The FTB club

TeamSherlock

Quick update, turns out someone has already made another higher offer today So I guess it comes down to whether we're willing to jump to below the stamp duty threshold to get the house.

Being a first time buyer didn't seem to count for much...

lilian1977

Just looking at buildings/content insurance - for a 2 bed stone built end terrace near a river, does £194 per year with £50 Quidco cashback seem like a good deal? It's through the AA. Aviva quoted over £800!

morgaine7

Hi folks,

My OH and I are FTB, put an offer in on a property and after a rejection managed to get it for what the EA then said the Vendor actually wanted (£175K, being £5k under the asking price).

We’ve instructed a solicitor, paid for all the relevant searches etc, applied for and have just today signed and returned the mortgage offer to accept it, and have also just today had the result of our Homebuyers Survey. However the survey has brought up the following points –

“Urgent –
Electrics check and central heating service (neither the electrics or the central heating/boiler have been checked for over a decade).

Significant Matters –
Undertake repairs and improvements to the chimney stack.
Repoint/repair the masonry of front garden wall.
Repair/replace defective double glazing (velux window in bedroom and double-glazed window in garage).
Carry out repairs/improvements to the stairs (although sound, do not meet current Building Regulations).
Test the gas supply.
Repair/upgrade the paths, steps boundary and retaining walls.
Repair garage joinery.
Provide grill to rear right-hand gulley
Check on the condition of the flues, that the large panes of glass in the property are safe and on the possibility that lead paint has been used in the property soon after you take up occupation.”

The question is – should I try to renegotiate the selling price? I was (falsely) under the impression that the property had been rewired 10 years ago when the Vendor moved in, and to be honest had no idea so much stuff would show up on the survey (though to be fair the Surveyor has said he was quite impressed with the property and has valued it as follows “In our opinion the Market Value on the 14th October 2009 of the freehold interest in this property, as inspected, with vacant possession was £175,000”).

Would it be reasonable to suggest that the Vendors pay for the ‘Urgent’ matters to be done and we then absorb the cost of the ‘Significant’ matters?

We do really like the property, and the Vendor is not the most approachable/helpful of people…. any help would be appreciated!

kirstypea

kirstypea wrote: »

I'm actually glad of the wiggle room cos we've so far had £999 mortgage application fee, 2x£700 surveys, and already given the solicitor 2 cheques for £300, for searches apparently, hopefully the final bill wont be too high! So thats £3000 already and we've still to pay the balance for the solicitor and pay the removal company for which we've had a quote of £700

Think I jinxed myself with this comment, had an email from the solicitor today requesting a further £1200 for his fees! :eek:

TeamSherlock

morgaine7
Wow, I didn't realise that the home buyers survey doesn't actually check the electrics or gas fittings....Although we haven't got to this part of the process myself, I suspect that the survey will always try to cover themselves and flag up every negative they can find.

One thing I'd say is can you really say for sure how much the 'urgent' work would cost at this point? I agree that the any problems with gas & electricity should result in a reduction of price, but at the moment you can't put a cost on it which would make negotiations difficult. You might need to commission another test to discover the full extent of any problems
It would be interesting to know whether the survey listed it as an urgent warning as they suspect that problems exist, or just because there's been no formal check recently...

TeamSherlock

Kirstypea, ouch, that seems a trifle excessive!!!, especially as your house sale value is so low.

Did you get an up front quote of his fees? The solicitor we have in mind charges a flat fee of £750 to put it into perspective, is he charging you double perhaps because your first sale fell through?

morgaine7

TeamSherlock wrote: »

morgaine7
Wow, I didn't realise that the home buyers survey doesn't actually check the electrics or gas fittings....Although we haven't got to this part of the process myself, I suspect that the survey will always try to cover themselves and flag up every negative they can find.

One thing I'd say is can you really say for sure how much the 'urgent' work would cost at this point? I agree that the any problems with gas & electricity should result in a reduction of price, but at the moment you can't put a cost on it which would make negotiations difficult. You might need to commission another test to discover the full extent of any problems
It would be interesting to know whether the survey listed it as an urgent warning as they suspect that problems exist, or just because there's been no formal check recently...

I *think* it may be just to cover themselves - they state that a property should be inspected every ten years, and as the Vendor has confirmed this hasn't been done and the property is 50 years old and has been altered a fair bit at some stage (loft conversion) it would be prudent to do so. The report itself contained a statement about a 'visual' inspection - just that the installation has been wired in plastic covered cable, and that the gas installation appears generally to be in fair order

It's just that I know so little about these things I wasn't sure what the 'usual' approach to such matters are - i.e. the cost for any inspection being the responsibility of the purchasers or the vendor as it's likely to show up on any purchaser's survey of this property (and bearing in mind the number of things on the 'significant matters' list which will require attention).

