on radon tests through google) for about £40 and you leave it in the living room for a month and it tells you if you have a major problem.

In the end our solicitor requested that a retainer be taken from the purchase money of £750 so that we had time to do the test and then if there was a problem we could use this money to correct it. The research I said suggested that a cost of up to £1500 could solve it. Not sure how but do a search in the internet and you can find loads of information.

Just an additional note - don't let the vendor rush you on it, be totally happy to proceed after gathering the information, after all this is a large financial committment.

Take care
Lou x

Radon's quite common in North West Kent

Re the the mortgage offer, we received ours a few days after the valuation. It depends on the lender, ours (Halifax) is very quick, but others are not.

Yes thanks

Mine is Halifax. I phoned them and they said that the offer was in the post. I found them very quick. They had the survey carried out within 2 days of getting the request.