How to sell a house with radon

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The radioactive gas radon occurs naturally throughout the UK, although radon levels can be much higher in some areas compared to other locations. If you own a property in an area with elevated radon levels you might face more hurdles in finding a buyer for the house or flat, but it should still be possible to sell your home quickly in certain circumstances.

1. What is radon?
2. How does radon affect properties and health?
3. How is radon detected in homes?
4. Problems with selling a house with radon
5. Deciding whether to remediate radon before selling a home
6. Methods for selling a property with radon
7. Frequently asking questions about selling a house with radon

What is radon?

Radon is a radioactive gas that has no odour and colour and is formed when relatively small amounts of the chemical element uranium, which are found naturally in all types of soil and rock, start to decay. This decay creates radiation of the radon that is produced, and this can happen anywhere in the UK because of the fact that uranium is found throughout the country.

Levels of radon can vary between outdoors and indoors, and from low to high at various locations. The UK Health Security Agency has developed a helpful series of maps that highlight radon levels in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, with the areas coloured dark on the maps designated as potentially having higher levels of radon compared to lighter-coloured sections of the maps.

Unfortunately, as this guide will explain, elevated levels of radon in a home will lead some buyers to think of it as a problem property. That’s because of the negative view many people have about radon due to the potential that it has to create health problems in humans, whilst other possible buyers may see radon as a flaw that will make it harder to sell the home in the future.

How does radon affect properties and health?

If you live in an area that has elevated levels of radon compared to other parts of the country, it’s important to know how those increased exposure levels can not only potentially harm your health, but also the impact that the greater amounts of radon might have on your property.

How radon levels can affect human health

The main reason why radon is a concern is that any amount of exposure to the radiation is considered to be risky to human health, and that’s because radiation is a type of energy that can potentially cause some damage to our tissues. This can ultimately increase the risk of an exposed person developing the risk of lung cancer if the radon levels are high enough, according to the charity Cancer Research UK.

It’s important to note that the charity also clarifies that radon is nowhere near the leading cause of lung cancer in the UK, and some statistics suggest it might represent no more than 4 percent of all annual lung cancer cases. Smoking is by and far the biggest culprit for lung cancer cases, although there’s some evidence to suggest that the risk of developing this type of cancer is greater in homes where the owner is a heavy smoker and there’s also high levels of radon.

There is very little unsettled science on radon, so you shouldn’t usually waste your energy trying to find counterarguments to raise with concerned buyers about exposures to this radioactive gas. Instead, educate yourself on the risks of radon so that you might be able to better understand and potentially resolve some of the fears that prospective buyers could have with your home.

How radon levels can affect properties

Thankfully, there are no physical impacts that radon levels can have on your house or flat, meaning they won’t cause any structural damage or other such harm to the property.

However, if your home is situated in a part of the UK that is identified as being affected by increased levels of radon, some buyers might think that this lowers the value of the property. As a result, the potential sale price of your home could be lower – perhaps by quite a large amount – than a physically identical property that is located in an area where the low radon levels are not a concern.

Land searches for properties that are being sold will typically include a review of whether the home is within an area that has been designated as having higher levels of radon. Many sellers will ask buyers for details about radon levels in a home as part of the buying process, so it’s important that owners are well-informed about the amount of radon in their property.

How is radon detected in homes?

Visiting the UK Health Security Agency’s radon maps is a crucial first step for homeowners looking to sell their properties, because it will give them an initial idea of whether their house or flat is located within an area that is considered above the threshold of concern for radon exposures. Most homes have indoor radon levels of about 20 Becquerels per cubic metre of air (Bq/m3), and the typical background average level of radon is about 4 Bq/m3.

According to the UK Health Security Agency, if the radon level in your property is at a level lower than 100 Bq/m3 then the exposures are not generally of any health concern. Any radon levels above that threshold are considered to be elevated, and it’s these properties that might be considered remediation work that can help to reduce the potential for exposure.

If you have identified your home as being in a higher risk radon area, the next step is to do a test of your property which can be purchased for about £50. The test uses two radon detectors that will be placed in your main bedroom and living room for a total of three months. This is the ideal duration for producing radon detections that are considered to be highly accurate.

The detections can vary, and it’s possible in some parts of the UK that seasonal fluctuations in radon levels could push exposures up to 300 Bq/m3 or higher, even if the true annual average of the radioactive gas might be lower. Pursuing remediation work is usually only suggested for homes where a three-month detection test has produced consistent and reliable readings that are above 200 Bq/m3, because the health risks become more serious.

Problems with selling a house with radon

Unfortunately, the presence of radon in your home can make it harder to sell because some buyers might be wary of purchasing such a property due to health concerns about radon exposures. And you have to be prepared that the presence of radon will be enough for some buyers to completely lose interest in your flat or house, even if it meets all of their other criteria for a dream home.

The UK Health Security Agency says that every building has some level of radon, but that most are typically at low levels that do not pose concerns. But for those properties that have higher levels of radon, the owners may find it harder to quickly sell their house or flat.

One reason is that a buyer could fear that living in a home with elevated radon may pose significant health risks, primarily a greater chance of developing lung cancer. Regardless of whether you or they might be willing to pay for work to remediate the radon exposure, this factor alone can make a potential buyer immediately lose any interest in purchasing your home.

In some cases, a buyer may be fine with purchasing your house or flat even with elevated levels of radon and even if you don’t perform any remediation work before selling. But once they get an estimate for the cost of the work that it will take to remediate the radon exposure, this type of buyer might realise they can’t afford it, and they’ll no longer want to make an offer on your home. Or they might be willing to make an offer at a significantly reduced price that accounts for their future expense with the remediation work, but this could lead to you making zero profit on the sale or even potentially making a loss, and neither of those are desirable outcomes.

Another negative impact of owning a home with radon is that buyers might fear it’ll be difficult to make a decent profit on the home if they try to sell it in the future. Even if they are willing to buy a home with radon, they might have concerns that if they buy the property now, nobody else would have any interest in purchasing it should they try to sell the house or flat at a later date.

This possible hurdle to reselling can also be a justification for why a mortgage company could refuse to give a potential buyer the loan they need to buy your home. If a buyer gets a mortgage but then fails to meet their monthly loan repayments, the lender will eventually move to sell the property so that they can recoup their costs. But some mortgage companies might be reluctant to even offer a loan if they think that the home is overvalued because of the radon levels and that it will be harder to sell for a profit in the event that the buyer defaults on the mortgage. If the buyer can’t get the funds they need to buy your home, then their entire offer will then fall apart.

Deciding whether to remediate radon before selling a home

If you are the owner a home in an area with elevated radon levels, one decision that you will have to make before selling is whether you want to try first remediating the radon. Doing so will require time and money, so it’s not necessarily an option for those who either have a limited budget when selling or who might need to find a serious buyer as quickly as possible.

As a first step, you can visit the UK Health Security Agency’s radon maps and see whether your home is in an area that has been identified as having elevated levels of the radioactive gas.

Next, you could invest in a radon test to get a more accurate reading of the precise levels of radon within your home. As described earlier in this guide, if the detections produce a reliable and consistent radon reading of above 200 Bq/m3 then you might want to consider remediation.

For remediation, you’ll typically have to contact a specialist company that will do its own radon testing and then develop a plan for installing technology to address the problem, such as installing extraction fans and pursuing other measures to significantly reduce the presence of the radioactive gas in your home. If you decide to invest in this work before selling, you should get a fresh radon test after it’s completed to ensure that the radon levels have been reduced.

The exact costs of remediating radon will depend on the exposure levels and the size of your property. For example, one UK company that specialises in radon remediation estimates that the price could be as low as £800 but might cost much more depending on your situation. And for many owners, £800 could even be beyond their budget for doing work on their home before trying to sell it, which would eliminate remediation as an option before seeking a buyer.

Don’t worry if your home has high levels of radon but you have neither the time nor the money to spend on any remediation work. It is not mandatory to pursue such work before selling your home, and as you’ll see in the next section it’s entirely possible to find a buyer for your property without doing such work and yet still make a profit whilst also selling very quickly.

Methods for selling a property with radon

After you have made the decision to sell your home with radon, you need to choose whether you want to try your luck with a property auction, using an estate agent, attempting to sell your home on your own, or using a fast home buyer like LDN Properties. There are advantages that are unique to each option, although some methods also come with specific drawbacks.

Create an accurate budget for the sale of your home that identifies all of the potential costs, along with how much money you’re willing to spend on selling and how long you’re willing or able to wait to find a buyer. Consider that information as you weigh the pros and cons of each approach to selling in order to find the one that best matches your individual situation.

Trying your luck with a property auction

Some homeowners like to try their luck with an auction, where people ever-increasing price bids on properties, with the goal of a final value that’s much higher than the lowest price at which the owner is willing to sell, which is known as the reserve price. It’s possible you’ll only get a single bid at the reserve price, and that’s why you must set this value at a level that will still generate you a suitable return even after you subtract the auctioneers’ fees from the proceeds.

Be prepared that you might not get any bids on your home because of its radon levels, which means the property won’t sell and you’ll have to restart the search for a buyer. But a single valid bid on your home is a legally binding agreement to purchase the house or flat that either you or the buyer can enforce. A winning high bidder on your home will have an average of 28 days to complete their steps for the sale, although some auctioneers allow more or less time.

Auctioneers usually charge sellers commission based on the value at which the property sells, and this will have to be subtracted from the sale price in order to calculate whatever net profit you’ll make. You might be able to negotiate a lower fee from some auction companies, so it’s always worth asking in advance if this is an option.

The auctioneer will prepare a listing for your property that will include text describing its main features, such as total square footage and potentially the radon level if it’s exceptionally high compared to the national average, as well as photographs of the home’s interior and exterior. They’ll advertise this listing for at least a couple of weeks before the auction, and with the 28-day deadline for the buyer to complete their steps, the complete time it takes for selling through this method is at least a few months and possibly longer depending on the circumstances.

Some auctioneers might also have no idea about how to advertise a home with radon, and poor marketing could lead to nobody being interested in your property and it receiving zero bids. Before deciding on using an auction company you can ask them for their track record of selling homes with radon, and if they have never sold such a property consider selling elsewhere.

Using an estate agent to sell your home

Similar to the work that auctioneers do in selling a property, estate agents will also be responsible for producing a listing for your home that they will then advertise in local media, online, and in their office. Interested buyers might ask for a viewing where they get to tour the inside and outside of the property, and the estate agent will schedule and usually host these.

Some sellers find viewings to take up a lot of their free time and to also be very intrusive, and they consider this a huge con of selling via this method. You’ll also have to pay estate agents commission usually based on your property’s final sale price, which will reduce the amount of profit that you can anticipate making from selling the home.

You should know that some estate agents might try the sneaky trick of quoting you a very high price for the value at which they think you’ll be able to sell your property, even if they secretly know that they’ll only be able to get a buyer at a much lower price. They do this because their goal is for you to sell your home using their services, so they can charge you commission.

It’s fairly easy to avoid falling for this trap, just ask many estate agents for free sale price quotes and also look at the value of properties similar to yours for sale on Zoopla, Rightmove and other home sales sites. Calculate the average of all these prices and you’ll be able to get a more honest idea of your property’s sale value.

Selling this way can take a very long time, and it’s not unheard of for some properties to remain on the market without receiving serious offers for more than a complete year. And even if you find a genuine buyer who wants to purchase your property, they have the ability to rescind their offer and walk away from the sale all the way up to exchanging contracts on the home. This can create a lot of stress and uncertainty when you are hoping to secure a very speedy sale.

Just as some auction companies might struggle to sell a home with radon, you could find that certain estate agents have zero experience with finding a buyer for this type of property. In such a situation, the estate agent might find it very difficult to know the best way to market your home, which could result in you waiting a long time before getting any interest from a buyer.

Attempting to sell your home on your own

Occasionally, some homeowners will believe that they can sell their property with radon without enlisting the help of a professional. But this is perhaps the slowest and most stressful way of selling, because you will be responsible for every stage from the initial listing and advertising of your flat or house through to organising viewings and overseeing completion of any offer.

This method does have the perk of not having to pay an estate agent or auctioneer for selling your home, but this cost saving will likely be offset by the amount of time and money that you have to invest in the work it takes to find a buyer for your property. You’ll be responsible for funding advertisements for your home’s listing, and any other upfront selling expenses.

And unless you have extensive experience with selling properties, or have family members or friends who are willing to help you, there is a very high likelihood that you will be more prone to making errors in the process that could lead to an offer collapsing in the worst case scenario.

Using a fast home buyer to sell your property

Fast buyers like LDN Properties have the financial ability to make immediate quick and fair offers for purchasing homes in London, even those with high radon levels. This means they can complete the entire process of buying a flat or house within a few short weeks, because there’s no waiting for several months whilst a lender decides whether to approve a loan for their purchase. It makes selling this way perhaps the fastest of the various options available.

A great advantage of using a fast buyer is that they can make fast and fair offers for buying practically any type of leasehold or freehold house or flat, regardless of its age, type, shape, condition or size. The list of the many different homes that LDN Properties has bought throughout London since launching in 2003 includes unwanted retirement homes, flats located on noisy streets, commercial properties, homes where the owner has misplaced the title deeds, houses by railway lines, hoarder’s homes, houses with survey problems, and more.

And the trustworthy quick buyers will never charge you any commission when selling your home, which means you can count on receiving the full proceeds from whatever sale price they offer. That compares very favourably to estate agents and property auctioneers, who will charge their fees that you’ll have to deduct from the home sale proceeds to know your net profit.

Top questions about selling a house with radon

As a homeowner thinking of selling your home fast you may have a few questions for us, ranging from the how much repairs you should do before selling through to selling a home with defects. Here are a selection of the main questions we’re asked about selling a house with radon: