Should we exchange or walk? (sorry - long!)

DawnW

If I were you, I would walk, especially as you seem to be so unsure. Have you looked on Rightmove etc lately to see if the house is still such a 'bargain' (if it ever was?)

jenny74

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

When you mention the EA blacklisting us, why would they do that? We are serious buyers, just sick of being messed around. OH wonders if there's some family dynamics going on - son still lives at home. When vendor threatened to take everything from the house (carpets and blinds as well as the rest of the stuff) I definitely got the feeling of a hissy fit happening. :rolleyes:

They may or may not black list you. It is something I have heard of on this forum, not something I have any experience of myself. Maybe others will have more info.

Jenny

ukmaggie45

Hi there Andy,

andrew-b wrote: »

I suspected your vendor was going to be a complete PITA from the moment you first told me of their method of avoiding 3% stamp duty. I think they will rip this place bare of anything not mentioned on the contract that they think has any value to them or you...or may even take stuff not on the contract too which could take you ages to sort out. I can pretty much guarantee you there won't be a light bulb in the house and certainly not a bog roll! Or they'll be the sort that you turn up to move in and find they haven't even started packing!

Yes, I remember your reservations over the stamp duty - our sol picked up on it straight away. I sincerely hope there will be light bulbs as it says on the fixtures and fittings list that fittings taken will be replaced with a plain ceiling rose and light bulb. I imagine that the bog roll will go (along with the shower curtain :rolleyes: ) but the toilet roll holder and mirror are listed as staying.

We are pretty naive over this house buying and selling stuff - we've been in our current home since 1973 :eek: so have very little idea of what's allowed and what isn't etc. We are fortunate to have a very nice rotweiller for our sol, in the same firm as the sol who is dealing with finalising my parents' estates.

andrew-b wrote: »

That they said they wouldn't negotiate after the survey makes me feel they are hiding something that possibly the survey could not reveal. But what? Body under the patio (shouldn't joke someone round our way was living for years with a body under the floor the previous owner had buried)? Neighbours from hell? Or something wrong with the building?

:eek: at the body! You could be right, but when we sold my parent's flat it was a stipulation that the solicitor we were using then (co-executor with OH) suggested. The flat needed a lot of work doing, but it was all totally obvious, so I felt that it was fair enough. Having said that, if they'd put in a surveyor who found something seriously wrong that we didn't know about, or wasn't obvious, I'm sure that we would have negotiated further. There was a leak from the upstairs flat before exchange, chap upstairs finally had his window out and found out the problem and so far as I know it's been properly fixed now. Cracked flashing under the window, and to think my parents spent the last years of their life in a bedroom covered in mould because it didn't get done sooner. :mad:

andrew-b wrote: »

You need to take a long hard and serious look at whether you really want this house and how much you stand to lose if you bail out. If you've got doubts, or a gut instinct it doesn't feel right for you then i'd be considering walking away. Gut feel usually seems to turn out right i find! Walking away is going to cost you in the fees lost on the surveys at least.

I just no longer know any more. If we'd been able to get another look at the place (plus we really wanted daughter and SiL to look too) we might have a bettter idea. When we first viewed it just "spoke" to both of us, and that's unusual. But since everything has turned so nasty I'm certainly having second thoughts, and even our sol says she thinks it's perfectly reasonable to walk with it all the way it is.

andrew-b wrote: »

We walked away from one property we put an offer on and after structural survey because the vendor became unreasonable and there were a few issues they wouldn't budge on (such as removing disused asbestos piping from the loft) and trying to force us through to exchange quicker than it would take to get searches back (was before HIPs). From the point of view of the house itself there wasn't a huge amount wrong apart from being very close to a railway line (initially we were willing to compromise but the vendor playing silly !!!!!!s made us reassess it and decide to bail out!). But we didn't lose out financially as my father did the survey.

