What Happens If Your House Has Weathertightness or Structural Issues?
Finding out your home has structural or weathertightness issues can be overwhelming. For many homeowners, it's something they never even knew existed until they decide to sell.
Unfortunately, this is a situation we see more often than you'd think.
You May Not Know There's a Problem
Many structural issues don't show obvious signs. Your home may have been lived in for years without major concerns, yet an engineer or building inspector later identifies problems such as:
Uneven or sloping floors
Foundation movement
Rotten timber framing
Failed earthquake repairs
Subsidence or settlement
Weathertightness issues causing hidden moisture damage
It's common for these issues to only come to light when a buyer orders a building inspection or engineer's report during the sale process.
Floor Levels Can Stop a Sale
One of the biggest surprises for homeowners - particularly in Canterbury - is discovering their floor levels are outside accepted tolerances.
Following the Canterbury earthquakes, the MBIE (Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment) guidance became widely used as an indicator for assessing residential floor levels. A commonly referenced threshold is 50 mm of floor level variation across the building. While this is guidance rather than a legal pass/fail standard, exceeding it often triggers further investigation by engineers, insurers, lenders, and buyers.
That doesn't automatically mean the house is unsafe.
However, it does mean buyers may:
Request further engineering reports.
Ask for the issue to be repaired before settlement.
Renegotiate the purchase price.
Walk away altogether.
Weathertightness Issues Can Be Even More Serious
Water entering a home over months or years can cause significant hidden damage.
Common problems include:
Rotting timber framing
Mould growth
Damaged insulation
Corroded fixings
Expensive remediation work
Sometimes the damage is relatively minor. Other times, repairs can cost tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.
What Are Your Options?
If structural or weathertightness issues are identified, homeowners generally have three choices.
1. Repair the Property
This can maximise the sale price but often requires significant time, money and project management. Engineering reports, council consents and specialist contractors may all be required depending on the work involved.
2. Sell "As Is, Where Is"
Many homeowners choose to sell without carrying out repairs.
This means buyers understand they're purchasing the property in its current condition and accept responsibility for any future repairs. These properties usually sell at a discount to reflect the work and risk involved.
For some vendors, this is the quickest and least stressful solution - especially if they don't have the finances, time or energy to undertake major repairs.
3. Explore Alternative Selling Options
Some buyers actively look for properties with problems because they have the experience and resources to repair them.
While a traditional buyer may walk away, specialist property buyers or investors may still make a fair offer based on the property's current condition. If you want to know more about this, get in touch with our team today
Don't Panic
Receiving a difficult building report doesn't automatically mean your home is unsellable.
Many homes with structural movement, earthquake damage, foundation issues or weathertightness problems change hands every year. The important thing is understanding the issue, knowing your options, and choosing the path that best suits your circumstances.
We Buy Properties With Problems
If you've discovered structural issues, uneven floor levels, failed earthquake repairs, or weathertightness concerns and don't want the stress of organising repairs, we'd love to have a no-obligation chat.
We purchase properties in a wide range of conditions, including as-is, where-is homes, and aim to make the process as straightforward and transparent as possible.
Every situation is different, and sometimes the best solution isn't repairing the house - it's simply finding the right buyer.
