Re: Getting vendors to do work/reduce price

NickDurham

Am in the stages of buying a house. It's in a poor cosmetic state, but the only thing of note to come up in surveys has been the wiring. To all intents and purposes it needs rewiring. The electrician told us he wouldn't let a child into the house in its current state, and we have a 2-year old. Because of this we would obviously prefer the vendors to get the house rewired before we move in rather than renegotiating on the price. I'm just wondering how this works. Would we ask them if they could get it done before exchange? before completion (in which case would they need to sign a contract stating they will undertake this)? If they don't have the money, will an electrician take payment on completion (ie they could pay them out of the purchase price)? Anyone have any experience with this sort of thing?

One of the main considerations is that lowering the price doesn't give us the cash to get the work done and we would struggle to pay for a rewire as well as doing the other odd jobs and the more urgent redecorating.

poppysarah

rewiring costs about 2k. the mess and hassle if you're living there is a pain.
Redecorating costs too.

LandyAndy

If I was a vendor I'd have to think very hard before I did something as disruptive as a rewire because of the danger that you would pull out.

LandyAndy

NickDurham wrote: »

Am in the stages of buying a house. It's in a poor cosmetic state, but the only thing of note to come up in surveys has been the wiring. To all intents and purposes it needs rewiring. The electrician told us he wouldn't let a child into the house in its current state, and we have a 2-year old. Because of this we would obviously prefer the vendors to get the house rewired before we move in rather than renegotiating on the price. I'm just wondering how this works. Would we ask them if they could get it done before exchange? before completion (in which case would they need to sign a contract stating they will undertake this)? If they don't have the money, will an electrician take payment on completion (ie they could pay them out of the purchase price)? Anyone have any experience with this sort of thing?

One of the main considerations is that lowering the price doesn't give us the cash to get the work done and we would struggle to pay for a rewire as well as doing the other odd jobs and the more urgent redecorating.

Sounds a bit like you can't really afford the house.:o

NickDurham

poppysarah wrote: »

rewiring costs about 2k. the mess and hassle if you're living there is a pain.
Redecorating costs too.

Yes I know. But the walls and carpets are all in need of redoing anyway.

NickDurham

LandyAndy wrote: »

Sounds a bit like you can't really afford the house.:o

? I don't think so. The mortgage payments are no problem, it's just that after paying the desposit and costs we have about 2k left. There are a few small things need doing (about 1k). The redecorating can be done over the course of a year. No major work needs doing, apart from the rewire. Worse case scenario we could borrow 5k over 5 yrs or use credit cards as we have almost no outstanding debt and I swap to a new 0% card every 12-16 months or so.

I'm always bemused as how being a couple of thousand short in savings to do a bit of work means you can't afford a house when you've got the deposit, and the payments are comfortable.

princessamy86

You can ask the vendors to do the work, I would suggest getting it done between exchange and completion then they know you won't pull out, and you know you won't complete until it's done. However, if they take it off the money for the house, surely it just means you won't need as much of a mortgage and can take the money out of the deposit?

cattie

No vendor in their right mind would get a rewire done when selling a house. A rewire is a major undertaking & is best done when house is completely empty. The dust & other debris resulting from a rewire is something you have to see to believe.

Once a rewire is done a property will usually need complete redecoration afterwards.

The usual thing is for a reduction to be offered by vendors when essential work is required to house to enable buyers to get the job done themselves. It's not always the case that the whole cost of work is offered by vendors, a common compromise is 50/50.

As Andy mentions, it sounds as if you can't afford to be buying this house. A house is a big undertaking & you should never think of tying yourself down with a mortgage unless you've got at least £3k-£4K to fall back on for any unexpected works, such as new boiler required or new roof etc. Houses need a lot of maintenance & upkeep to keep them in good order & condition.

It's my personal belief that nobody should think of buying a house unless they have at least 6 months mortgage repayments tucked away in the bank to fall back on should they lose their job or become unable to work for any reason.

It's not directed at you personally, but too many people are jumping onto the house buying wagon without having the financial ability or stabilty to cope with such a huge financial commitment & if more people made sure they could really afford to become homeowners there would be a lot less repossessions happening.

NickDurham

princessamy86 wrote: »

You can ask the vendors to do the work, I would suggest getting it done between exchange and completion then they know you won't pull out, and you know you won't complete until it's done. However, if they take it off the money for the house, surely it just means you won't need as much of a mortgage and can take the money out of the deposit?

Yes we had thought of this. If they lowered by 2-3k that would give us 200-300 quid extra. Not a massive amount, but it would help. It's certainly not impossible for us to afford with some credit-card borrowing, but we'd prefer not to have to put off some of the more pressing redecorating costs.

The between exchange/completion idea sounds like a win-win... I'm presuming it could be written into the contract too (or am I wrong there?).

LandyAndy

NickDurham wrote: »

? I don't think so. The mortgage payments are no problem, it's just that after paying the desposit and costs we have about 2k left. There are a few small things need doing (about 1k). The redecorating can be done over the course of a year. No major work needs doing, apart from the rewire. Worse case scenario we could borrow 5k over 5 yrs or use credit cards as we have almost no outstanding debt and I swap to a new 0% card every 12-16 months or so.

I'm always bemused as how being a couple of thousand short in savings to do a bit of work means you can't afford a house when you've got the deposit, and the payments are comfortable.

If the repayments are comfortable that implies you could make substantially greater ones. That implies that you have a significant amount of spare cash each month. That implies that you wouldn't need to borrow £5k over 5 years on a credit card.

NickDurham

cattie wrote: »

No vendor in their right mind would get a rewire done when selling a house. A rewire is a major undertaking & is best done when house is completely empty. The dust & other debris resulting from a rewire is something you have to see to believe.

Once a rewire is done a property will usually need complete redecoration afterwards.

The usual thing is for a reduction to be offered by vendors when essential work is required to house to enable buyers to get the job done themselves. It's not always the case that the whole cost of work is offered by vendors, a common compromise is 50/50.

As Andy mentions, it sounds as if you can't afford to be buying this house. A house is a big undertaking & you should never think of tying yourself down with a mortgage unless you've got at least £3k-£4K to fall back on for any unexpected works, such as new boiler required or new roof etc. Houses need a lot of maintenance & upkeep to keep them in good order & condition.

It's my personal belief that nobody should think of buying a house unless they have at least 6 months mortgage repayments tucked away in the bank to fall back on should they lose their job or become unable to work for any reason.

It's not directed at you personally, but too many people are jumping onto the house buying wagon without having the financial ability or stabilty to cope with such a huge financial commitment & if more people made sure they could really afford to become homeowners there would be a lot less repossessions happening.

I appreciate your post. I should add that the property is vacant at the moment. As for redecorating after rewiring, well it is in need of redecorating anyway. It would just be a case of going room by room and living with horrible walls for a while!