Lucky man having a surveyor for a Dad! This is the second survey we've had done, but the first time we've had the drains surveyed. The first survey (on the bungalow) showed so much wrong that we didn't bother with any further surveying there! :rotfl:

andrew-b wrote: »

We lost out a second time though when a vendor on a subsequent pulled out of a sale as their partner was diagnosed with cancer decided not to move - he died a short while later. They did actually pay for our searches but we lost out in solicitor' fees (not a huge amount as solicitor is a family friend).

Oh dear, what a dreadful reason for a sale to fall through. Good of them to at least pay for the searches I guess.

andrew-b wrote: »

How much would you be prepared to lose financially to make it viable to bail out...remembering you might find a better deal to recoup your losses?

On this house we've paid out survey (just over 1K), the drain survey we've still to pay for, but it's around £100 I think. Plus sol's fees, which seeing as they've done most of the work already will be more or less the whole of the agreed fee (less land registry fees etc) so around £600 at a guess. TBH I'd rather lose the cash than make a mistake on a house purchase. I just don't understand why it's all turned so nasty over the matter of £1750 for the F&F given the price of the property! It really does make me feel like chucking all my toys out of the pram!

andrew-b wrote: »

Keep us posted but remember you hold the cards and can step away at any time! I would certainly make sure they realise you might step away even if you decide not to! To give you an example the vendor on the place we eventually bought (3rd time lucky!) was kicking her heels and taking weeks to decide what she was going to do ..whilst all the time we were paying rent and sat in rooms full of boxes waiting to move! In the end our solicitor wrote a letter saying it was unfair to keep us waiting and that if they didn't decide soon we were likely to walk away! Within days an exchange date was agreed for less than two weeks later and completion happened a couple of days later! Sometimes you just need to push the right buttons to get vendors to see sense! Your an ideal buyer with cash sorted and ready (it's a great position to be in..every estate agent we dealt with looked at me in disbelief when i said "the money is in the bank waiting to buy" i guess it's rare these days!)

Well, the cash isn't in the bank just yet - but I am reliably informed it can be produced in a week when we need it. :j

The thing is this doesn't quite feel like ordinary last minute cold feet - why does the vendor not realise that we want to see the place again before exchanging? We've only been there twice (and my legs were too knackered from overdoing things the day before - we'd been to sigh our wills - for me to even get up the stairs the second time) and not been able to measure up or even look again.

We gather the vendor is moving for health reasons, but I still feel forbidding us to contact them is a bit draconian.

andrew-b wrote: »

Anyway hope my post helps you in some way and sure one way or another you'll become more active in the 1st time renovation thread on the other side!!

Thanks Andy, it really does help hearing what other folks think, helps clarify my own thoughts IYSWIM.

The other thing that occurred to me was that maybe there's insurance in place for the drains? Or is that not something that's possible? If so the vendor should get their insurer to sort it out?

I can live with most of the work needed (see earlier post), but the drains just feels a step too far!

Maggie

keith969

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

We're paying £249,999 plus £750 for carpets and blinds. Vendor is taking the curtains, and the curtain pole from the living room. I don't remember any detail of the carpets, but they're OK-ish I think, past the first flush of their youth IYSWIM, but OK. Small bedroom is varnished boards, and hallway is laminate.

All the bedrooms have vertical blinds, as does the front living room. Kitchen has a venetian blind, and there's a small "conservatory" which also has blinds.

They are just trying it on. In all the houses I've bought/sold the carpets have been left - why on earth would you want to take carpets? They would be very unlikely to fit elsewhere, and the same goes for blinds too! Just call their bluff and say you don't want to pay for them...

The people I'm buying from wanted £450 for blinds - the vertical type as you mention - I said no I didn't want them. Guess what, just a few days before moving their estate agent phoned me and asked if I minded if they left the blinds! I said OK I suppose so

ukmaggie45

Hi DawnW,

DawnW wrote: »

If I were you, I would walk, especially as you seem to be so unsure. Have you looked on Rightmove etc lately to see if the house is still such a 'bargain' (if it ever was?)

Yes, I've been [STRIKE]wasting[/STRIKE] spending a lot of time on Rightmove recently!

