New house has damp - getting money off?

jimbugalee

Firstly apologies if this is common question. I had a look on this forum but couldn't see anything recently re damp.

My boyfriend and I have had our offer accepted on a house. It's all gone through really quickly as we only looked at the property 3 weeks ago and now have the mortgage approved and it's all ready to go.

We had a Home Buyers Report done and they picked up on some damp so we've had 2 specialists out to have a look at it (a condition of the mortgage). One of them has quoted £500, the other £1,800! We are looking at the 2 reports this evening to compare.

We were then going to challenge the seller to take money off or pay for this damp to be fixed.
1.) is this usual to expect them to pay?
2.) who would liase with the seller to get this sorted, the estate agent or our solicitor?

The seller is a Housing Association which may cause us some problems but from their POV I would imagine they wouldn't want to lose the sale as we could complete in a matter of weeks and we met their target price, no chain etc.

Any advice appreciated.

princessamy86

The estate agent will liaise with them on this matter, I think the best way is to keep the agent as informed as you can then they can negotiate effectively. At the end of the day, the damp will come up on any survey which gets done so I don't see why they wouldn't negotiate on price, they might want to get their own quotes done though. I wonder why the prices are so different?? Most sellers would pay a reasonable amount to get work done in order to secure a sale, £500 doesn't sound like the kind of amount to make them back away rapidly!
Good Luck

p00hsticks

I think if you're going to revise your offer and or impose conditions on the sale (ie. asking the seller getting the damp fixed) as the result of the survey then you need to do this via the estate agent, although also let your solicitor know.

Im my experience these things are really down to bargaining -there's no hard and fast rule. If they want to pay hardball, the seller could argue that the condition of the property has already been taken into consideration when setting the price in the first place, particularly if the damp was fairly obvious.

If you agree that the seller is going to "get it fixed" prior to completion, make sure that you know and agree what that is actually going to involve, and ensure that any guarantees for the work will be transferable over to you.

I think that 'damp' is one of those things that is often mis-diagnosed. What sort of damp is it and how was it detected ? Often it's just condensation as a result of inadequate ventilation and previous occupants drying their clothes on radiators etc.....

jimbugalee

Thanks

We mentioned the damp and the fact we may want to negotiate on price to the agent last week and he didn't seem to keen. I wasn't sure whether this was because it wasn't his place to negotiate or whether he want just 'wimping out'

As you say I can imagine this situation comes up a lot so he should be used to it!

I am interested to see why the quotes are so different but cannot veiw the report until my boyfriend gets home this evening. We took our own damp meter around to the property and checked the walls that the first expert (£500) had looked at. The damp wasn't too bad and I would guess in line with the report but I am glad we waited for a second report as it seems they have spotted something much bigger! Or they're ripping us off!

jimbugalee

p00hsticks wrote: »

What sort of damp is it and how was it detected ? Often it's just condensation as a result of inadequate ventilation and previous occupants drying their clothes on radiators etc.....

There is a big posilibility this is what it is as the house has been empty since at least last August and we know the ventilation is bad and needs new windows etc.

Our preference is to negotiate the money off, leave the house to ventilate etc then assess the damp again and pay to get whatever needs doing.

p00hsticks

Anthoer couple of points - you say that getting specialists out was a comdition of the mortgage. Did the house valuation for the mortgage agree with what you are paying ? And have they put any retention on the mortgage for the damp to be fixed ?

If the mortgage company have said the house is worth less than you are paying as a result of this damp, or have made it a condition that it is fixed before they will give you the whole amount, then that gives you a stronger argument....

jimbugalee

The house was valued and agreed with the price we paid (I guess they only say something if it's worth considerably less).

A condition of the mortgage was that we had a specialist out to assess the damp. This in itself seems a funny thing to put as it doesn't say we need to get it fixed etc. Maybe from the homebuyers report they knew it wasn't anything serious?

princeofpounds

Of course the agent is not keen. He works for the vendor, not for you, and any further negotiation is a chance his sale (and therefore meal ticket) disappears. HE IS NOT ON YOUR SIDE, although he has an interest in things proceeding.

This is totally down to negotiation. You must decide your position as must the vendor. It is quite common for the vendor to meet the cost or offer to split it, but they do not have to.

Frankly, unless you have got bargain of the decade, I would insist for all of it off. House prices are falling so much that you can walk away and will probably be better off in a few months as a result, assuming your situation does not change. But it's down to you and the property, no-one else can really judge what a place is worth.

jimbugalee

Thank all

Now we know that it's definitely the agent has has to negotiate on our behalf we can decide what we want to do. As I said he's had an easy ride of it up until now so now he can make he's money's worth!

I don't think the vendor will be keen but I also don't think they'll want to lose the sale - I guess you can never tell but the market does favour us at the moment.

angelavdavis

I had a similar experience with a house a few years ago.

I actually copied the sections of the survey relating to the damp and approached the vendor myself (because our EA was unwilling to negotiate on our behalf, they said "oh, well its an old house and you expect some damp, I think you are getting it at a good price and won't be advising the vendor accepts".).

I gave the vendor a choice, either drop the price in line with the costs of the quote or have the work done themselves by a certified damp treatment company with the relevant paperwork as a condition of sale. I then showed them the survey and said it made little difference to me, if they try to sell to someone else, the survey result will be the same.

They ended up dropping the price. This was in 1996. I think in this market, you are likely to get this result. Just remember, if you don't ask you don't get. You are in a strong position being FTBs and clearly have the financial arrangements in place to move at a pace that, in this market, is fairly uncommon.

My experience is that an EA will almost certainly not be keen to assist - they are, after all, working for the vendor (and will likely get more jobs out of this particular vendor as a result). Don't ever forget that.

Incidentally, the works actually cost us twice the original estimate when they unearthed some more damp issues in the chimneys. I wished I had had a full structural done at the time, but we were really strapped! You live and learn.

jimbugalee

Thanks Angela - good advice.

Strangely I hadn't considered the point about if we pulled out they would get the same problem with whoever bought the house!

I am glad we got the second report done as we were going to approach them with the £500 but I said to wait for the other one today. Glad we did!

We debated getting the full structural but I spoke to a surveyor who said for house it's age which is 'standard' you would get all you needed from the HomeBuyers report. We also have damp in the chimney but we've just assumed we'll get that fixed and it's a common problem with houses of this age who have had the chimneys blocked up.