kristenb

Hello, my boyfriend and I are nearing the end of our house sale, after a long struggle, weve had 2 houses fall through and lost about £3000, were finally getting somewhere with this sale, we have signed the contracts and now were waiting to exchange, except our solicitors are still querying a few things and waiting on replies from the sellers solicitors, one of which is an indemnity policy, the seller has agreed to pay it, does anyone how long it takes to put one in place?! Also the people our sellers are buying off are the inheritants of a house and are saying theyre going to pull out if we dont complete soon, I think they just want to get rid, its so annoying as our sellers are ringing us asking to hurry up when in actual fact its their solicitors holding it up, whoever said its one of the most stressful times in your life was SOOOOOOO right, Im so panicked this is going to fall through but Im just hoping that as were so close to the finishing line it surely cant happen, yet I know it can!!! argh!!! :mad: Im fed up of ringing between estate agents and solictors and they dont know the answers, isnt this their job!? anyway, all limbs are crossed for now!! We are pencilled in to complete a week friday, and Im hoping this is feasible considering we havent exchanged yet and whether theres enough time to transfer money, we have it in a join account with halifax, does anyone know how you can pay over £37000 and if I have to inform halifax prior to!? Thanks ahead of time!!

Framps

morgaine7 wrote: »

The report itself contained a statement about a 'visual' inspection - just that the installation has been wired in plastic covered cable, and that the gas installation appears generally to be in fair order

It's just that I know so little about these things I wasn't sure what the 'usual' approach to such matters are - i.e. the cost for any inspection being the responsibility of the purchasers or the vendor as it's likely to show up on any purchaser's survey of this property (and bearing in mind the number of things on the 'significant matters' list which will require attention).

The homebuyer's survey only involves surface inspections - from the above it sounds like the electrics / gas are okay, although a 10-yr old boiler should be replaced IMHO. The further urgent inspections are just to cover themselves, as these are specialist disciplines and expensive to repair - costs which you could potentially claw back from the surveyor's insurance if you can prove that they were negligent in their survey.

For any "signicant matter" items that you are unsure about you should get builders in to give you estimates on the works. Therein lies one of the biggest benefits of the full structural survey, which includes estimates for any work recommendations and thus saves you a lot of hassle (the estimates won't be completely accurate but they give you a starting point for negotiations).

The vendors aren't legally responsible for anything arising from the survey; the best you can do is try and see what happens. There are loads of factors affecting whether someone will accept your renegotiations, it's impossible to say what they will or won't accept.

homehunter

morgaine7 wrote: »

Hi folks,

My OH and I are FTB, put an offer in on a property and after a rejection managed to get it for what the EA then said the Vendor actually wanted (£175K, being £5k under the asking price).

We’ve instructed a solicitor, paid for all the relevant searches etc, applied for and have just today signed and returned the mortgage offer to accept it, and have also just today had the result of our Homebuyers Survey. However the survey has brought up the following points –

“Urgent –
Electrics check and central heating service (neither the electrics or the central heating/boiler have been checked for over a decade).

Significant Matters –
Undertake repairs and improvements to the chimney stack.
Repoint/repair the masonry of front garden wall.
Repair/replace defective double glazing (velux window in bedroom and double-glazed window in garage).
Carry out repairs/improvements to the stairs (although sound, do not meet current Building Regulations).
Test the gas supply.
Repair/upgrade the paths, steps boundary and retaining walls.
Repair garage joinery.
Provide grill to rear right-hand gulley
Check on the condition of the flues, that the large panes of glass in the property are safe and on the possibility that lead paint has been used in the property soon after you take up occupation.”

The question is – should I try to renegotiate the selling price? I was (falsely) under the impression that the property had been rewired 10 years ago when the Vendor moved in, and to be honest had no idea so much stuff would show up on the survey (though to be fair the Surveyor has said he was quite impressed with the property and has valued it as follows “In our opinion the Market Value on the 14th October 2009 of the freehold interest in this property, as inspected, with vacant possession was £175,000”).

Would it be reasonable to suggest that the Vendors pay for the ‘Urgent’ matters to be done and we then absorb the cost of the ‘Significant’ matters?

We do really like the property, and the Vendor is not the most approachable/helpful of people…. any help would be appreciated!

Our survey had lots mentioned too, but when you look at it, you see just how thorough they are being. For example - electrics and central heating checks - we were advised to get these too and our solicitor approached theirs requesting that the seller gets these done. Stairs - we were advised to put in some posts so small children and animals won't slip through. Defective glazing - actually just one area where some inner beading had expanded and dropped, easily fixed. We even had a suggestion to replace the downstairs window, so it matched the others, for aesthetic reasons! I wouldn't worry too much. We had suggestions for fixing a slipped tile and repointing work...we had a reasonble quote from a roofer and it is just one of those things we'll have to sort out soon.

I agree that some of these checks should really be included in the price. Also shows how useless these HIPs are - I've never seen the one for the property we're buying and we complete in 2 weeks! They were meant to make the process quicker?! What use are they...? You'd think that the legal searches and utilities cheks would be covered by that...:rolleyes: