Renovating an Inherited House: How to Decide What Is Worth Doing Before You Sell or Let
Deal with the structure and the weathertightness first, decide whether you are selling or letting second, and only then choose the finishes. An inherited house usually needs less than it looks like it needs, because most of what makes it feel tired is decoration. What genuinely has to be addressed is anything letting water in, anything structurally unsound, and anything that will fail a survey or a letting inspection.
Key Takeaways
- Water getting in and structural defects come first, before any cosmetic decision.
- Selling and letting need different levels of work, so decide which before you spend.
- A dated but sound house sells better than a half finished one.
- Older properties often have unapproved past alterations that a surveyor will find.
- Doing the work in the right order avoids paying twice for access and making good.
Taking on a house you did not choose is a strange position to be in. It usually happens at a difficult time, there are other people involved in the decision, and the property has often been lived in for decades without much being changed. We have handled a lot of these across Widnes, Liverpool, Runcorn, Warrington and St Helens, and the pattern is consistent. People overestimate what needs doing and underestimate how much the order matters.
What has to be dealt with regardless of your plans?
Three categories, and they are not negotiable whichever route you take.
The first is water. A failed roof covering, blocked or broken gutters, defective flashings, failed pointing letting driving rain through a solid wall, or a bridged damp proof course. Water damage compounds, so every month it continues the eventual bill grows. This is where brickwork and repointing work often earns its place first in the programme.
The second is structure. Historic movement, a lintel that has failed, a chimney breast removed at some point without adequate support, or a floor that has been altered. These are the items that stop a sale or produce a retention, and they need assessing properly rather than being papered over. LABC explains how building control handles previously unapproved work, which matters because a regularisation application is often the route through. Our structural alteration work frequently starts with remedying somebody else’s past shortcut.
The third is safety and compliance. Old electrical installations, a heating system past its life, no working smoke detection. These matter more if you are letting, but a buyer’s surveyor will flag them either way.
Are you selling or letting? The answer changes the budget
| Consideration | If you are selling | If you are letting |
|---|---|---|
| Structural and weathertightness work | Essential. It is what survives a survey and prevents a price reduction. | Essential. It is also your repairing obligation as a landlord. |
| Electrical installation | Needs to be safe and any defects disclosed. | An Electrical Installation Condition Report is a legal requirement, and remedial work follows from it. |
| Energy performance | Affects buyer interest but does not block a sale. | There is a minimum EPC rating for letting, so upgrades may be legally required. |
| Layout changes | Worth it only where the current layout is a genuine obstacle to buyers. | Often worth it, because a better layout supports the rent for years. |
| Finishes and decoration | Neutral, clean and complete beats expensive and half done. | Hard wearing and easily repaired matters more than expensive. |
| Kitchen and bathroom areas | Usually leave them unless they are unusable. Buyers change them anyway. | Needs to be functional and safe. We can widen or open up the space where the room is too small to work. |
The mistake we see most often is spending on finishes before deciding the route. A house being sold does not need what a house being let needs, and vice versa. On the letting side, GOV.UK sets out the standards a rented property must meet, and it is worth reading before the budget is fixed rather than after.
What order should the work go in?
The reason order matters financially is access and making good. Scaffolding for roof and pointing work should serve every external task in one visit. Floors should come up once, not three times. Plastering should follow the last thing that goes into a wall, not precede it. Our guide to phasing a renovation in stages is worth reading if the budget has to be spread over more than one period.
What is usually not worth doing?
If you are selling, an expensive specification rarely returns what it costs. Buyers looking at a house that clearly needs work discount for the work. Buyers looking at a house that has been finished to somebody else’s taste discount for the taste. The reliable position is sound, clean, neutral and complete, with the structural and weathertightness work genuinely done and documented.
Also generally not worth it: reconfiguring a layout that works simply because it is dated, replacing windows that are functioning purely on appearance, and landscaping beyond making the outside tidy and safe. And if the house needs a full renovation and you have neither the appetite nor the timescale, selling it as it stands with the defects disclosed is a perfectly rational choice. We will tell you that if it is what we think, and our full house renovation page sets out what the bigger route actually involves.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I renovate before selling an inherited house?
It depends on the condition and your timescale. Structural and weathertightness work is nearly always worth doing, because those are the items that produce survey retentions or price reductions. Cosmetic renovation is often not, because buyers discount for taste as readily as for wear. A sound, clean, dated house is an easier sale than a partly modernised one.
What happens if previous work was done without building regulations approval?
It is common in older housing and it needs identifying early, because a buyer’s solicitor will ask. The usual examples are a removed chimney breast without support, an altered floor, or a structural opening with no notice on record. A regularisation application through building control is often possible, and remedial work may be needed first. Either way it is better found by your surveyor than theirs.
Do I need to bring the whole house up to current building regulations?
No. Regulations apply to the work you carry out, not retrospectively to the whole property. If you form a new opening, that opening must comply. If you rewire, the new installation must comply. Existing elements you do not touch generally stay as they are, though letting brings separate legal minimum standards regardless.
How long does renovating an inherited house take?
A weathertightness and decoration package is often four to eight weeks. A full renovation involving rewiring, replastering, heating and structural work more commonly runs twelve to twenty weeks depending on size and what the survey turns up. Clearing the property and getting approvals in place beforehand is what tends to determine the start date.
Can the work be done in stages?
Yes, and it often should be where the budget or a probate timeline requires it. The rule is that weathertightness and structure come in the first stage regardless, because deferring them means the damage keeps growing and later stages get redone. Finishes are the natural thing to defer, since they do not deteriorate while you wait.
Do you handle the whole project?
Yes. We manage residential renovations end to end, covering structural alterations, external repair and brickwork, services coordination, plastering, joinery and decoration. For families dealing with an inherited property that is usually the point, because there is often nobody living locally who can coordinate separate trades day to day.
Start with a survey, not a shopping list
Almost every decision about an inherited house gets easier once somebody has been through it properly and separated what has to be done from what you might like to do.
We survey and quote free across Widnes, Liverpool, Runcorn, Warrington and St Helens, and we are happy to give you an honest view even if the answer is that the house is better sold as it stands. Our contact page has the details.