The reason we are feeling so unsure is that we can't seem to arrange another viewing. I thought it was perfectly reasonable to ask to see the place again, but it obviously isn't to the vendors and their agents (who I would never entrust a property sale to given the way they have treated us - I know they actually work for the vendors, but they won't get a sale if they don't treat the buyers nicely as well!).

We are buying before we sell our home. We wanted to get somewhere, do any work needed on it, then move over a period of months, decluttering as we go. I know it sounds a bit strange, but we still have a lot of my parents' stuff here from when we cleared their flat before sale, plus both OH and I are awful [STRIKE]clutterers[/STRIKE] collectors of stuff (far too many books!). I am disabled too, so it's quite difficult for me to get much done on my own.

Anyway, we're going to see another house tomorrow, and I'm going to see if I can find the one the agent mentioned to OH too.

Thanks for your thoughts - I really appreciate everyone responding. :A

Maggie

ukmaggie45

keith969 wrote: »

The people I'm buying from wanted £450 for blinds - the vertical type as you mention - I said no I didn't want them. Guess what, just a few days before moving their estate agent phoned me and asked if I minded if they left the blinds! I said OK I suppose so

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :A :T

zzzLazyDaisy

I am sorry but I wouldn't pay £750 for someone's second hand carpets. It is normal practice these days to leave the carpets - and the blinds if they have been fitted for the windows. To be honest I'd rather spend the £750 on having the place carpetted through with a cheap carpet to tide me over until I decided what I wanted to do.

On the bigger picture - a house is a huge purchase, probably the biggest purchase you will ever make in your life. Rather lose a couple of grand (which you can probably knock off the cost of another house anyway) than continue with a purchase that you are not sure about - and can you really be sure when they won't let you in to have another look, or let your family come and see it?

Frankly I think the vendors are bonkers - but on the other hand, if you really love this house, you won't have to ever speak to them again once you are in.

TomsMom

Maggie, I put a reply to your message on the other thread, but reading through this again I just noticed about the fitted carpets.

When we sold our house last year I asked if we could ask the purchasers to buy the carpet as some of them were only 18 months old and they were all very good quality. Our agent (and the other one in town who we know) both said that it's normal practice nowadays to leave fitted carpets down and for them to be included in the sale, not ask extra for them. Rugs, of course, can be taken away as they are not fitted.

Gwhiz

I'd walk too. Would not like to guess what surprises you'd find after completion - bits of house gone?

Walk away, I would!

ukmaggie45

Hi there zzzLazyDaisy,

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

I am sorry but I wouldn't pay £750 for someone's second hand carpets. It is normal practice these days to leave the carpets - and the blinds if they have been fitted for the windows. To be honest I'd rather spend the £750 on having the place carpetted through with a cheap carpet to tide me over until I decided what I wanted to do.

You are right. I'm not that fussed on what little I remember of the carpets... I think the stair carpets were that loopy stuff, and somewhat worn. At least they are all neutral colours - seen plenty on Rightmove that you would pray the vendors would take!

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

On the bigger picture - a house is a huge purchase, probably the biggest purchase you will ever make in your life. Rather lose a couple of grand (which you can probably knock off the cost of another house anyway) than continue with a purchase that you are not sure about - and can you really be sure when they won't let you in to have another look, or let your family come and see it?

I am (not exactly perfectly of course!) happy to lose the cost of surveys - after all that's why I wanted them done. The fact that the drains need work has given me serious cause for thought. I wonder if vendor has insurance for this - if so, surely should be up to them to fix? Guess I should now start a new thread on the Insurance and Life Assurance board to try and find this out.

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

Frankly I think the vendors are bonkers - but on the other hand, if you really love this house, you won't have to ever speak to them again once you are in.

Thank you for that - I was beginning to feel it was me that was bonkers. Well, I may have been before all this, but definitely am now! :eek:

Thanks for your input to this thread. It's really helpful, everyone has slightly different points of view, different points to make, helps me clarify my thinking. :T

Maggie